The Corn Palace...and Sioux Falls, SD!

The Corn Palace, Mitchell, South Dakota

On Sunday, September 9th, we packed up from Chamberlain and drove further east toward Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Along the way we came to Mitchell, a little town known for its elaborate homage to the area's fertile fields...the Corn Palace. First built in 1892, the building was decorated with all manner and colors of corn and corn parts. Everything from the stalk and silk to the leaves and cobs were used to boldly announce the bounty produced by the region's farmers.

Corn display in the Corn Palace

Continuing the tradition, the facade is redesigned and redecorated each year during the Corn Palace Festival Week, held in the third week of August. The design, covering the front and side of the building, is changed every year, incorporating huge panels in the yearly theme. This year's theme is 'Celebrating Youth Activities', as suggested by a local third-grade girl. In that vein, the murals show a golfer, a gymnast, a singer, a runner, an ice hockey enthusiast and so on, all 'painted' with 13 shades of corn. The city's visitor guide indicates that the panels are constructed using blueprints where the plans call for certain colors of corn in each area of the drawing...a 'large-scale corn-by-number'. Ha!

Mount Rushmore...in corn!

We toured the display of pictures of each year's Corn Palace design and admired the drastic changes from one to the next. Even the onion domes on the top of the building are occasionally re-painted. Several display cases are currently exhibiting the corn-themed dinnerware and other assorted corn-themed kitchen items a local woman collected for most of her life. The items are on loan by her family. In the auditorium where concerts, proms, banquets and sporting events are held, we saw a bunch of corn panels around the top of the room with South Dakota themed places, faces and culture.

Corny guys

Across the street from the Corn Palace we found the silly corn guy statue. We posed with him for some pictures while he smiled eagerly through all of them...so friendly!

Falls Park in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

We drove on to Sioux Falls and set up camp at the Big Sioux State Recreation Area, a large park east of the city with only a few other campers. After dinner in the coach, we drove into downtown Sioux Falls to see the city's namesake, a lovely park around the falls of the Big Sioux River. The falls have been central to the town's industry and population, providing hydroelectric power to the Queen Bee Mill, built in 1881, as well as the Sioux Falls Light and Power Company, established in 1908.

View of the falls and the turbine house
from the millrace viewing platform

Near the falls we saw the ruins of the old mill building, formerly a seven story structure constructed of pink quartzite mined on site. Despite its state-of-the-art technology in 1881, the mill closed in 1883 after nearly $500,000 was spent on it and the supporting buildings. The mill race, which provided a channel for water from the river to power the mill via the turbine house, now serves as a viewing platform of the park. The old Sioux Falls Light and Power Company building now houses a cafe and pleasant outdoor seating that overlooks the river below. While reading the placards around the park, we learned of a natural island that once stood in the middle of the Big Sioux River, but whose channels were blocked in 1907 to increase water flow to the hydroelectric plant. Now, the former island is part of the 123 acre Falls Park where we saw scores of local citizens strolling in the evening air.

Old Courthouse Museum
built of local pink quartzite

Courtroom restored to 1900

In the morning, we decided to take in a bit of the culture of Sioux Falls, opting for a whirlwind tour of the city's thrift stores. With our purchases in the trunk, we next headed to the Old Courthouse Museum, occupying the old courthouse, obviously. The museum, built in 1889, offers a little bit of everything Sioux Falls. We saw a piece of a tree whose trunk had been pierced rather dramatically by a piece of a bridge's steel I-beam during a tornado. Yikes. In another area we read all about the Vietnam War and its impact both locally and nationally. It was a fascinating exhibit.

Historic bicycle exhibit

Upstairs, we found an exhibit highlighting the cold of South Dakotan winters, complete with down and fur coats, as well as a beautiful old pot-bellied stove with nickel plating and mica windows. Yikes. It originally cost only $40 for the 'deluxe' model, though we were sure it would today command thousands of dollars. In another room, we toured a display of the history of bicycles, including a Schwinn model similar to one Ken bought (with his own money!) to deliver newspapers as a boy. Cool! We also saw the stunning historic courtroom, restored to its original colors and stencils from 1900. The building was designed by architect Wallace L. Dow, whose Richardsonian-Romanesque style can be seen on many of the buildings he designed throughout Sioux Falls. Another of his famous structures, thankfully still standing, is the T.B. McMartin residence, which we next visited.

Constructed of local pink quartzite in 1889

The McMartin residence, which now houses the Pettigrew Home and Museum, was built in 1889. We trudged the six blocks or so from the Old Courthouse Museum to see this lovely home nestled among a whole neighborhood of interesting houses. South Dakota's first senator, Richard F. Pettigrew, bought the home with his second wife in 1911 for $12,000. With our trusty tour guide, we saw the Pettigrews' home in all its former glory, having been restored to the time period when they lived there. We saw the small galley kitchen, the maid's entrance from her quarters up above, the dining room, the family's parlor, and the guests' parlor all on the main level. The original wall coverings remain intact; a mauve silk damask in the two parlors and a very dark embossed wallpaper (called 'Lincrusta' - a linoleum-like product) on the foyer walls and ceiling. Upstairs our tour guide showed us the Pettigrews' bedrooms and bathroom, as well as a couple of office spaces with only a portion of Mr. Pettigrew's 5,000 volume book collection.

Museum addition to
Pettigrew Home
built of petrified wood

In his last few years, Mr. Pettigrew attached a small museum to the rear of the home, built partly using 4 or 5 boxcars full of petrified wood taken from what would later become the Petrified Forest National Park (and a felony). Adorning the exterior with the petrified wood, he displayed artifacts he had gathered from his extensive world traveling and then bequeathed the collection to the city upon his death in 1926.

Perhaps we should have eaten at Chedd's
...named for The Ched?

We enjoyed the visit to both museums and walked back toward town where we saw the contestants in a local sculpture competition displayed along Phillips Avenue. We attempted to have dinner at a local sushi restaurant, Sushi Masa. In order to sample the sushi before committing to an entire dinner, we ordered a few nigiris and a single roll as an appetizer. No less than 45 hungry (and angry) minutes later, our appetizer finally arrived and, though very tasty, we were reluctant to wait for any more food. Irritated, we left and ate dinner in the RV. Besides being neglected at the sushi restaurant, we had a great day and enjoyed seeing a lot of otherwise charming Sioux Falls.