Digging for Our Roots, Part I: The Corn Palace

5-6 August, 2012

It is a short drive from Chamberlain to Mitchell, about 65 miles. Mitchell is the largest town we have been in since Rapid City, outside of the Black Hills. Size is relative, of course. Mitchell’s population is about 15,000 – much smaller than our Southern California behemoths. There are the standard big box stores and fast food restaurants around the interstate exits and the downtown section is vintage 1900s.

The big draw in Mitchell is the Corn Palace. We enjoyed seeing the Corn Palace again; it has been over 18 years since we were last here. Actually got to see them decorating the outside of the building. The building was created to showcase the agriculture capabilities of South Dakota and it has been around, in one form or another, for over a hundred years. My mom talked about traveling from Sioux Falls to go to Lawrence Welk dances in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Russ’ mom said that they walked over to the Corn Palace from Dakota Wesleyan University to watch the college basketball games. Lots of memories in that building.

We also visited the campus of Dakota Wesleyan University. The most famous alum (besides Florence Schaal) is George McGovern. He and his wife donated money for a beautiful library which also houses a legacy museum of his papers and exhibits of his career. It is a small but lovely campus. It seems that most of the buildings are pretty new so it seems that there has been a recent renovation of the entire campus. In the library, we spent a while going through the yearbooks and found photos of Florence as well as pictures of her future brother-in-law, Paul Potter, from a few years earlier. Even though I only met Paul once when he was in his 80s, I immediately recognized his photo because of his sweet gentle smile.

Next stop is Canton and Sioux Falls. Getting closer to Chicago and Chris!