The Corn Palace
604 N Main St, Mitchell, SD
Mitchell, SD
The world's only Corn Palace, a domed arena whose giant murals are built fresh each year out of thousands of ears of colored corn.
There is nothing else quite like the Corn Palace. In the farm town of Mitchell, a civic arena wears a coat of onion-shaped domes and minarets and, more remarkably, an exterior covered in enormous murals made entirely of corn, thousands of ears in a dozen natural colors, along with other grains and grasses native to the region. Every year the murals come down and a new set of designs goes up around a fresh theme.
It began as a booster's dream, a way for a young prairie town to show off the fertility of its soil, and it has endured for well over a century as both a beloved oddity and a working community building that still hosts basketball games, concerts, and gatherings. The Corn Palace is the definition of a roadside icon, corny in the best sense, and one of South Dakota's most photographed stops.
What Guests Love
- Giant exterior murals made entirely of corn and grain, changed to a new theme each year
- The whimsical Moorish domes and minarets rising over a small-town Main Street
- Watching a working civic arena that still hosts games, concerts, and events
- A only-in-South-Dakota roadside icon that is genuinely worth the stop
Worth Knowing
- The murals are redecorated on a yearly cycle, so the artwork you see depends on when you visit
- It is a working arena, so parts may be in use for events, but the exterior is always on view
- It sits right on Main Street with easy access from Interstate 90
- Pair it with the nearby Prehistoric Indian Village for a fuller Mitchell stop
Details
Mitchell, SD
Learn about The Corn Palace
A palace of corn
Mitchell built its first Corn Palace in 1892, when it was a young railroad town eager to prove that the Dakota soil could grow abundant crops and support a thriving community. The idea, borrowed from grain palaces elsewhere on the plains, was to cover a building in the very crops the region produced and throw a festival to celebrate the harvest.
The palace was rebuilt and expanded over the years, and the current building, with its distinctive Moorish domes and minarets, took its familiar form in the early twentieth century. Through boom, drought, and depression, Mitchell kept the tradition alive, and the Corn Palace became the town's identity and one of the state's signature landmarks.
The mural tradition
The heart of the Corn Palace is its murals. Each year, local designers plan large scenes around a chosen theme, and crews cover the exterior panels with corn cut and nailed ear by ear, using varieties in natural shades of red, brown, blue, white, yellow, and green, along with grasses and grains, to shade the images like a mosaic.
Because the work is redone yearly, no two seasons look exactly alike, and part of the fun is seeing what the current theme has produced. It is a genuine folk-art tradition, tied to the harvest cycle and carried on by the community, and it makes the Corn Palace less a museum piece than a living, changing work of prairie craft.
A working arena
For all its whimsy, the Corn Palace is a working civic building, home court to local basketball teams and a venue for concerts, stage shows, trade events, and community gatherings through the year. Generations of Mitchell residents have watched games and shows beneath its decorated roof.
The building anchors Main Street and the town's annual Corn Palace Festival, a harvest celebration with music, rides, and food that traces straight back to the boosters of the 1890s. That blend of everyday use and yearly spectacle is what keeps the Palace vital rather than a relic.
Visiting Mitchell
The Corn Palace is easy to reach, sitting on Main Street just off Interstate 90 in southeastern South Dakota, a natural break on the long drive between Sioux Falls and the Missouri River. The exterior is on view year-round, and the interior can usually be toured when events allow.
Summer and early fall are the liveliest times, with the new murals freshly up and the festival season in full swing, though the building draws travelers in every season. Nearby, the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village offers a very different and much older window on the region's story, making Mitchell a worthwhile overnight in its own right.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Mitchell
Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village
About 3 miles
An active archaeological site and museum preserving a thousand-year-old fortified village of the ancestral Plains Village peoples on the James River.
Dakota Discovery Museum
About 2 miles
A regional history and art museum in Mitchell with pioneer buildings and works by area artists.
Lake Mitchell
About 3 miles north
A city lake on the edge of town with a beach, campground, and trails for a warm-weather stop.
James River
Through the area
One of the longest unnavigable rivers in North America, winding slowly through the farm country around Mitchell.