The memorials in Pierre, South Dakota’s Capitol, cover a wide spectrum of monuments for Veterans and those who serve the public. Next to the Capitol Lake are six, life-size, bronze statues of men and women Veterans from all branches of service during WWII. The soldiers are depicted as they would be walking right off the battlefield, with some being war-torn and tattered. The statues are positioned in front of the lake and are saluting toward those names of the fallen Korean and Vietnam Veterans.

This memorial park also hosts granite pillars of the South Dakota firefighters, law enforcement and emergency medical services men and women who lost their lives while serving the public. Services are held there each year if there is an additional loss of a service man and woman. Nearby this memorial are three bronze, life-like statues of an American GI during the Chosin Battle, a Vietnam Veteran and a bronze of an American Eagle flying above to honor the Native American Veterans. A separate granite monument represents all South Dakota Veterans wounded in combat.

On April 19, 1993, South Dakota’s Governor George S. Mickelson, four state employees and three Sioux Falls businessmen lost their lives in a plane crash just outside of Dubuque, IA. Exactly one year later, the Fighting Stallions Memorial was unveiled on the Capitol grounds to honor those eight men who perished. This large bronze memorial was designed from a small mahogany carving created by sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, the original sculptor of Crazy Horse Memorial Mountain in the Black Hills. Bronze plaques with information about each of the eight men killed that day are engraved into the octagon rock base.

Governor Mickelson and one of the two pilots, David H. Hansen, served during the Vietnam War. Governor Mickelson was a Captain in the Army and Pilot Hansen was a distinguished helicopter pilot.