'Seven Wonders of the World' and national landmarks chosen as 2025 Corn Palace mural theme

Sam Fosness, The Daily Republic, Mitchell, S.D.
Updated ·2 min read

Dec. 12—MITCHELL — After a couple months of deliberation, the Corn Palace Entertainment Board has decided on a theme for the 2025 Corn Palace murals.

The mural theme will be a combination of Seven Wonders of the World and national and international destinations. Considering there are nine murals along Mitchell's biggest tourist attraction and seven wonders of the world, the board decided to include national and international destinations into the 2024 theme.

"Someone mentioned the Eiffel Tower, and we have the Olympics in France in 2025 so that will be timely," Corn Palace Director Doug Greenway said during the Dec. 5 board meeting. "They don't have to be all the seven wonders of the world, but things that have been an attraction."

Compared to previous year's murals themes like the latest "Famous South Dakotans" and 2022 circus theme, the 2025 theme is more vague.

There latest list that named the new seven wonders of the world includes the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, the Taj Mahal, located in India, the Great Wall of China, Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, the Peruvian Machu Picchu ruins, Chichen Itza temple in Mexico and the ancient city of Petra, Jordan.

In 2007, an online contest that saw millions of people vote was used to compile the new seven wonders of the world.

Among the seven wonders of the world, the board indicated their support for murals depicting the Colosseum in Rome, Taj Mahal and Machu Picchu. Some of the national landmarks that were included in the discussion were the Grand Canyon in Arizona and the Statue of Liberty in New York City.

The idea to include national landmarks into the 2025 theme was pitched by board member Jory Hansen, who expressed support for the Corn Palace celebrating well-known landmarks in the United States.

Hansen also drew concerns around one of the seven wonders of the world — the Great Wall of China — potentially sparking controversy and political debate.

"With China in the news, I don't want the Corn Palace to be a political message board or something somebody could make political," Hansen said. "I like the idea of wonders of the world, but what about national landmarks?"

City Administrator Stephanie Ellwein suggested providing the Dakota Wesleyan University students who will be designing the murals with the theme and mural suggestions. Once the design students have the theme, she said it would allow them to drum up mural design options for Corn Palace officials to review.

Last year, the Corn Palace board selected each mural design prior to submitting the theme to DWU's design team.

"They can get creative and consider things we haven't. You just get some really unique things that sometimes we wouldn't have thought about," Ellwein said.