August 6-7, 2007 Trip Log

Monday, August 6 – It is interesting how all of Wisconsin and all of Minnesota were beautiful corn fields and soy bean fields from the east side of the state to the west side of the state. Just as we crossed the border into South Dakota we noticed that there was very little corn or soybeans and now everything is hay or wheat. It’s like the farmers all got together and said “Let those eastern fellows have the corn and soybeans!”

We drove to Mitchell, SD, to visit the Corn Palace. In 1892 the city fathers wanted to put Mitchell on the map and prove to the rest of the country that the northern plains were NOT, as Lewis and Clark had said, good only for grazing buffalo. They built the original corn palace to showcase all of the crops that could be grown in the rich Dakota soil AND to entice settlers there. The first Corn Palace was a 100’ by 66’ wooden structure and they decorated the inside and the outside with corn cobs cut in half and nailed to the building. By 1905 it had become such a success that it had outgrown it’s present building and they built a new Corn Palace that was 125’ by 142’ and decorated with corn cobs. In 1921 the current building (140’ by 200’) was built entirely of brick and steel to eliminate the threat of fire posed by the wooden building. It is used as a convention center, for basketball games, proms and dances. The corn is specially grown for the Corn Palace with seeds that have been specially selected for the color of the corn on the cob and it is all grown by one man. They try to change the decoration every year, but sometimes drought or the World Wars interfere and they leave the same pictures up for 2 years. The corn cobs are sawed in half and affixed to the building with staples. Tar paper is put up on the side of the building and the pictures are drawn on the tar paper showing which color corn goes where. They start in the middle of August to take down the old corn and put up the new. When we were there they were waiting for word on whether there would be new corn going up next week or not. It takes about 275,000 ears of corn sawed in half at a cost of about $100,000 each year it is done.


Tuesday, August 7 – We stopped at Wall Drug in Wall, SD. The billboards start about 300 miles away, just like South of the Border. Wall Drug was famous for its many billboards in the 50’s and 60’s. Their billboards said “Free Ice Water” and folks flocked to their store. This all started in 1931 during the depression. Folks were heading West because of the dust bowl and the economy. Business was bad at the local drug store, so they started putting up signs tha said "free ice water - Wall Drug" and the rest is history. It looks like Wall Drug has bought up all of the town and turned it into a series of souvenir stores and restaurants. It is all very quaint and fun. We were at least 100 miles from Sturgis and there were bikers all over the place!

We drove to a campground south of Rapid City, SD and went to the night time show of lights on Mount Rushmore. We got there early enough to see Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln in the daylight. At dark there was a very nice Park Ranger talk, a movie made by Discovery Channel. Then the faces were lit up and they played the National Anthem. All of the vets then were invited down to the stage to lower the flag, fold it and tell their names and service. It was a very nice, patriotic program.

Gutzon Borglum picked the site for the Monument and decided on the faces to be used by 1927. Originally Jefferson was to be on Washington’s right, but there wasn’t enough stone for his face so Borglum moved Jefferson to Washington’s left. Then Jefferson’s face was being carved when a major flaw in the rock turned up right through Jefferson’s nose. Borglum changed Jefferson’s face to look up more and to face more to his left. This put the flaw in a less noticeable place on his right cheek and lip. At first, Borglum didn’t intend to use dynamite but he quickly changed his mind when he found out just how hard the granite was and how little he could get done in a day with hand chisels. He designed a “pointing” machine that used a steel pole above the president’s head with a protractor-like plate around the top of the head. The scale model was measured with distance and angles, then the distance was multiplied by 12 while the angles were kept the same and those measurements were applied to the mountain. This gave them the reference point for blasting. After the general shape appeared, they drilled a series of holes to just about the finished depth and used hand chisels to refine the sculpture. The eyes were made by carving the iris deep into the eye socket with the pupil a projecting shaft of granite. The job took 14 years, but only six years were actually spent on the carving. The rest of the time was spent trying to get enough money to finish the project. Eventually, Congress paid for $836,000 of the approximately $1 million needed. Borglum died before the heads were completed, but his son Lincoln finished the job. The original design called for the presidents to have partial bodies, but Lincoln finished their hair and Lincoln’s collar and said he thought they looked fine the way they were and that nothing more should be done to his father’s work.

Photos: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=x2eavjj.6rps9v3j&Uy=t52eg5&Ux=0