South Dakota: Corn Palace Photos

South Dakota: Corn Palace Photos

back to Mitchell

Even seasoned road trippers run out of adjectives to describe the World's Only Corn Palace. The Corn Palace is a block-long, five story, 3,500-seat auditorium, crowned with multicolored, Moorish inspired minarets, turrets and kiosks, its exterior redecorated each September with immense, newlycommissioned murals constructed from South Dakota corn, grain and grasses. And it looks even stranger than it sounds.

The present structure, built in 1921, is the third in Mitchell's series of Corn Palaces. The first was designed in 1892 by one Col. Rohe of Lawrence, Kansas, who had created an earlier Corn Palace for Sioux City, Iowa in 1887: with a bit more civic pride, franchised Corn Palaces could've covered the Farm Belt. Postcards depicting past Corn Palace designs are available from the gift shop which, during peak tourist season, covers the Palace's entire basketball court. The 1907 Palace is a perennial bestseller: its design prominently features a huge swastika on the front corner turret.

As the photos below show, I've driven through Mitchell alarmingly often for someone who lives about 1,200 miles away. Be patient -- this page takes a while to load...