Most everyone knows that Mitchell, S.D., today is the home of the Corn Palace. But there was a brief time 75 years ago when Grand Forks had its own Corn Palace.
It was during the annual Harvest Festival, Sept. 12-14, 1935. It was located near University Avenue and North Third Street in a huge building that had been an ice rink.
The interior was covered with corn stalks, grain sheaves and colored bunting. The building was filled with 6,000 exhibits, and some 13,000 people were registered in attendance.
The celebration was sponsored by a group of younger businessmen known as the Cavaliers. They were a merged group of the former Town Criers and Junior Commercial Club.
The club had encouraged all businesses to have window displays for the Harvest Festival. A highlight of the fall celebration was the appearance of a Human Fly, who climbed to the roof of the old Herald building and performed. There also was a free dance.
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In the fall of 1935, people still clamored for information about Col. Charles A. Lindbergh, but his private life was closely guarded. It had extra meaning in this area because he occasionally visited his half-sister in Red Lake Falls, Minn.
Lindbergh was famous for making the first flight across the Atlantic in 1925. Then in 1932, his infant son was kidnapped and murdered.
In September 1935, the Herald carried a story saying Lindbergh landed Sept. 1 at Red Lake Falls after a flight from Ripley, near Little Falls, Minn., that lasted 3 hours, 25 minutes. The colonel immediately went to the home of his half-sister, Mrs. George Christie, and there rejoined his wife, who had spent a few quiet days visiting and resting.
The future plans of the couple were not revealed, although it was indicated they might leave Sept. 8. Lindbergh had flown to Little Falls alone and then borrowed the car of an old friend, Martin Engstrom. He returned to Little Falls and after returning the car, went to Camp Ripley.
He took off in his plane at 2:05 p.m. The flight to Red Lake Falls should take about an hour, but the colonel arrived at 6 p.m. It was not known whether he landed at some intermediate point.
Lindbergh's whereabouts were not revealed, the news story said, but Engstrom volunteered an opinion that the flyer might have landed to do some fishing.
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Other news items from the Herald in September 1935 reflect the times and the fact that life went on in spite of the Great Depression.
** President Franklin D. Roosevelt was resting at Hyde Park with notice to the country to take a breathing spell from the worries caused by the Depression.
** The federal WPA (Works Progress Administration) in Grand Forks had requests for $1.78 million, according to Henry Holt, assistant state administrator.
** The seriousness of Italian-Ethiopian relations and the effect on world peace was stressed by R.A. Hoey, Winnipeg, in his major address at the rededication of the Peace Garden. More than 2,000 attended.
** The flag at Grand Forks City Hall flew at half staff Sept. 4 as a tribute to Dr. Henry Herbert Healy, 65. He had been a prominent Grand Forks citizen who also was a captain in the medical corps during World War 1.
** Paving of Highway 75 10 miles north of Crookston and improvements near Noyes, Minn., were announced by Crookston Mayor W.J. Kirkwood.
** One thousand students arrived Sept. 15 in Grand Forks to enroll at UND and Wesley College. Businessmen were selling tickets for athletic events. U.S. Sen. Gerald Nye, R-N.D., addressed the convocation.
** On Sept. 21, the Herald carried a banner headline saying, "Sioux down Moorhead 13-6." It was followed by a report from C.D. Locklin, sports editor, saying the university had won a hard-fought season opener.
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** The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) was granted the use of the Grand Forks City Auditorium for the winter.
