Key Points:

  • An old dome and two turrets from the Corn Palace will be sold
  • They have been in storage since the 2015 Corn Place remodel
  • The city will take bids and proposals in a couple of weeks

You can own a piece of South Dakota history.

Dakota News Now reports the City of Mitchell will sell a dome and two turrets that once sat atop the World's Only Corn Palace.

The city council approved a request to declare them "surplus property" paving the way for their sale.

Doug Greenway is the new Director of the Corn Palace.

"Nearly 500,000 people visit the Corn Palace each year, it's a major attraction in Mitchell," Greenway said. "The reason we did the remodel was to attract more people."

During the 2015 Corn Palace remodel, the old domes and turrets were replaced with new steel fixtures.

"The city of Mitchell did end up retaining two turrets and one of the domes," Mitchell City Administrator Stephanie Ellwein said.

Dakota News Now reports the turrets have been stored at the city's water treatment plant.  One of the fiberglass domes has been sitting in a parking lot a block from the Corn Palace.

"Like anything that's in storage, they don't get better, they only deteriorate," Greenway said.

With no current use for the dome and turrets, the city has decided it is time to find the historic items a new home.

"It's obviously the World's Only Corn Palace, it's a unique building, the onion shape of the domes is very unique," Greenway said. "The right person could do something pretty neat with that."

The city is keeping its options open when it comes to putting a value on these unique artifacts.

"We'll see what we get for proposals, if there is something that makes sense, then the council can make that decision at that time," Ellwein said.

Greenway says the city will start taking bids and proposals for the dome and turrets during the coming weeks.

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