The World's Only Corn Palace

Yes, you read that right...Corn Palace.  It was the last and wackiest detour on our way back to Lake Mary after leaving the Black Hills of South Dakota.

The Corn Palace is in Mitchell, South Dakota.  Only an hour or so from the Black Hills, it's known around the world as..."a folk-art wonder on the prairie of South Dakota."  They aren't kidding!

The outside of the Corn Palace is embellished with murals depicting all sorts of historical and regional designs.  Please watch this short but sweet video.  Takes less than a minute.  You'll be glad you did.  There's a bit of history there plus you'll see how the designs are applied.


Each year a new theme is chosen.  The facade of the building (which is an auditorium) is stripped of it's previous design and redecorated with new corn and grains.  Over 3,000 bushels of milo, rye, oat head, and sour dock are tied in bundles and attached.  The murals that are applied aren't applied until the corn crop is ready which is late summer.

Admission is free and in the summer they offer tours.  I'm not sure what the tour would include unless there's some design studio or some such thing that's not opened to the general public.    We were given a Mitchell visitor's guide when we arrived and this is a quote from the Corn Palace page:

Twelve shades of colored corn are planted in a separate field to maintain color purity.  The very best ears are hand-picked by our local grower for use on the Corn Palace.  Each ear of corn is then sawed in half, shaped and trimmed to fit the designated spaces, then nailed into place by local artisans.  Roughly 275,000 ears of corn are used to redecorate the murals each year.

This year's design is illustrated on this page of the website.  And the 2010 Festival is scheduled for August 25th.  This year's entertainers?  Well...Check It Out!

In the museum section there are photos of every single year since its inception except for 1944 (because of World War II, I'm sure). 

You can see a slide show of each of the designs since 1892  HERE.    Clicking on each design will enlarge it.  You'll be amazed.  I actually thing that the earliest designs were the most remarkable and the most beautiful.  I didn't document the date of the picture above (which I snapped inside the museum) but if you look at the clothing it has to be one of the earliest designs...maybe even the first.

A little history (which you'll see in the video):  The first Corn Palace was built in 1892 as a way to showcase the crops grown in the fertile soil around the region in order to attract immigrant farmers to settle near Mitchell which had been settled only twelve years before.  They had a harvest festival and even had famous entertainers join the fun.  Imagine...more than a hundred years ago!  I'd say the farmers of South Dakota were well ahead of their time.

As I mentioned, it's an auditorium and is used for stage shows, sporting events and the like.  When we were there, the Shrine Circus was setting up!   The murals on the interior are permanent and they were designed and created by Oscar Howe, the late Sioux artists and South Dakota artist laureate.

So...if you're ever out of vacation ideas...head for the Hills!  South Dakota.  One of America's best kept secrets, perhaps.

I'd say it was a worthwhile detour...