After leaving Kansas City we headed northwest en route to Mount Rushmore. When my husband and I compiled our “must see” lists before deciding on our itinerary for the trip, Mount Rushmore came out on top.
We made an overnight stop on our way to Rapid City, South Dakota (our base for visiting Mt Rushmore). It was here that we encountered our only negative accomodation experience of the trip (which was all prebooked, due to there being six of us travelling in peak season). Suffice to say, I stayed awake a lot of the night trying not to touch the doona cover when I rolled over or to think about the grime encrusted, once waterlogged carpet, all the hair in the bathroom and the chicken nuggets mashed into the air conditioner!
There’s a few unusual attractions out in the middle of America which puzzled me when reading up on the area before leaving for the trip. Really, what is a corn palace and what on earth could be something called Wall Drug?
Turns out the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota is really fascinating. 300,000 ears of corn are used each year to create the murals on the outside of the building pictured above. It all began in the late nineteenth century when several cities on the Great Plains constructed crop or grain palaces to promote themselves and their products. The original corn palace in Mitchell was built in 1892 and the one you see today was rebuilt in 1921. It’s currently used as a multi purpose space hosting exhibits, proms, stage shows and basketball games.
Just as we were leaving Mitchell for Rapid City, I looked down and discovered my engagement ring wasn’t on my finger! We immediately turned the car around and I started praying I would find it. I certainly didn’t want to travel halfway around the world, only to leave a very significant item of my personal history in the Corn Palace in Mitchell! God gave me a real peace I would find it. I felt led back to the bathroom where I upended the unemptied paper towel bin to find my ring at the bottom. Half a million people visit here each year and it was well over an hour since I had been in the bathroom. God is so good!
The next place of interest along our route was the Badlands National Park. We didn’t have enough time to stop here, so just took the detour off the highway on the Badlands Loop Road. It’s a really interesting, alien looking landscape which could be the set of a Western movie. We were hoping to see some of the bison that roam the park, but they proved elusive on the day we were visiting.
The very cute and humorous prairie dogs were a big hit with the kids. They can be seen in abundance and there are even places where you can stop and feed them peanuts.
Our last stop for the day was Wall Drug. When I first heard the name, I was really puzzled. What was this place – somewhere you could see drugs stashed in a wall, as some kind of peculiar and offbeat tourist attraction? It turns out that Wall is the name of the town and Drug is short for drug store (what we would call a chemist in Australia). Who would have known? Anyway, Wall Drug came well recommended by the guide books and did not disappoint. It was actually one of my husband’s favourite places on the whole trip. It’s a bizarre collection of outlandish and somewhat tacky, larger than life entertainment as well as a large shopping mall with a western theme. Somehow, it all works to create an enjoyable and fascinating experience. It’s also a good place to buy cowboy boots and other souvenirs.
The story behind Wall Drug is really interesting. It was established in 1931 by a young couple who struggled to get enough business, until they thought of offering free iced water to travellers on their way to the newly opened Mount Rushmore monument. Their business took off from there and is still in the same family today. You can still get free iced water and the coffee is only 5 cents. Billboards advertising Wall Drug have become a bit of an attraction in themselves, as they stretch for at least 1,000 kilometres along the highway leading up to Wall. They can even be found throughout the world, announcing the miles to Wall Drug from famous locations.
Have you come across any unusual tourist attractions in your travels?