The Mitchell Corn Palace, South Dakota

Back in 1892 the folks of Mitchell South Dakota wanted to tell the world “Hey, South Dakota IS a great place to live! In fact, our soil is so fertile we can decorate our buildings with our surplus corn!” And so the Corn Palace was born. Today, visitors can see the third incarnation of the Palace, stripped down each year and completely redecorated with murals made from several colorful varieties of corn.

Inside, it’s just a high school basketball gym (home of the Kernels) but you can find pictures of all the previous Corn Palace decorations so it’s worth a look inside. And, just in case you’re wondering, the Palace requires 275,000 ears of corn each year, each color planted in a separate field to ensure the color remains true. But don’t worry about waste; the birds and squirrels eat well in Mitchell!