Corn Palace, Mitchell, South Dakota

Over the years we have traveled west to the Black Hills in South Dakota. While this is a ways from us it is not so far that we can't visit regularly or make it a long weekend (4-5 days). We have driven it one long day but usually when we are heading to there we take 2 days so we can stop along the way to see things without feeling rushed. Our first visit was when Anthony was about 2, I think in 1988, and the most recent was this summer with our youngest Jeffery.

One of the places we always stop at is the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. The building is decorated every year on the outside with corn all locally grown. Each year it has a different theme. The inside of the building is the community building and basketball arena along with pictures of previous years' murals. During the summer the inside is a flea market.

We have visited other things in Mitchell was a doll museum, the Dakota Discovery Center, a transportation museum, Cabelas (Randy and the boys love Cabelas) as well as just walked around the downtown area and drove around town. Depending on the time of day we are there we might stop for the night or drive on. Usually we are there in the middle of the day so we have often lunch or a middle afternoon snack.

This year the theme for the Corn Palace was American Destinations.



Inside Jeffery meet their mascot Corn-a-Copia. Yes, he is a bit embarrassed but parents are suppose to cause mild embarrassment to their teens.


The inside of the Corn Palace has murals and pictures of previous Corn Palaces. Here is Randy and Jeffery in front of one of the early murals.


For some reason we had never gotten an ornament from the Corn Palace. Jeffery decided that this year we had to get one.