MITCHELL, SD—The Corn Palace, a large building entirely decorated with ears of corn and other grains, will be featured on the new state penny due to be released in 2010, insists Herb Stymie, director of the Corn Palace Visitors Center. “You can bet money on it. No way they use Mt. Rushmore again.”

…………Like the state quarters issued over the past decade, the pennies will feature an engraving representative of each state in the union. In 2004, South Dakota officials chose Mt. Rushmore to be on the quarter, a decision that “flabbergasted” Mr. Stymie and the three other people employed in his office. “We were blown away, totally and completely bowled over. It was so out of left field. Melinda, the gal who answers the phone, was in tears. Nobody, and I mean nobody, saw that one coming.”

…………Mt. Rushmore, located in the Black Hills near the western border of South Dakota, not only adorns the state quarter, but also the state license plate, state flag, state seal, and state letterhead. In addition, the 1998 Wes Anderson-directed movie Rushmore, starring Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman, was adopted as the Official State Movie, even though the film makes no mention of Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota, or even the Midwest. Just over 1-in-3 streets in South Dakota are named Rushmore, adding to the disorientation and confusion naturally present among drivers in the state. Rushmore is also popular as a business name, with 1-in-4 South Dakota businesses using it in some form. This number increases dramatically as one goes further west. An estimated 90% of businesses in the Black Hills are named Rushmore.

…………“If you ask me, it seems kind of obsessive,” says Stymie. “Rushmore this and Rushmore that. It’s as if this whole state were empty except for that stupid jingoistic mountain.”

…………Mt. Rushmore draws an estimated 2.5 million visitors each year, many of whom are impressed by the 100-foot granite sculpture featuring the heads of dead presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. In contrast, the Corn Palace draws an estimated 20,000 visitors a year, the majority of whom are attendees of Dakota Wesleyan University basketball games, which are held in the building.

…………Originally constructed in 1905 in a failing bid to ‘snazz up’ Mitchell and get the state capital located there, the 18,000 square foot building boasts murals on every wall constructed out of corn and other grains. The murals, which become infested with bugs and worms, are removed each Fall and replaced each Spring with a new theme. Past themes include ‘Prairie Life’, ‘Everyday Heroes’, and ‘Mt. Rushmore’. In addition to Division 8 basketball games, the Corn Palace also hosts wedding receptions, the occasional convention, and the state high school Indian leg wrestling championships.

…………“Don’t get me wrong,” says Stymie. “Mt. Rushmore is great and all, but it doesn’t really say South Dakota. It’s more national in scope. This is largely an agricultural state and I think the Corn Palace signifies that. We’re very confident that the powers that be will make the right, the sensible, and the obvious choice, and put the Corn Palace on the new state penny. Nothing says South Dakota more than a large building with ears of corn glued all over it.”

The End

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