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Oh, go ahead and grin from ear to ear. It's the season for cornfield mazes, a phenomenon that began in 1993 and has spread like butter on a hot roastin' ear. Today, more than 600 corn mazes dot the countryside from coast to coast.
Don Frantz, father of the cornfield maze, says the idea popped to mind after reading about European hedge mazes and seeing the 1989 movie Field of Dreams. That same week the former theatrical producer was flying between Los Angeles and New York.
"I looked down and saw the crop patterns and thought 'that's the American maze,'" says Frantz, 54, who grew up on a farm in Hummelstown, Pa. (pop. 4,360).
Frantz designed his first corn maze in Annville, Pa. (pop. 4,518), carving a three-acre maze in the shape of a dinosaur as a fund-raiser for his alma mater, Lebanon Valley College. In three days, 11,000 people paid $5 apiece to wander the paths, laughing and joking as they took wrong turns and hit dead ends in the cornfield.
Frantz knew he'd sprouted a fertile form of entertainment, but he never dreamed how fast—and large—the cornfield craze would grow.
"At first we were thinking 'small-town and three days,'" says the founder of the American Maze Co., based in Hummelstown. "Now corn mazes run from July to October. I've had 3 million people go through my mazes. I've even planted a two-acre maze in New York City."
The walk-through puzzles appeal to all ages. "For teens, it's like 3-D and Nintendo and the biggest game they've ever played," Frantz says. "Children have a sense of wonder about it and seniors like to come back to the farm. Dads say it's the best thing they've done with the family."
Family adventure
Meandering America's longest running corn maze at Cherry-Crest Farm in Paradise, Pa. (pop. 4,698), has become a yearly tradition and adventure for Jim and Lynne Kreher of Downington, Pa., and their children, Erin, 12, and Dylan, 10.
"There aren't that many things that all the family can do together," says Jim, after exploring the farm's five-acre maze with his family last year.
In 1996, the first year for the Cherry-Crest maze, Lynne carried Dylan in a baby backpack, and the Krehers have ventured through more than two miles of pathways every year since.
The family's favorite Cherry-Crest maze had a Lost in Space theme, "and we really were," Lynne says, laughing.
Hiking down a nearby path are Stuart and Debbie Drucker and their son, Evan, 4, from Deer Park, N.Y. (pop. 28,316). Debbie pulls Evan in a wagon, while Stuart carries a flag to wave for help in case they get hopelessly cornfused amid the walls of 12-foot-tall cornstalks. He heads to a mailbox on the path to retrieve a puzzle piece. When all the pieces are found, they form a map of the maze.
"I like the challenge of coming through, and the trivia questions and the unusual themes," Stuart says.
Journeying through the maze can take an hour or longer, says Anthony Wenger, 16, who works at Cherry-Crest Farm, helping bewildered customers find their way.
"Some have been going in circles for five hours," he says. Then he grins. "I think they wanted to be lost."
While maze enthusiasts enjoy getting lost, farmers have found a novel way to make their cornfields pay. Jack and Donna Coleman, who own Cherry-Crest Farm, wondered how they could tap into the traffic crisscrossing their property daily on the Strasburg Rail Road, a short line tourist train. Then they heard about Frantz's maze and contacted him.
Today, the train stops at the Colemans' farm so maze-goers can hop off. About 1,000 people a day visit the maze and other activities, including pony rides and marshmallow roasts. At night, people prowl the maze by flashlight and starlight.
That's agri-tainment
Like the Colemans, farmers Margaret and Owen Richardson of Spring Grove, Ill. (pop. 3,880), took a turn into the corn maze business to supplement the family's income.
"We have deep roots and it's a matter of pride to keep the farm going," says Margaret, 81. The Richardson Farm was homesteaded in 1840 and Owen, 83, is a fourth-generation farmer. His sons, Robert, 56, and George, 53, also farm and help plant the corn.
When they built their first maze in 2001, Margaret thought they would start small and grow, but Robert had a different marketing strategy. "He said we need to start with a splash and get our name on top," his mother recalls.
They made the biggest splash yet last year when they hired maze designer Shawn Stolworthy of Firth, Idaho (pop. 408), to build America's largest corn maze. The 25-acre maze celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Chicago Bears' Super Bowl victory. Maze-goers negotiated 9.2 miles of pathways through an outline of Walter Payton, the legendary running back.
Most of America's maze farms include a bumper crop of other attractions for a day's worth of country fun. At Bloomsbury Farm in Atkins, Iowa (pop. 977), fifth-generation farmers Karen and Dave Petersen offer hayrides, scarecrow building, bluegrass singing in the barn, a giant pumpkin patch, boxes of seed corn to jump in and corn cannons that shoot corncobs.
Corn mazes are popular destinations across the nation, hosting family reunions, classroom field trips and corporate team-building events for $5 to $12 per person.
"You become more who you are in the maze," Don Frantz says. "Do you keep your eye on the big picture? Do you celebrate failure as a way to learn? People should not get married without going through a maze together."
While Frantz is father of the corn maze craze, Brett Herbst of Spanish Fork, Utah (pop. 20,246), is king. Inspired by Frantz's venture, Herbst planted the first corn maze west of the Mississippi River at American Fork, Utah (pop. 21,941), in 1996.
"It was as crazy as could be," recalls Herbst, 35. About 18,000 people stalked the maze in three weeks.
He founded The MAiZE, the world's largest corn maze company, and has designed more than 1,000 mazes in the United States and abroad in an assortment of shapes from country singer Johnny Cash to the American flag to a haunted castle.
Each designer has his own method for carving cornfields into living labyrinths. Most mazes begin with a double planting of field corn, which later is harvested to feed livestock. When the corn is about 6 inches tall, plants are selectively removed with a hoe or a GPS-guided tractor, leaving the ones needed to form the maze.
"We never had any clue it'd be this big," Herbst says about the agri-tainment fad that took off and just keeps growing.
"We live such a fast-paced life and I think people like getting out in the country," he says. "That fresh smell of corn is what they remember."
To view more amazing mazes, visit:
www.cornfieldmaze.com
www.americanmaze.com
www.amazingmaze.com
www.bloomsburyfarm.com
www.richardsonfarm.com
www.cornmazesamerica.com
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