Mitchell City’s own Corn Palace is decorated with naturally colored corn and other grains. They also make use of native grasses to make it “the agricultural show place of the world”. Thus, thirteen different colors or shades of corn are used to decorate the Corn Palace: brown, black, blue, calico, orange, red, white, yellow and green. The design of the murals is changed annually to reflect the theme each year. The process of decoration usually starts in late May with the removal of the rye and dock. The colorful corn murals are stripped at the end of August and the new ones are completed by the first day of October.
These days, the Corn Palace is more than the home of the festival or a point of interest of tourists. The Corn Palace building is a practical structure that can adapt to many purposes. Amongst its many uses would be:
- As a basketball arena
- An industrial exhibit area
- For dances
- For stage shows
- For meetings
- For banquets
- For local high school proms
- For graduation
- For the Shrine's Circus.