The World's Only Corn Palace

Having grown up in Alexandria -- just 12 miles from Mitchell -- experiencing the "World's Only Corn Palace" was nothing special. After all, we played basketball games there, went to concerts there, drove past it on Main Street almost constantly. And, of course, "Corn Palace Week" was the annual week-long festival in early September that included a Main Street midway plus a variety of entertainers who performed on the Corn Palace stage. Over the years, some big names played the Palace -- Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Lawrence Welk -- and some not-so-big names, like Carrot Top. It was always mildly interesting to see each year what theme would be adopted for the murals that adorned the Corn Palace. The murals were crafted from naturally-colored corn and other grains and native grasses. The Corn Palace's Web site claims that 13 colors and shades of corn are used for decoration, including red, brown, black, blue, white, orange, calico, yellow and green. Each ear is then nailed in place to create a scene. The corn murals are stripped at the end of August and the new ones are completed by the first of October. The designs are created by local artists. From 1948 to 1971 the artist Oscar Howe designed the panels. Calvin Schultz designed the murals from 1977 to 2002. Since 2003, the murals have been designed by Cherie Ramsdell. No new mural was created in 2006 due to an extreme drought. Kitschy? Yeah. Oh, the Corn Palace has been the butt of its share of jokes. It has been called "The world's largest bird feeder." And I recall a professional wrestler many years ago announcing on television that he would wrestle his next match at "The Popcorn Palace in Mitchell East Dakota." Ah, but it still had a special place in our hearts. And we loved playing basketball games on the large Corn Palace floor. We usually would have one or two regular-season games there, and then district and regional tournaments as well. It was close to home. It was almost our second home court. The Corn Palace is visited every year by more than 500,000 folks. I recall so often driving down Mitchell's main street and seeing tourists with their cameras in hand, gazing at the murals. I just didn't see what all the fuss was about. It was built back in 1892 when Mitchell was home to 3,000 residents. The Palace was conceived as a gathering place where city residents and their rural neighbors could enjoy a fall festival with extraordinary stage entertainment – a celebration to climax a crop-growing season and harvest. The present Corn Palace was actually built in 1921 as a larger, more permanent, purposeful structure than its two predecessors. According to its Web site, "Today, the Corn Palace is more than the home of the festival or a point of interest of tourists. It is a practical structure adaptable to many purposes. Included among its many uses are industrial exhibits, dances, stage shows, meetings, banquets, proms, graduations arena for Mitchell High School and Dakota Wesleyan University as well as district, regional and state basketball tournaments. USA Today named the Corn Palace one of the top 10 places in America for high school basketball. " On May 7, 2005, Garrison Keillor hosted his "Prairie Home Companion" show from the Corn Palace, opening with a song about Mitchell and including many references to the Corn Palace during the show. It's got its own listing in the book, "1,000 Places to see Before You Die." But the utility of the Corn Palace has been called into question now, and it's the topic of much conversation in Mitchell. How important is it to Mitchell's economy? Should it be remodeled and if so, how much should be spent? The former became a discussion topic when the city was considering building an events center near the Hwy. 37 bypass. That idea was eventually rejected by voters. So how important is the Corn Palace? Well, it's nearly synonymous with the city. After all, the sports teams are named the "Kernels." The local AM radio station used to have the call letters KORN. It would just be weird without the Corn Palace in Mitchell and part of its identity. Kitschy, quirky or not.