Jomoud's Fotothing

The Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota

Ah, the Corn Palace! What a site to behold! Where else can you see an exhibition hall topped with onion-shaped domes and covered with tens of thousands of dollars worth of oats, sorghum, barley, su
dan grass, and oh, how could I forget --- corn. Corn! Corn! Corn! Corn! White corn, red corn, brown corn, yellow corn, blue corn, speckled corn, splotchy corn--- eventually pigeon-pecked corn, thus scoring the Palace its other nickname: THE WORLD'S LARGEST BIRD FEEDER.

The corn isn't randomly stuck on willy-nilly, but each ear is skillfully sliced in half lengthwise with a powersaw, trimmed if necessary with a hand axe and carefully nailed in place, according to large corn-by-number drawings tacked up on tar paper. They are arranged to make murals: largely Americana scenes like pastoral fantasias, wagon trains on the move, Amerindians at sunset, that sort of thing.

The Palace itself is an exhibition hall, site of rodeos, high school basketball games (what a fun place to play ball!), farm machinery shows, polka parties, etc.