The Mickelson Governors

The bronze ends with the son's re-election because it was cast in 1991. Two years later, on April 19, 1993, Governor George S. Mickelson and seven other men died when their state plane lost an engine and struck a silo near Dubuque, Iowa. He had championed turning an abandoned Black Hills railroad grade into a trail; its first six miles opened in 1991, the year of this bronze, and the full 109 miles from Deadwood to Edgemont were dedicated in his name in September 1998. The register's text of this bronze carries three wrong dates.

What the plaque says

The Mickelson Governors George T. was born to George and Emma on a farm south of Selby in 1903. He received his education here and at the University of SD graduating with a law degree in 1927. Madge Turner and he were married in 1928. While operating his own law firm he soon became interested in state politics which he entered in 1937 and served as a State Representative until 1942. He also held the position of Attorney General from 1942-46. Then in 1946 he was elected Governor for the term of 1947-50 and upon his retirement he returned to his law practice in Selby. He was appointed to a federal judgeship for SD in 1953 and held this post until his death in 1965. George S. Mickelson was born in 1941 while his father was serving as Speaker of the House. The Legislature voted to change his middle name from Theodore to Speaker in honor of his father's position. His early life was spent here and in Pierre but he finished his high school education in Sioux Falls. Linda McCahren and he were married in 1963 and in 1965 he also graduated from the University of SD School of Law. After serving in Vietnam until 1967, he joined a law firm in Brookings and practiced there until entering state politics in 1975. He too served as Speaker of the House until his election to Governor in 1986 and re-election in 1990. Erected in 1991 by the Selby Commercial Club, the SD State Historical Society and the SD Department of Transportation

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sitting Bull and Sakakawea Monuments — 22 mi
  A granite head carved by the Crazy Horse sculptor over a grave dug up at Fort Yates by night in 1953, on a bluff above the Missouri on the Standing Rock Reservation.

More markers nearby

• Bangor — 4.6 mi
• You Are Now on the 100° Meridian — 4.9 mi
• Dedicated to the Indian People in Honor of the "Fool Soldier Band" — 20 mi
• Sakakawea — 22 mi