Corn Palace

On our cross-country trip, we stopped in Mitchell to see a building unlike any other: the Corn Palace. Its walls are decorated with large designs made from ears of corn, grains, and grasses. What began as a celebration of a local harvest has become one of South Dakota’s best-known landmarks.

Mitchell built its first Corn Palace in 1892, when the town was only about twelve years old. Its purpose was both festive and practical. A harvest celebration brought farm families and townspeople together, while the elaborate displays showed visitors what the surrounding land could produce. The attraction grew, and Mitchell replaced the original building in 1905. The present Corn Palace was completed in 1921. Its domes and minarets, added in the 1930s, gave the building the distinctive outline it has today.

The decorations are a continuing project, not a permanent façade. A new theme is chosen each year, and the old murals are removed so new ones can be assembled. Different natural colors of corn supply the shading; workers fasten the ears to the building one by one. That yearly rebuilding makes the Palace a record of changing designs as well as an enduring tribute to South Dakota agriculture. 

For Mitchell, the Corn Palace has always been more than a roadside attraction. It was built as a place to gather, and it still hosts basketball games, performances, celebrations, and community events. Our stop brought us into that long-running local tradition: a prairie town using its harvest to make something ambitious, playful, and unmistakably its own.