Thursday, August 23, 2018

Corn Palace & Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village – Mitchell, South Dakota

August 22 


Today we started at the Corn Palace. What’s a Corn Palace you ask?

From their website:

“The Palace is redecorated each year with naturally colored corn and other grains and native grasses to make it “the agricultural show-place of the world”. We currently use 13 different colors or shades of corn to decorate the Corn Palace: red, brown, black, blue, white, orange, calico, yellow and now we have green corn! A different theme is chosen each year, and murals are designed to reflect that theme. Ear by ear the corn is nailed to the Corn Palace to create a scene. The decorating process usually starts in late May with the removal of the rye and dock. The corn murals are stripped at the end of August and the new ones are completed by the first of October.”

It's free to the public and upstairs you can see photos of every year’s theme starting from 1892 to present. They are located upstairs where the arena is. They were having a sound check while we were there as they were preparing for a concert. It is a unique sports and entertainment venue for concerts, basketball, volleyball, wrestling, bull riding, circus, banquets, graduations and much more.  The facility can host up to 3,200 people. 

Oscar Howe, who was a Yanktonai Sioux born on the Crow Creek Indian Reservation designed the Corn Palace murals from 1948 to 1971.

Believe it or not it attracts more than a half a million visitors annually. Yeah, you’re all just so jealous of us aren’t you?
 Corn Palace
 all covered with corn

uh, which one is cornier? (I know, groan.....)
 the stadium - yep, the background are corn murals


 closer look at the murals in the stadium






 this is the outside of the building - the theme is veterans this year







 Jim & Jennifer this one's for you!
 this bird is in hog heaven

It really was interesting to see and the murals look so good, you forget you are looking at corn.

We then visited the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village. It is the only archaeological site in South Dakota that is open to the public.  It was discovered in 1910 by a student from Dakota Wesleyan University. 

Some of what they have learned about the people who lived here 1,100 years ago is that this site was a major bison processing center and they were processing bison on an industrial scale to extract bone grease for the manufacture of pemmican.  These people were skilled farmers, growing crops such as corn, beans, squashes, sunflower, tobacco and amaranth.

The people who lived here lived in earthen lodges (teepees are a "modern" convenience - it was after the introduction of horses that made it possible for the nomadic tribes to live in teepees) that were built on a bluff overlooking what was then a creek; the creek was dammed in 1928 to create Lake Mitchell.  There are 70 to 80 lodges buried on their grounds.

Excavations take place in the Thomsen Center Archeodome.  When funding allows, they are able to work all year in the comfort of the Archeodome. The laboratory and exhibits are also found in the Archeodome.

The Boehnen Memorial Museum houses a full-sized reproduction of an earthen lodge, exhibits, a bison skeleton.





It was a nice museum that reminded me a little bit of the Heard Museum in Phoenix. 

After that we went outside to walk to the Thomsen Center Archeodome.






 the dig site

 Bull Boat - one bison hide is stretched over framework of branches to create a boat

It didn't take long to tour either of these, but both were interesting. 
Tomorrow, we plan a walk in the park and another museum.

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