Courtesy Corn Palace
Corn Palace
Mitchell
About 75 miles west of Sioux Falls, the town of Mitchell has made a name for itself as the home of the Corn Palace, a large civic building that has been decorated with corn since 1892.
“We redecorate it annually with locally grown corn, specially grown in all-natural colors for the Corn Palace,” said director Mark Schilling. “It takes about two months to do the actual corn murals. We use 275,000 ears of corn on the outside of the building.”
Each year’s murals come from design ideas selected by a local committee. This year’s theme, “Remember When,” features images of people dancing at a malt shop, hanging clothes on a line and enjoying a movie at a drive-in theater, all composed of South Dakota corn.
The city of Mitchell uses the Corn Palace for a variety of sporting events, concerts and other community events throughout the year. When groups stop by, they can also learn about the history of the Corn Palace and the culture surrounding corn cultivation.
“We have many displays during the summertime talking about corn,” Schilling said. “People get to look at the history of corn, from a small farm to a new combine stand. We also have a large corn tree that shows many of the different products that are based on corn.”
The Corn Palace also serves as ground zero for the Corn Palace Festival, a late-August event that fills a block of Main Street with carnival rides, vendors and concerts.
www.cornpalace.org
Pioneer Auto Show
Murdo
Whether you take the old-fashioned U.S. Highway 16 or the modern Interstate 90, a trip across South Dakota will lead you to the Pioneer Auto Show, a museum complex in the small town of Murdo that is the very definition of a roadside attraction.
The museum started nearly 60 years ago when the owner of a local Chevrolet dealership began displaying interesting cars on his lot on Highway 16.
“We kind of got started by accident,” said Dave Geisler, who runs Pioneer Auto today. “My grandfather kept getting a bunch of oddball cars traded in during the ’40s and ’50s. He would put them outside in front of the dealership to draw attention of people coming by on the road, and he built a building in 1954 to house them.”
In the decades since, that one building has been surrounded by almost 40 others, and the collection has grown to include more than 250 cars, motorcycles and tractors. Visitors will see numerous classic vehicles from various eras of the automobile, as well as one-of-a-kind items such as a “General Lee” from the television show “The Dukes of Hazzard.” The museum also has a 1976 Harley-Davidson motorcycle that belonged to Elvis Presley.
In addition to browsing through the auto collection and the displays of historic memorabilia, groups can eat in the on-site restaurant and shop for Americana souvenirs in the Pioneer Auto gift shop.
