World's Bigest Bird Feeder

In 1892 the citizens of Mitchell built the first corn palace to show how good the crops were in Dakota.  From then on, each year the old decorations were taken down and new murals were created.  These murals are made of thousands of bushels of  corn, grain, grasses, wild oats, brome grass, blue grass, rye, straw, and wheat and they all tell stories about life in South Dakota.

Locals call the Corn Palace the world’s largest bird feeder since the cobs and kernels attract birds from all over. Hungry birds and Mitchell’s wild weather take their toll on the building and it’s a big job to keep it in tip top shape.  That's probably another reason why they redo it every year.

Some 350,000 ears of corn cover the Corn Palace. Each ear is sawed in half and nailed onto 13 exterior murals designed by a local artist. The Mitchell Chamber of Commerce has dubbed this “earchitecture” and the job of decorating the Palace has belonged to Dean Strand for 24 years. He’s also developed hybrid corn in a cornucopia of distinct colors that make up the murals.  I believe they said he also developed the corn-by-number style in photo number 4

See the Corn Palace for yourself on its live web cam at www.cornpalace.org Look for the small camera icon on the upper right side of the home page.