Roadside Attraction

The folks of Mitchell, South Dakota, might be offended, but I think the Corn Palace in Mitchell is more a roadside attraction than a good tourist stop. When we spent the night in Mitchell, we had to drive into town to fuel the truck so we decided to check out the unusual folk art creation.



In 1892 the local farmers displayed their crops on the first Corn Palace to demonstrate the the fertility of the local fields. Each year since then, the outside decoration of the palace has been stripped and redone. Over the summer, 3,000 bushels of rye, oat heads and sour dock are tied in bundles and attached. When the corn crop is ready, roughly 275 thousand ears of corn are sawed in half lengthwise and nailed to he building. It is really corn-by-number decorating.





Here is a collage of several corn paintings. You can click to enlarge so you can see how detailed and realistic the images are.



Obviously the building is the town event center and arena.





This is what the Corn Palace looked like in 1964.



The Corn Palace was interesting to see, but looking at all the corn pictures took less than an hour. We thought it was worth our time to visit, but it wouldn't be worth it to make a special trip just to see it. And this shows the type of facilities surrounding the Corn Palace.