Today is our
last sightseeing day in South Dakota.
The rest of the week will be devoted to tying up any loose ends before
we leave for Kansas on Friday morning.
We headed 60
miles west of Sioux Falls to Mitchell, SD to see the “World’s Only Corn
Palace”. The weather was nice, but a
little windy. This is our longest trip
on the bike since we went to Washington DC with the Indiana Chapter of Rolling
Thunder over Memorial Day weekend.
Wouldn’t you know – I forgot my sunscreen before we left this morning so
by the time we got there I looked like Rudolph.
It was on the way back that Greg realized we had sunscreen with us in
one of the bike bags.
The Corn
Palace is a uniquely American folk art icon.
It was originally built in 1892 just three years after South Dakota
became a state. Early settlers displayed
their agricultural bounty on the building’s exterior to prove the fertility of
the soil and to attract immigrant farmers to settle in Mitchell. Each fall a festival was planned to celebrate
agriculture and the productivity of the South Dakota agricultural
community. Over 100 years later the
tradition continues.
Each year a
new decorating theme is chosen and the outside of the Corn Palace is stripped
and redecorated with new corn and grains.
Over the summer 3,000 bushels of rye, oat heads and sour dock are tied
in bundles and attached with staples.
When the corn crop is ready, roughly 275 thousand ears of corn are sawed
in half lengthwise and nailed to the building following patterns created by
local artists. Twelve different colors
of corn are used. The corn is grown just
outside Mitchell with care to keep the colors from cross pollinating. This display shows the different colors of corn.
For each of
the mural panels on the outside of the building and around the basketball court
they draw the design on heavy paper using a pattern similar to those you see in
the “paint by color” kits. They staple
the paper patterns to the walls and then they use ears of corn instead of water
paints to fill in the different areas.
The detail is really pretty amazing.
I actually
think the decorations from some of the earlier years is more intricate. Then they were using geometric designs rather
than having a particular theme. The
current Corn Palace is the third building to house the Corn Palace. The first building was entirely made of wood
so all of it could be decorated. The
current building has to meet building codes so the decorations are a little
more limited.
This is the mural to the left in the picture above
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