Mitchell, SD #39

We were out of Pipestone like a puff of smoke and on our way to the “only Corn Palace in the world!” in Mitchell, SD. When we stopped at the ‘Welcome to South Dakota’ Visitors Center we mentioned that we had seen the sculptures in Regent, ND on an earlier visit and were told that there were sculptures in SD too, in fact, on the way to Mitchell! Well we are not ones to pass up such prime opportunities! We found the Porter Sculpture Park off of I-90 near Montrose, SD. Wayne Porter is an interesting, highly energetic mind whose interests and sculptures span a vast array of subjects from fantasies to archeology. Most of his sculptures include bits and pieces of old farm and railroad equipment with lots and lots of imagination. He gave us his little book of poetry and Kae said she liked this one:

“Times and chance are clay
Blood and bones are dust
Ideas know decay
Iron knows but rust.”

It was ‘westward ho’ to Mitchell and the Corn Palace once again. Cokie had found the website a few weeks back and was now determined she had to see and photograph this 115 year old tradition. There was a big 5 day summer festival at the Corn Palace, smack dab in the middle of town, with all the carnival and street vendors you could possibly want. Lots of great food and not everything was corn either; there was a veritable ‘corn-icopia’ of dishes. It was in-crib-able! Truly a-maizing! (okay, I know, I know. I can ‘ear’ you loud and clear. I’ll stop myself now, really! It’s all too corny anyway!) This all started in 1892 and has continued yearly as a celebration of the harvest of crops in and around Mitchell. There is a gallery of old photos taken through the years that was fun because you could follow the changes in the designs, structures and history.







The murals along the front and side are designed by a resident artist each year and depict things in the daily lives of the area residents. They are laid out like paint by number paintings with each section a designated color, based on the colors available in the actual crops of corn, grasses, millet, rye grass and straw. As you can see the yellow corn was only crop ready at this time of year. Other colors will be added as the crops ripen. All punning aside it really is amazing!




We hung out in Mitchell for about 5 days because of a mail goof up, but it was a good time to get caught up on things and poke around. We found this interesting spot called the Ancient Indian Village and Museum. This is a National Landmark but it is completely run by private citizens and community monies. This is the site of a 1,000 year old Mandan village. Archeological interest and excavations have been going on since 1910 but no Federal or State funds have ever been used. The community is quite proud that they have built the Archeodome, a non-foundation, free-standing building over the excavation site of one of the 80 lodges in this village. The artifacts are so many that the layers of occupation are estimated to be some 10 or 12 feet deep. This should keep the students and archeologists busy for about 50 years just uncovering and cataloging the items. It was fascinating and we would love to come back in say 10 years to see how much progress they have made.







Kae wanted to check out one other place before we left town – Cabela’s, the world’s foremost outfitter for outdoor sportsmen. She said it really was quite an impressive store and certainly had everything plus for the hunter, fisher and boater. Cokie wandered around photographing the museum quality taxidermy displays of animals from around the world. Not mine or her favorite thing to see, but the animals were sorta beautiful, I guess. I was trying to figure out how come humans are so willing to spend so much money for strange things like floating, heated duck blinds, or chairs on 12 foot high telephone poles, coolers attached, just so they can sit and wait for ducks. They seem to make it really hard and expensive for a few birds. Quick estimates came out somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 per bird! I figured it must be some of that gourmet food. Personally I don’t even like the taste of duck! Kae bought a few fishing things for relatives and away we went.












Another day around Mitchell helped us discover that this town has an almost Disney-like quality because of the art and sculptures they chose to display; must have something to do with 115 years of “Corn”.





We headed straight to Iowa, for the purpose of adding one more state to the list. We took Highways 37 and 50 just to keep to the rural roads, driving through little wide spots like Dimrock and Tripp or Tabor and Gayville. (We knew we were definitely not in SF in that one because there was absolutely no décor or landscaping anywhere!)





This will be one of the shortest blogs yet but stay tuned for Iowa. Thanks to all the folks who wrote us about their hometowns or their grandparents’ birthplaces or spots they visited in the past. We may not be able to visit any or all of them but we sure appreciated the emails!