Quick Notes from a Road Trip West: Corn and Pastures

Driving from the the eastern third of Iowa to the western third of South Dakota is a long journey from green fields of corn and soybeans to rolling grazing lands. It is to move from seeing farmers wearing feed caps to seeing ranchers in cowboy hats.

Somewhere in the middle of it all is Mitchell, SD, home of the world's only (or so they claim, and who's to doubt?) Corn Palace. It's a medium-sized auditorium/basketball court/exhibition hall right smack in the center of a town of about 14,000 souls.  You've perhaps seen pictures of this "Moorish style" building topped with turrets.  What makes it unique is that each year two of its four sides are covered with pictures and decorations created out of the products of the surrounding farm land...corn, grasses, sorghum, rye, oat heads, sour dock, etc. Each year has a theme; 2013 is-was-"we celebrate"...Christmas, Easter, Memorial and Veterans' Day, to name a few that made the cut. (It was somewhat disappointing to learn that only two of the building's four sides are covered with corn, etc; but that explains why all pictures of the Corn Palace are from the same angle.)

I say the 2013 theme "was" because large sections of the walls are now bare plywood, which the birds pecking  away at the art work may have caused to happen, but also because the Mitchellites seem to start the process in the fall with the harvest. I think you have to get to Mitchell before July 13 to view the Corn Palace at its best.

It's tempting to laugh at this unique example of American folk art, and I probably won't hurry to see it again anytime soon.  But it does represent the pride a relatively small town can take in something unique to it that also happens to draw thousands of tourists each summer. I can't imagine that creating it anew each year is easy and without controversy, but the people persist when they know they have something no one else has.  A tip of the old feed cap to the good people of Mitchell SD!

Bedding down tonight in Murdo SD, pop 670-some. Stomach full of buffalo burger from the Buffalo Bar and Restaurant, consumed in the company of real, hopefully working cowboys, genuinely at home on the range.  America, here we are!