George Santayana
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2022’s
Theme – Under The Big Top |
Asked for their impressions as they leave The World’s Only Corn Palace it isn’t uncommon to hear ‘It’s just a gym with corn on it’ from one visitor to ‘It’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen’ from the next. Such is life for the so-called ‘world’s largest bird feeder’, which is derided as ‘corny’ by some, great ‘exp-ear-ience’ or hailed as ‘a-maize-ing corn-ceptual ear-chitecture’ by others.
But enough with the bad puns – let’s start with its history.
Reactions to the Corn Palace depend partly upon your degree of admiration for the outsized agricultural art that adorns its walls, and your knowledge of how that art is produced. It also differs, to some extent, on your appreciation for the Corn Palace’s rich history.
Corn Palace History
When Mitchell’s first Corn Palace was built in 1892, it was one of at
least 34 grain palaces in the Midwest from the 1880’s to the 1930’s. For people today, a corn palace (aka grain or crop palace) might not
have much allure, but a century ago, corn palaces, which seem to be unique to
South Dakota, were built as a means of showcasing the richness of the land and
the products of the local area. There was a Sugar Beet Palace in Grand Island,
Nebraska; a Sorghum Palace in Arcola, Illinois; a Bluegrass Palace in Creston,
Iowa, and dozens more. The most lavish of these early ‘agri-tectural’ marvels
was a Corn Palace in Sioux City, Iowa (1887-1891) but when that town was
crippled by a flood and financial panic, the town of Mitchell ‘took the idea
and ran with it'.
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Undated picture of one of the first Corn Palaces,
Mitchell, SD |
A grain palace ‘is a peculiarly apt and happy expression of an appreciation of nature’s bounty. The community that has material for a lavish grain palace has the inherent qualities of soil and climate which assure prosperity,’ stated the Wessington Springs Herald on October 9, 1891.
The exhibits encouraged people to settle in the area and to buy the produce. Today the Mitchell Corn Palace is the only one that remains.
Eight years before the turn of the 20th century, when Mitchell, South Dakota was a small, twelve-year-old city of 3,000 inhabitants, the World's Only Corn Palace was established on the city’s Main Street. During it’s over 130 years of existence, it has become known worldwide. The palace was conceived as a gathering place where city residents and their rural neighbors could enjoy a fall festival with extraordinary stage entertainment, as well as a celebration of a successful crop-growing season and harvest. This tradition continues today with the annual Corn Palace Festival held in late August each year.
By 1905, the success of the Corn Palace had been assured and a new Palace was to be built, but this building soon became too small. In 1919, the decision to build a third Corn Palace was made. This one was to be permanent and more purposeful than its predecessors. The present building was completed in 1921, just in time for the Corn Palace Festivities. That winter Mitchell hosted its first boy’s state basketball tournament. The building was considered to have the finest basketball arena in the upper Midwest area. Their high school basketball team is named ‘The Kernels’.
In 1937, steps were taken
to recapture the artistic decorative features of the building with its
distinctive Russian domes and minarets of Moorish design (by Rapp & Rapp of
Chicago), restoring the appearance of the early day Corn Palace. Known as Moorish Revival (or Neo-Moorish) construction,
this popular architectural design began in the early 19th century. New domes were installed in 2014/15 after
shaking in strong winds. The old ones
were too heavy and flammable. The
building is now adorned with sleeker, LED-enhanced towers made of architectural
metals. The place keeps being
modernized.
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One
of the old, replaced domes |
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The term Moorish Revival, or Neo-Moorish originated in the 19th century to describe a style of European and American architecture featuring onion-like domes, glittering mosaics, and pointed arches. Moorish Revival style was inspired by the art and architecture of the medieval Muslim culture of north-west Africa and southern Spain. In the middle of the 19th century, the Western world was fascinated by the exotic aesthetic of faraway places, a sentiment that was part of the Romantic Orientalism Movement. That movement developed in reaction to the rapidly industrializing Western nations. It embraced the idea of the picturesque, which drew upon imagery of ruins and foreign, faraway places.
Moorish Revival designs were often seen in movie theaters then called ‘Picture Palaces’. Their fanciful facades were designed to stand out from their surroundings, transporting moviegoers into another world.
The ‘World’s Only’ Corn Palace is Mitchell’s premier tourist attraction. Some 500,000 tourists come from around the nation each year to see the uniquely designed corn murals.
The Corn Palace Today
Today, the Corn Palace is
more than the home of the festival or a point of interest for tourists. It is a
practical structure adaptable to many purposes. Included among its many uses
are industrial exhibits, dances, stage shows, meetings, banquets, proms, graduations
arena for Mitchell High School and Dakota Wesleyan University as well as
district, regional and state basketball tournaments. USA Today named the Corn
Palace one of the top ten places in America for high school basketball.
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Under
the Big Top |
The Palace is redecorated each year with naturally colored corn and other grains and native grasses to make it ‘the agricultural show-place of the world’. They currently use twelve different colors or shades of corn to decorate the Corn Palace: red, brown, black, blue, white, orange, calico, yellow and now even green corn! A different theme is chosen each year, and murals are designed to reflect that theme. Ear by ear the corn is nailed to the Corn Palace to create a scene.
The decorating process
usually starts in late May with the removal of the rye and dock. The corn
murals are stripped at the end of August and the new ones are completed by the
first of October. Just like South Dakota Agriculture, growing condition can
affect production of the decorating materials and may delay the decorating
process.
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Under
the Big Top |
Each ear of corn is cut in half lengthwise and nailed in place. It costs $175,000 to complete all murals. It takes about twenty local residents three months to redecorate the Corn Palace.
Oscar Howe designed the murals from 1948 to 1971, Calvin Schultz from 1977 to 2002, and Cherie Ramsdell from 2003 to 2018; since 2019, the murals have been designed in partnership with Digital Media and Design students at Dakota Wesleyan University.
But a wet spring, dry summer, or early winter can delay harvests and drag completion of the corn murals far into the following year.
We're at Mother Nature's mercy
Manager of the Corn Palace gift shop
(and its resident historian)
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Under
the Big Top |
Corn Palace Mural Themes
Over the Years
1892: No Central Theme (Patterns)
1893: Organization Symbols (Gar, Masons, etc.)
1894 to 1909: Basically, Patterns with Corner Designs
1910: Indian Design
1911: Egyptian Motif
1912: Oriental
1913: Western Scenes
1914: Dutch Scenes
1915: Peace and Plenty (Birds and Goats)
1916: Military / Patriotic
1917: Same as 1916 except Ambulance instead of Cannon
1918: Patriotic (Statue of Liberty, Ship, Liberty
Bell)
1919: Cornucopias and Patterns
1920: Held in a Tent
1921: Disarmament
1922: South Dakota Scenes (Modern and Historical)
1923: Rising Sun and Griffins
1924: Buffalo, Elk, Griffin, etc.
1925: Stylized Designs (Sundial, Grapes, Urn)
1926: South Dakota when the White Man Arrived
1927: Landscapes and Geese Flying
1928: Humorous Presidential Campaign (Coolidge, etc.)
1929: Mitchell’s 50th Anniversary (History
of the State in 10-Year Periods)
1930: Landscapes
1931: Lake Mitchell, Radio Station, Mountain and Water
Scenes
1932: Lake Mitchell, Radio Station, Mountain and Water
Scenes
1933: Service Organizations (Symbols)
1934: Highway and Sky-ways
1935: The Forgotten Man ‘The New Deals’ Humorous
1936: Black Hills (Real Pine Trees)
1937: Arabian Theme (Camels and Minaret Mosques)
1938: Conservation of the Wildlife of the State
1939: 50 Years of South Dakota Statehood
1940: America First
1941: South Dakota Hunters Paradise
1942: Allied Victory
1943: Allied Victory
1944: War Theme (Elimination of grains from the
decorating process during WWII)
1945: War Theme ((Elimination of grains from the
decorating process during WWII) )
1946: America the Beautiful (Indians and Wild Animals)
1947: No Theme (SD Farmhouse, Animals, Birds,
Proposed Fort Randall Dam)
1948: Indian Theme
1949: Indian and Early Dakotan Pictures
1950: Indian Theme Designs and Symbols
1951: South Dakota History (Indians to Modern Times)
1952: City and Country Murals
1953: Indian Motif
1954: Agricultural, Business, Religious, and Social
Phases of Life in South Dakota
1955: Animals of South Dakota
1956: 75th Anniversary of Mitchell
1957: Popular Athletic Games and Attractions in the
State
1958: Modes of Transportation
1959: Scenes of the Old West
1960: Western, Jesuit Priest, etc.
1961: Territorial Centennial
1962: Yesterday and Today
1963: Wildlife and Hunting
1964: South Dakota Scenes
1965: Scenes from Nature
1966: Dancing and Branding
1967: 75th Anniversary of Corn Palace
1968: South Dakota Fauna
1969: Space Age
1970: Forest Fire, Fishing, Pollution
1971: Mother Goose Rhymes
1972: Relaxing in South Dakota
1973: Salute to Agriculture
1974: Founding Fathers
1975: Bicentennial
1976: Bicentennial of the USA
1977: USA, Civil War, Indian, Races
1978: The Fine Arts
1979: South Dakota Birds
1980: Recreation
1981: Salute to Oscar Howe
1982: Salute to Oscar Howe
1983: South Dakota Animals
1984: South Dakota Hi-Lites
1985: Ag Profess (Agriculture)
1986: First Americans
1987: South Dakota Horseless Carriages
1988: In Service to Others
1989: Celebrate the Century – State History
(1889-1989)
1990: South Dakota Artists
1991: South Dakota, The Good Life
1992: Centennial, Past Murals
1993: Centennial, Oscar Howes
1994: Myths, Legends, and Fables
1995: Salute to Rodeo
1996: Memories
1997: Hunt South Dakota
1998: Youth in Action
1999: Building a Nation
2000: Millennium Corn
2001: Millennium Corn
2002: South Dakota Great Events
2003: Scenic South Dakota
2004: Lewis and Clark
2005: Life on the Farm
2006: Salute to Rodeo
2007: Salute to Rodeo (left because of severe drought)
2008: Everyday Heroes
2009: America’s Destinations
2010: Through the Ages (Transportation)
2011: American Pride
2012: Saluting Youth Activities
2013: We Celebrate
2014: Remember When
2015: South Dakota’s 125th
2016: Rock of Ages
2017: South Dakota Weather
2018: Salute to Military
2019: South Dakota's Home Grown
2020: South Dakota - Stay Here Play Here
2021: South Dakota - Stay Here Play Here (Covid Year) Just
5-murals replaced.
2022: Under The Big Top
2023: Famous South Dakotans
Famous South Dakotans were chosen because of their impact, influence and impression on South Dakota and the rest of the world. You will learn more about the following people: Mike Miller, Billy Mills, Becky Hammon, Wild Bill Hickok, Joe Foss, Oscar Howe, Charles D. Gemar, Bob Barker and Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Someone asked Troy Magnuson for an esoteric detail about the Corn Palace. He said that only two Mitchell natives have ever been portrayed in corn on its exterior: failed presidential candidate George McGovern; and Troy himself, as his alter-ego ‘Popcorn,’ a Shrine clown. ‘It was an honor,’ he said.
More than agricultural
art on a grand scale (crop art).
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Camping
by a fire in the forest |
Like all historic buildings, this one is more than just bricks and mortar. The Corn Palace is a testament to the pioneering 19th century businessmen who founded it, the legendary entertainers who have thrilled its crowds, and the historic politicians ‘from William Howard Taft to Jack and Bobby Kennedy to Barack Obama’ who have used its All-American image as a backdrop for their presidential ambitions.
It’s not necessary to know everything about the Corn Palace. It is, after all, just a stopover for most people on their way to or from the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, or the Badlands. But knowing a little can alter your perception and upgrade your visit from forgettable to memorable.
A Proud Past
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Another undated picture of one of the first Corn
Palaces, Mitchell, SD |
The Corn Palace was dreamt up just three years after South Dakota statehood, by a group of local businessmen. They needed to increase the local population in order to secure the success of their ventures, so they decided to build a Corn Palace that might help convince potential residents of the area’s agricultural abundance.
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The Corn Palace, its decorations, and its annual fall Corn Belt Exposition grew in popularity. By 1905, the local businessmen who supported the Palace determined that a bigger one was needed. They tore down the first Palace, which was located at the corner of Fourth and Main, and built a new one a block to the north at Fifth and Main. The second Palace also proved too small, so it was torn down and a third Palace was built in 1921 ‘again a block to the north, and this time with public funding,’ at Sixth and Main.
That third Corn Palace is the one that still stands today. It’s a contributing structure to Mitchell’s Historic Commercial District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Making the Murals
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Under
the Big Top |
The Corn Palace is not constructed of corn, as some assume, but is nearly covered with it. After the murals are sketched, they are transferred onto giant rolls of tar paper labeled with codes corresponding to colors, providing a ‘corn-by-numbers’ pattern showing where each colored cob should be nailed. Every fall, the old corn murals are torn off and the new tar paper is tacked up. Then, the new ears of corn (cut in half lengthwise) are nailed into place using the transferred designs for guidance ‘sort of like painting by numbers.'
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Wade
Strand, Special Colored Corn Grower |
The corn is grown by local farmer Wade Strand, whose fields are located southwest of Mitchell. He plants 40 to 50 acres with various varieties of seed to produce 12+ different colors of corn. Sour dock, rye, flax, millet, oats, sorghum, barley, and native grasses (Sudan, brome, blue, straw) are gathered anywhere it can be found and are used as decorative trim.
‘Twenty, twenty-five years ago, five acres of corn decorated the palace,’ Strand said. ‘Now I grow 40 to 50 acres just to have all the different colors.’
‘We plant it after our regular corn is planted, just because we don't want to take the chance of it freezing off. It's not as hardy unlike new varieties with cold tolerance. We want it to pop up and grow fairly quickly once it does grow,’ said Strand.
For this corn, it’s ideal to have a higher moisture content. That way, the kernels don’t break on the building. ‘You can tell this is the right moisture. If it gets below 20% moisture content, it will shatter when they saw and nail it,’ said Strand.
‘Probably only one out of ten of the ears are usable for the Corn Palace,’ said Strand. Some may be damaged or just not the right shade.
Corn-nections and Corn-mitted to heritage
Over the summer, 3,000 bushels of rye, oat heads and sour dock are tied in bundles and attached. When the crop is ready, roughly 325,000 ears of corn are sawed in half lengthwise and attached to the building with 1.5 million nails following patterns created by local artists.
‘People think the corn is painted,’ said Troy, ‘but the colors are all natural.’ The
darker varieties are flint corn, ‘one of the hardest substances known to
humankind.’ This discourages birds and squirrels from eating the art. No paint or artificial coloring is used.
The nine exterior corn murals are updated annually and always adhere to a theme chosen by the city’s Corn Palace Festival Board. The interior corn murals, which adorn the walls of the Corn Palace’s auditorium, are changed about every ten years.
Many visitors, many uses
The public investment pays dividends in the form of the 500,000+ visitors who come to the Corn Palace every tourist season.
The Corn Belt Exposition that began with that first Corn Palace lives on as the Corn Palace Festival, which is conducted every August. The festival fills Mitchell’s Main Street with carnival rides and brings entertainers to the Corn Palace auditorium. Recent headliners have included Willie Nelson, Tom Jones and Big & Rich. Past entertainers have included John Philip Sousa, Jack Benny, Bob Hope and Tennessee Ernie Ford. Performers from Lawrence Welk to Pat Benatar and Andy Griffith to The Three Stooges have graced the Palace stage.
Politicians seem to have a special affinity for the Corn Palace. Its auditorium seating, along with its iconic stature, makes it a perfect setting for a political rally. The Corn Palace’s notable political visitors have included Theodore Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, William Howard Taft, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and, in the summer of 2008, Barack Obama.
Something of the best
So there you have it: the story of the Corn Palace, a building that is far more than just a gym with corn on it. As you walk away from your visit, hopefully you’ll be as impressed as, then Mayor A.E. Hitchcock hoped visitors would be, when he issued this welcome to Corn Palace visitors in 1908:
‘Even if you travel hundreds of miles, even if you walk the streets at night, even if you go hungry and thirsty, remember as a compensation that this palace has brought to your eye and ear something of the best the world can bestow.’
I didn’t get to see the inside – it was closed the day I was there, but it is supposedly always filled with the enticing aromas of popped corn, candied corn and raw ears of corn floating down hallways lined with old photos.
Dilemma for the locals
It's a folk-art icon. The Corn Palace's dilemma is similar to that facing other roadside attractions: how to keep current without sacrificing quirky small-town character.
‘We have always been in on the joke ourselves. Look at our billboards and our slogans. We know we are corny, and we roll with it.’
Mitchell Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Jacki Miskimins
A few tidbits about South Dakota
In 2004, national media
attention was drawn to the Corn Palace, when it received Homeland Security
funding. This drew criticism of the Department of Homeland Security and its
grant program. In 2007, the Corn Palace subsequently received $25,000 in DHS
funding for a camera system useful for purposes including Barack Obama's visit
in 2008, and as reported by the Mitchell Daily Republic, to protect a new
Fiberglass statue of the Corn Palace mascot Cornelius (which people love taking
pictures with) in 2009. This statue sits across Main Street, west of the Corn
Palace. From Wikipedia
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Under
the Big Top |
This is literally the halfway point of your cross-country road trip.
They don’t call it the
middle of the map for nothing. Belle Fourche, South Dakota (328 miles from
Mitchell), is federally recognized as the geographic center of the United
States. While you can take a picture standing on top of the marker located
adjacent to the Tri-State Museum, the actual center of the nation is found nearly
21 miles north of Belle Fourche. You’d have to do a bit of trespassing and
fence-hopping to find the real deal, though, so let’s call the marker off 5th
Ave close enough.
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Longhorn
Saloon, 1906 in Scenic, SD |
The Black Hills Gold Rush puts California’s to shame.
The largest and deepest mine in the Western Hemisphere, Homestake Mine netted some 41 million ounces of gold in its 126 years of operation. Since the mine closed in 2002, the site and its 370 miles of tunnels have played host to an extensive laboratory and research facilities. Although the Black Hills gold rush lacked the drama of the two other major American gold rushes in California in 1848 and in the Klondike in 1896, the Homestake vein proved to be the richest gold vein in American history.
Miners continued to prospect in the Black Hills, each hoping to strike a claim as rich as the Homestake, but no comparable veins of easily processed ore were found. The Homestake Mine eventually became the deepest mine in the United States, with a depth of eight thousand feet. Some 12 million ounces of gold were extracted from California claims during the first five years of the gold rush. The Klondike region in Canada’s Yukon Territory has yielded approximately 12.5 million ounces of gold, a respectable amount but not even a third of the Homestake’s production over the same period of time.
Nerd bonus: The solar neutrino problem was first discovered here. Nowadays, this portion of the mine is referred to as the Sanford Underground Research Facility, or SURF.
Though I haven’t seen the following, I would love to next time I come through: Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument are also in the neighborhood or, well, under it. They are two of the longest cave systems in the world, coming in at roughly 140 miles and 170 miles, respectively. Wind Cave was the seventh US national park and the first national cave park in the world. Not exactly how you picture the Midwest, right?
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Longhorn
Store, Scenic, SD
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The famous dinosaur named Sue the T. Rex was discovered near the Badlands, South Dakota in 1990.
As the southern part of the former Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889, simultaneously with North Dakota. They are the 39th and 40th states admitted to the union so which one is 39th? Which one is 40th? There is no evidence suggesting which state was incorporated first because President Benjamin Harrison shuffled the bills and signed one at random, with the order unrecorded. North Dakota is traditionally listed first.
The cow-to-person ratio in South Dakota is the highest in the nation. There are more cows than people in South Dakota.
South Dakota is home to the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota tribes, which together make up the Sioux Nation.
South Dakota has more shoreline than the entire state of Florida. This is mainly because of the fact that the state has many rivers and water bodies including rivers like Missouri, Cheyenne, James, Grande, Moreau, etc.
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All in all, I was happily surprised by what I thought would be a much bleaker, hopeless, gloomier South Dakota. But as someone else said:
It
feels like if you manage to stand still on these windy plains,
you
may still hear the whispers of the ghosts of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill
Hickock.
And yes, you can definitely feel that sense of fighting the elements, conjuring bigger than life people, dreaming of having as much of their audacity, tenacity, heroism, virility, and daring. Living large.
As a big fan of the series Deadwood, set in 1870’s South Dakota it felt a bit like coming to a place I already knew even though I didn’t.
Did longing or nostalgia taint my views of South Dakota? What makes it so special? The vastness, stark beauty, a long gone era? Or is it because there isn’t that much here and ‘What is rare tends to be cherished more than what is readily available?’
I don’t know, but I will leave you with these wise words from CS Lewis in The Weight of Glory:
These things - the beauty, the memory of our own past - are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have not visited.
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