Governor #19: Sigurd Anderson

Pierre, South Dakota

In office 1951-1955

Sigurd Anderson served two terms as governor beginning in 1951. He led an effort to stop illegal gambling in Deadwood, used Air Force planes to drop hay to starving cattle during blizzards, and witnessed South Dakota's only execution by electric chair.

James Michael Maher sculpted Anderson giving a speech into an old-fashioned microphone, perhaps because Anderson was born in Norway and struggled his whole life to lose his accent -- although he said that it did help him to win some votes among the state's large Norwegian-American population. His bronze likeness is easy to find: it stands in front of the Sigurd Anderson Building, which has his name in letters nearly as large as his statue.