Woke up in Mitchell, South Dakota and headed for the World's Only Corn Palace. Did you catch that? World's Only. They change the pictures/scenes every year and they use all sorts of varieties of corn to get the colors. During the summer, it's a big gift shop inside. During the rest of the year, the local high school (I can just imagine the jokes and nicknames) uses it to play basketball. My favorite? The free samples of several flavors of popcorn at the Corn-cessions!
After the Corn Palace, we drove out of South Dakota and dropped down into the extreme northwestern corner of Iowa to visit a state preserve, Gitchie Manitou. I asked K, "So what are they preserving?" He replied, "It's this rock called Sioux Quartzite." I returned, "Oh? Like there's hardly any of it and they have to protect what's left of it?" Something like that. We walked along the Big Sioux River about a half mile back and found a quartzite shelter erected by those darling CCC boys I love to learn about. We saw outcroppings of Sioux Quartzite, but I guess you might say I just didn't get it about why this rock was so special. K further explained that there was supposed to be cactus growing on it and stuff. Really? In Iowa? Found the cactus. It was one of those things where I just went along with K trying to to learn and listen but not really latching on to the whole idea of the place. I mean the whole area was lovely and all, but I just didn't understand why someone was preserving this rock when surely there had to be more of it on the earth than just this one teensy spot, you know?
After the preserve, we left Iowa, drove back into South Dakota, and then promptly headed for Minnesota. We needed to visit Pipestone National Monument. Never heard of it. Oh boy, this place was a GEM. A real crown jewel in the story of America. I had emotional connections to this place going on like crazy (and I'm not an Indian). And what's more, this place answered all my "I don't get it" questions left over from Gitchie Manitou!
As it would turn out, it's the stuff UNDER the Sioux Quartzite that's so amazing! It's called Pipestone and the Native Americans (23 tribes) regard it as sacred. They would quarry by hand for the stone (hard work getting through the quartzite) and then saw, chisel, and shape the pipestone into their ceremonial smoking pipes which were highly important in their spiritual worship. In fact, they had two Indians in the VC shaping pipestone right before our eyes. Now, I don't worship through smoke and I'm not an Indian, but my connections came with that good ol' universal concept of working for a very long time on something that is very important to you, and then finally seeing your progress. In fact, the Indians still quarry today. It takes some of them five years to get their permit to quarry. We walked the little trail and climbed up on the rocks and looked down into the quarries and appreciated the heck out of this little monument. And you would never know by driving by that there's a cliff band and a thirty foot waterfall in the middle of the field! I now own a set of pipestone earrings made by an Indian. Oh, and they had petroglyphs too.
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