Brookings, South Dakota: Weary Wil and Dirty Lil

Weary Wil, hobo king of SDSU's Hobo Day, is immortalized as a nine-foot-tall bronze statue by alumnus David Anderson, who later added a 1960s hippie chick, Dirty Lil. An adjacent Hobo Day Gallery features a restored 1912 "Bummobile."

Address:: Student Center Lane, Brookings, SD
Directions:: The statue stands on the campus of South Dakota State University. In the Quad, on the northwest side of the SDSU Student Union.
Admission:: Free
RA Rates:: Worth a Detour

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Statue of the Hobo King

The Hobo King is now mounted in front of the Pugsley Union on the backside of the Student Union He now has a companion alongside him. Dirty Lil is her name.

[Dwight, 06/15/2017]

Weary Wil is a classic 1930s hobo; Dirty Lil is a 1960s hippie chick.

Statue of the Hobo King

Lots of construction work around the student union. It appears that the statue has been moved for safe keeping to an unknown location prior to late June 2013.

[Bruce-e, 06/26/2013]

Hobo King.

Statue of the Hobo King

Weary Wil is the hobo king of Hobo Day, a homecoming tradition at South Dakota State University since 1912, when bearded "hobo" students would greet visiting football teams at the train station. The Weary Wil character appeared in the 1940s, and in 2011 was turned into a nine-foot-tall bronze statue by SDSU alumnus David Anderson. Sassy and self-confident, the bearded hobo king wears a bow tie and top hat and carries his few belongings in a sack-on-a-stick.

The statue stands outside the Student Union, where a Hobo Day Gallery features artifacts such as a restored 1912 "Bummobile."

Hopes are that Weary Wil will some day be paired with a statue of his companion, Dirty Lil, a hippie character invented in the 1970s.

[RoadsideAmerica.com Team, 02/11/2012]