Friday, June 11, -- The Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota
(Photos Following)
After the long day of touring different places on Thursday, June 10th, we had a day of driving to our next point of interest which was in Mitchell, South Dakota. We had a long day on the road, but we were now heading east so we had new stamina. When we got to the campground named “Famil-e-Fun Campground” it was obvious they had received more than their share of rain. They said that they had four inches the night before. We unhooked since we had a place of interest to visit. We were hoping for no more big rain storms while we were here.
We had heard about the Corn Palace from several people, and had a lot to learn about it. We drove to the town of Mitchell. The first corn palace was built in 1892 when the city of Mitchell was only twelve years old. It along with a festival was created to celebrate the abundant harvest. Entertainers were brought to the area for people to enjoy as they celebrated. Over 100 years later these celebrations continue year after year. In addition to this entertainment the corn palace is the center of the community hosting basketball games, stage shows, trade shows, and a variety of other activities.
This is the only Corn Palace in the world, and draws tourists from around the world. Inside there are souvenir shops of all kinds. It is a curiosity to see all of the items made of corn or from corn, even corn cob jelly.
The Corn Palace, which covers an entire city block, is known as the folk-art wonder on the prairie of South Dakota. True to its description, it is a continuing work in progress. Over the summer 3,000 bushels of milo, rye, oat heads, and sour dock are tied in bundles and attached. When we visited this had already been started for 2011. The corn murals have to wait until late summer when the corn crop is ready. Over a half million ears of corn, in a beautiful array of fall colors, are sawed in half and nailed to the building following patterns created by local artists. The process is very similar to paint by number, but would be corn by number. This process happens every year giving a new face to the building.
Inside there are murals of every year since the beginning in 1892. There is an informative movie telling about how and why the palace was started. The host offered a tour and explanations of all the murals on the walls, but we needed to shop for a few souvenirs and it was not far from closing time. To learn more about the Corn Palace you can visit WWW.CORNPALACE.COM.
After our visit we went back to the campground and rain it did again that night, two inches more. They had a total of over ten inches in a week. This should make for plenty of materials to complete the new face for the palace. Harry had to put on a rain suit and wade in water to get our camper hooked up for the next day’s move.
These are the only pictures we took of the Corn Palace.
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