Governor #12: William J. Bulow

Pierre, South Dakota

In office 1927-1931

William Bulow only became governor of South Dakota because the previous candidate had been trampled to death by a bull six weeks before election day. He was an occasional hellraiser and one of the most fiscally conservative politicians in the history of South Dakota (He actually balanced the state budget). He spent most of his post-gubernatorial life in Washington, DC, where he was a member of the Alfalfa Club, named for a plant that would "do anything for a drink."

Bulow's statue, by sculptor James Van Nuys, shows him waving his cowboy hat in the air while his other hand rests on a pediment decorated with images representing his life and career, such as the time he was attacked by a goose while trapped underneath the front porch of his house, and his pardoning of Deadwood's "Poker Alice" Ivers after she had been convicted of bootlegging and operating a brothel at the age of 77. There's also a small Mount Rushmore on the pediment, because Bulow convinced sculptor Gutzon Borglum to abandon his original grandiose plans for the mountain and instead limit himself to sculpting the Presidents' giant heads.