#1.774124

Get lost while creating a corn maze

By Jess Allen

Wandering around in corn maze is fun, frustrating and even a little scary depending on the circumstances, but USU students who have done this may not realize the different ways a corn maze can be built.

According to the Web site www.123farmworks.com/cornmazedesign, with technology today, building a corn maze can been done in varying ways. Some farmers may use GPS systems to draw and map out their design. Some corn maze kits are sold online that include GPS systems and software.

Other farmers opt to do it the old fashioned way of just wiping out the path that they want when the corn is growing

In Cache Valley there are several different corn mazes available. There is one at the American West Heritage Center where they hire a company down in Spanish Fork to come up and build theirs using a GPS system, another in Wellsville called Little Bear Bottoms Corn Maze and Green Canyon Farms Inc.

At the Little Bear Bottoms Corn Maze run by Jed Clark and his family, Clark said they build their maze the old fashioned way and have been doing so for the past four years.

Every year the Clarks said they take a new picture of something they want to build the corn maze of and build it using a grid system. Sometimes the pictures have too much detail in them, or certain parts need to be downsized. This year’s Little Brown Bottoms’ corn maze is of the Wellsville Tabernacle.

Clark said when they build the maze, they have to make the path wide enough for a tractor to get through. While running the maze they also will harvest it and Clark said they need a tractor for that.

To keep the path from getting muddy when walking through it, the Clarks grow grain in the trails.

Another issue when building a corn maze is there becomes a struggle with making it last forever and getting out of it, Clark said.

According to Clark, In Cache Valley special corn has to be grown as the growing season is so short, so often corn needing only 90 days to grow is used.

To water the maze, Clark said they use a pivot, a tower that rotates, which is able to water most of the corn with the exception of some of the out edges. As the corn grows, Clark said they go through and knock the corn down because the corn is young and easy to bend. Clark said another plus with growing the corn is that it is good for cleaning weeds out.

In the Little Brown Bottoms maze, the Clarks grow field corn that is typically used as feed for cows though some people enjoy eating it. Clark said every year some Somalians from Salt Lake come up to get some of the harvest corn as they don’t like the sweet corn many people enjoy in the United States.

At Little Brown Bottoms the larger, more difficult maze typically takes an hour to complete while the smaller one outside the large maze, aimed for those who are easily lost or young children around 5 or 6 years old.

–jess.allen@aggiemail.usu.edu