Frank Farrar: 24th Governor of South Dakota

The bronze has him leave office in 1971 without saying why. Farrar raised the state sales tax from three percent to four and pressed energy reforms that cost him support, and in November 1970 Richard Kneip beat him by 23,269 votes, the last time a sitting South Dakota governor lost reelection. He later called it the only election he lost in his life. He finished the Kona Ironman at seventy-three, about a decade after surviving lymphatic cancer, and died at Rochester, Minnesota, on October 31, 2021, at ninety-two.

What the plaque says

Frank Farrar: 24th Governor of South Dakota Frank Leroy Farrar was born in Britton on April 2, 1929, son of third- generation Marshall County homesteaders. He was an Eagle Scout and Boys State governor and graduated from Britton High School. Farrar then earned business and law degrees from the University of South Dakota, where he was student body president. In 1953, he married Patricia Henley and they had five children. Farrar served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He was a tax examiner before opening a law practice in Britton, where he served as county judge and state's attorney. At age 33, Farrar was elected the state's youngest attorney general. Farrar was elected governor in 1968. He focused on consumer pro- tection and modernizing statutes for banking and insurance. Farrar signed a narcotics law to address illegal drugs. He recruited 3M to Brookings and Aberdeen, EROS to rural Minnehaha County, and Big Stone power plant to Grant County. After leaving office in 1971, Farrar returned to Britton and owned several banks. Farrar became known for physical fitness, participating in triathlons and Ironman competitions into his eighties. He was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 2006.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Sisseton Historic State Park — 14 mi
  A stone fort on the Coteau des Prairies built to watch the Dakota after 1862, renamed for the Sisseton who scouted for it, restored by the WPA and saved again by a boy who grew up loving it.

More markers nearby

• The Continental Divide — 0.3 mi
• Fort Wadsworth 1864 Fort Sisseton 1876 — 12 mi
• Charles H. Sheldon — 21 mi
• Daly Corners — 24 mi