Every community has interesting places to see. I live in Mitchell South Dakota - and our claim to fame is the Corn Palace. It's a stop along I-90 for folks heading to or from the Black Hills, but isn't exactly a vacation destination. It is, however, an event destination - for our state and region at least.
The Corn Palace sits prominently on Main Street. When we moved to this area in 1978, my mother wanted to go see it the first time they visited us from Minnesota. She had heard of it, and was expecting something much different I think. These were pre-Internet days, so she couldn't just go online and Google it. LOL When she walked inside - her words were: "it's a gymnasium!!". Yup - but actually it's so much more than that. It's a major event venue for concerts and sports, for banquets, the circus, and graduations. For prom and a voting location. For the local high school show choir dinner theater. And it has a wonderful small museum inside. Lots of really big name bands and celebrities have performed here, especially during the annual Corn Palace Festival. My first Corn Palace event was seeing Bob Hope perform here in the mid-70s.
The outside and the inside are decorated with murals that are "painted" with locally grown grains and grasses. Locals dub it the World's Biggest Bird Feeder. The outdoor murals are changed annually and follow a theme (2020 was Stay and Play), and are really quite detailed and beautiful. The new theme being created right now is a Circus theme. A list of past themes going back to 1892 is on their website. And photos of many of those themes and events held here can be found in the museum.
https://cornpalace.com/150/Corn-Palace-Murals
https://cornpalace.com/150/Corn-Palace-Murals
If you zoom into this photo, you can see that the murals are done using a process like a kid's paint by number - identifying which of the 12 different colors of corn or grasses to staple into place. The unique and natural colors of corn are grown by a local farmer, and the murals are now designed by students at the local university. For decades they were designed by renowned local artist Oscar Howe. His original drawings are displayed inside for all to enjoy.
https://cornpalace.com/149/Corn-Palace-History
https://cornpalace.com/149/Corn-Palace-History
So, what interesting places are in your local community?
2 comments:
interesting post! where i live is smack dab in the middle of civil war battle territory...in fact mason/dixon line only about half hour north as is gettysburg and other battlefields...kinda fun to live places where there are national historic locales..for many years lived 1 hour from plymouth, mass....another biggie
We have The Headwaters of the Mississippi about 25 miles from us...it is a tourist attraction! I have been to the Corn Palace but not inside! That was in 1972 in September, oh it was cold and rainy I worked with the Carnival set up on the streets. :)
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