We spent one night at the KOA in Mitchell, SD and got there early enough that Sparky could go see the corniest of corny tourist attractions, The Corn Palace. Sparky thinks it's really cool. The corn palace was first built in 1892 to have a gathering place to celebrate the harvest. It's a building decorated with over 325,000 ears with 12 natural colors of corn (Sparky had no idea corn came in so many different varieties!) and also uses other grasses and grains like straw, oats, and wheat. Over 500,000 people come to see this tourist attraction each year. Inside are exhibits and a gymnasium, and it's used for expos, proms, graduations, and banquets as well. It has a corn cam across the street. Sparky called her daughter and grandson and told her to get on the website to see her. Sparky's daughter and grandson thought that was very cool! The Corn Palace is stripped down to the bare concrete walls and then redecorated every year with a certain theme. This year's theme is "South Dakota Home Grown". The murals and side walls have been designed since 2018 by Dakota Wesleyan University students. The ears of corn are each nailed to the wall one by one. It's quite the amazing thing to see!
Mitchell's high school sports teams are called the Kernels. The local radio station's call letters are "KORN". Mitchell isn't called the "Corn Capital"of the world for nothing!
Here are some of the murals from this year's structure....The designing process that the students use is very interesting, a grid with squares colored in sort of like color by number. The colors and angles are intricate and interesting. What's George McGovern, presidential candidate, doing on the side of the Corn Palace? Why, he's a South Dakota home state product. "Home Grown" from Avon, SD. If you ever get a chance to stop by on your way through South Dakota, The Corn Palace is a must see. It's just one of those uniquely American tourist attractions, and it's FREE. We thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it. Our next stop will be Spearfish, SD for a longer stay....see you there!
We thought the corn palace was 'corny' too. Something you must do at least once. When we went through there, they were changing out the corn, we got to watch the process, pretty cool!
ReplyDeleteIt is one of those strange interesting places. First time I was there was proably in the late 50"s. Not sure why, but I keep going back:)
ReplyDeleteIt never gets old for me...
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