Peter Norbeck

1870 - 1936

Peter Norbeck was a politician who held the offices of Lieutenant Governor, Governor, and U.S. Senator, all for South Dakota. He was also a native of South Dakota, the first state native to hold the position of Governor.

While Robinson had the idea and Borglum had the vision and ingenuity, Norbeck provided something much more valuable to the Mount Rushmore project... funding. Senator Norbeck spent the latter years of his life lobbying among his colleagues in Washington, DC to secure funding for the Mount Rushmore project. Peter Norbeck died in 1936 from oral cancer without seeing Mount Rushmore completed.