The land boom in Aurora County began in 1880. Ten years later, people were leaving. Plankinton’s Grain Palace exhibition and harvest festival, the showpiece of the booster’s scheme to keep the good times going, was discontinued after just two years, and times got worse.
Although known historical records do not explain why the Plankinton Grain Palace and harvest festival were discontinued, what is known provides abundant clues. No doubt, competition from the Mitchell Corn Palace, along with droughts, depressed farm prices and a nation-wide financial panic dampened the enthusiasm to fund another Grain Palace.
Most discouraging must have been the rival palace erected in the town of Mitchell, twenty-five miles to the east. Seeds of envy may have been planted the day two hundred Mitchellites travelled by train to visit Plankinton’s first Grain Palace in 1891. Just a few months later, Mitchell town leaders proposed hosting their own palace of corn the following year.
In an effort to increase the production and demand for corn, the 15-county Real Estate Corn Belt Association had invited Mitchell to host a Corn Belt Exposition in the fall of 1892. Two enthusiastic local boosters proposed building a Corn Palace to house the exhibits, quickly secured support, and eagerly traveled to Sioux City to learn all they could about building and decorating the structure.
The two neighboring cities opened their exhibitions on September 28, with Mitchell’s closing eight days later and Plankinton’s two days after that. The Plankinton Grain Palace measured 86 X 120 feet, reaching a height of 100 feet, with interior decorations designed by local ladies and gentlemen as well as several school groups. The highlight entertainment was a political tournament with the leading orators of the day representing the major parties. Committee officers included a local banker and the publisher of one of the newspapers.
The more ambitious building in Mitchell provided twice as much space on the first floor alone, with 20,000 square feet of agricultural exhibit space rented to at least 15 counties. A second floor boasted another 10,000 square feet of exhibition space. Mitchell’s building also featured electric lighting day and night, a new and rare service. Committed to making this event a great success, the Corn Palace committee hired the architect and the chief designer who had worked on the Sioux City Corn Palace. They also started a tradition of hiring musical talent to entertain the visitors, paying $5,000 for the 50-piece Massachusetts Regimental Band.
Both communities benefitted from discounted railroad round-trip tickets available to any stop within 200 miles of Mitchell. Possibly hoping to soothe some ruffled feathers in the city to the west, the Corn Palace committee designated Friday as Plankinton’s Day, in honor of their neighbors hosting the Grain Palace. Two days after the Corn Belt Exposition ended, Mitchellites filled seven coaches to spend the day at Plankinton’s celebration.
Mitchell’s ability to host a larger and more elaborate extravaganza may have compelled Plankinton’s leaders to concede to the competition. However, other events may have played more significant roles in this decision. A severe drought in the area combined with the “Panic of 1893”, a nation-wide economic failure, forced many families to leave the county. These calamities even compelled Mitchell to discontinue its Corn Belt Exposition from 1894 to 1900.
In her memoirs, Jean Todd Wilson tells of the loss of two banks in town during this era, the Farmers and Merchants Bank (run by the banker who served on the Grain Palace committee) and the Plankinton Bank: “These two bank failures were truly a catastrophe to a young and struggling community, which was also fighting a county-wide depression and drought. “
In the census of 1885, Aurora County exceeded Davison County by a count of ten. This advantage evaporated in the next ten years, when Aurora County’s population fell 35%, dropping from 5,950 to 3,854. Adding insult to injury, Davison County population, with Mitchell becoming a market center, remained steady.
The little town of Plankinton made a valiant effort with its two Grain Palace festivals, but it wasn’t enough. Too many people had moved on – seeking jobs in larger towns, giving up and returning from whence they came, or chasing the promise of cheap land and easy riches further west.
Note: Details regarding the expositions were obtained from the book “Palaces on the Prairie,” by Rod Evans, 2009, the Sept. 15, 1892, issue of the Plankinton Herald and the Sept. 8, 1892 issue of the “Aurora County Standard” newspaper, archivally reproduced by Tony Grambihler and distributed by The South Dakota Mail as a souvenir edition.
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It Happened Right Here: Cheap Land and Easy Riches, Part 2, by Ruth Page Jones. Published in the South Dakota Mail, Plankinton, South Dakota, July 4, 2013.
RPJ Histories - Ruth Page Jones 