MITCHELL, S.D. (KELO) — The World’s Only Corn Palace in Mitchell is an official destination on the Great American Road Trip in celebration of America’s 250th anniversary.
KELOLAND News takes a look back on the history of the iconic building that celebrates South Dakota’s agricultural heritage.
The World’s Only Corn Palace in Mitchell is one of South Dakota’s top tourist attractions.
The city’s first Corn Palace was built in 1892. The one that currently stands on Main Street is the third palace that’s been built.
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“The first two places it was technically a block south of here. We had two major fires. It was decided in 1919 that it would be built on this location,” Corn Palace director Dave Sietsema said.
Corn Palace director, Dave Sietsema, says the first Corn Palace was built to show off the prevalence of agriculture, not just in the city of Mitchell, but the state of South Dakota.
“First one they built was to celebrate country and town people coming together for the harvest festival in the fall. And we’re still having the festival today, in the fall. So, over 100 years that we’ve been celebrating agriculture,” Sietsema said.
Corn was the city’s biggest cash crop during the rise of the city. The symbolism is all throughout the property, especially on the murals.
“We’ll start to take the grasses down and we’ll harvest the rye and the sour dock, and it’ll get bundled, and then that’ll go up. And then this fall, when corn harvest is ready, we’ll take the, 325,000 ears that it takes to go up on this building to make those nine murals,” Sietsema said.
The murals are made of corn ears grown with different colors than the usual yellow. Former product raiser and decorator for the Corn Palace Dean Strand says when he started off in 1983, there were only three colors of corn used, but now decorators have 13 colors to choose from. The intricate process starts with an ear of corn having a kernel with a different color then the rest.
“We just take a pocket knife and pick out those kernels. And when we got like a coffee kernel full, we would, plant them off by themselves somewhere. And after doing that for five years, you get a solid ear,” former product raiser & decorator for the Corn Palace Dean Strand said.
Strand recalls the first color he was able to create.
“The first color that that we developed was blue. We picked the blue kernels out and planted them off by themselves. And we had to get about a five gallon pail full, that’s about how much seed it takes to plant enough of each color for the Corn Palace,” Strand said.
When it comes to picking corn during harvest for the murals, the moisture of the corn is important for the longevity of the art.
“We find that, if we work off between 18 and 24% moisture when we saw it in half, that works the best. If you put it up wetter than 24, 25% moisture, when it dries, it curls and pulls away from the from the back,” Strand said.
“So we change all the murals outside every year. It takes about 4000 man hours to put the corn back up on the building. We take one mural down, we put one up so that the building itself is never without murals,” Sietsema said.
The idea of the Corn Palace was meant to draw people in so they would decide to live in South Dakota.
“So by having a building decorated with corn and wheat and milo and different farm products, they saw more people would maybe, be interested in moving out here to settle and to work and it worked out well,” Strand said.
As visitors come from all over the nation during the road trip for the America 250 project, they’ll come to realize that the world’s only corn palace is a place for people of all ages. {STAND UP}
“It’s both, if you like the history, the walls are lined with some history and the storyline and the timeline for the building. If you’re a young kid, there’s places to rip around outside. You get to see big tractors out in the lobby,”Sietsema said.
To make sure tourists have fun and learn about the city’s history at the same time.
Here’s a link to the full list of destinations included in the Great American Road Trip.
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