When
traveling across this great land, one of
the most unusual buildings you will find is in the small town of Mitchell,
SD. The history surrounding its beginnings starts over 1 and 1/2 centuries
ago. Back in the late 1800s, Mitchell was just 12 years old. It
was a sleepy farm town with not a lot of appeal. The land was plentiful
but the population was sparse. The city fathers, so the folklore goes,
found themselves sitting around a pot belly stove in the general store wondering
what could be done to put Mitchell on the map.
They believed that if they could just get people interested in the rich
soil of
the area that people would come. They needed a festival. Not just a
festival but something that would be so spectacular that it would draw people
from all over the country just to see what was in the town. And what was
in the town was corn. Miles and miles of corn fields. They needed to
do something to advertise the corn. It came in the form of a large modest
building built by the Corn Belt Real Estate Association
in 1892 to house the activities of the festival. Only 66 by 100 feet, it
had a dirt floor and wooden walls, and no electricity. Completed at a the cost
of just under $3000.00 It was called the 
"The Corn Belt
Exposition" The fathers had heard of a building in Sioux City where
corn had been nailed to the walls of a building to make a design. Using
local artists the first murals were designed. Being entirely made of
wood, every inch of outer space was available to display corn. The designs
were complex and continuous all the way around the building. With the
onset of winter, the building got its second name with the arrival of pigeons and
squirrels. It became "The Biggest Bird Feeder in the World" as
it is sometimes called today. The festival and the Corn Palace caught on
and by 1904 the
building was too small to house all the events that were being
scheduled. Mitchell was no longer the sleepy farm town. Events
were
happening year round and the Palace was in constant use. In 1905, the
City
of Mitchell challenged Pierre for the right to be the Capital of South
Dakota. A new Corn Palace, it was hoped, would launch this effort to a
successful conclusion.
The second Palace was constructed in just 55 days
for $15,000. It was 125 X 146 feet in size and again was with dirt
floor and no electricity. A footnote under the 1904 picture informed us
that the swastika on the front of the building was a common Indian sign, and
that in 1904 Nazis hadn't been heard of. The Capital stayed in Pierre but it didn't keep
the Corn Palace from growing in popularity. By the 1920, concern for the
safety of large groups in a wooden structure caused new plans to be drawn. This time the Corn Palace was to
be steel and concrete. 
The 1921 Corn Palace was designed with. Moorish domes.
Minarets were added in 1937, giving the Palace the distinctive appearance that it has today.
Today the Palace sees a half million visitors during the summer. The rest of
the time it services the town's other activities 
from Proms to
trade-shows Each year ever since, except during the war years and the
Great Depression, the Palace has been redecorated in a new theme. The
material used has always been the native products that grow around the
town. Each new theme is selected by the Corn Palace Committee along
with the current artist Cherie Ramsdell. It takes some 20 local
residents each summer to redecorate the building. Starting sometime in
late spring or early summer the non-corn materials like grains and grasses
are replaced with around 3000 bushels of Milo, rye and oat heads, which are
tied into bundles and nailed to the 
building in new designs. At the
end of summer with the corn ripened in the fields, the murals are
replaced. This requires the existing corn to be removed and the new
designs placed on black roofing paper. The paper is marked out in
grids according to the paper designs created by Cherie. One article
called it a "corn-by-number project". The roofing paper goes
up on the walls of the building and the corn, which has been sliced down the
center so that one side is flat, is nailed, flat side, to the
building. It takes close to 90 days to get the entire job
completed. Just under 300,000 ears of corn are used. During the
summer, the Palace serves mainly as a tourist attraction while hosting such
events as the Annual Festival, Stampede Rodeo and Polka Festival.
During the off season, it is in continuous use as a community center for
concerts, sports events and even Proms.
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