Amazing Maize Maze: Getting lost can be fun

By Todd Moning
FMCA.com editor

It's been called a mind bender, a teaching tool, a personality test.

It involves teamwork, map reading, perseverance, problem solving, decision making. All this in a little over an hour.

In a cornfield.

In 1993 Don Frantz created an American Maize Maze — a human-size maze in a cornfield. He turned the maze into an entertainment and educational center by incorporating puzzles, clues and music.

"The fun thing about the Amazing Maize Maze is it's more than just a maze inside. It's a very interactive family event," Frantz said from his office in New York City, where he manages Broadway and off-Broadway theater productions.

Locations, themes
Frantz's American Maze Company, Inc. franchises seven mazes in the United States:

• Queens county farm museum in Queens, N.Y

• Cherry-Crest Farm in Paradise, Pa.

• Long Acre Farm in Macedon, N.Y.

• The Garden Barn in Ft. Edward, N.Y.

• Wheatheart Farms in Tonkawa, Okla.

• Renwood Farms in Charles City, Va.

• Carter Farms in Princeton, Iowa

The American Maize Maze has a different theme each year. For 2003 it's "Celebrating 100 Ears of Flight," honoring the accomplishments of Orville and Wilbur Wright.

"All of the maze designs are aeronautic images, from the Wright Bothers' biplane to crop dusters to the space shuttle and everything in between," Frantz said. "One maze will be a giant rendition of the Wright Flyer."

Each location has a different maze design, but all follow the same theme. Previous years' designs have included Noah's Ark, the solar system, the Land of Oz, the Liberty Bell, a horse and buggy, and a steam locomotive.

Clues to the maze game
Before entering the maze, the maze host presents "Stalk Talk," a 10-minute introduction to the maze and how to approach the game. Everyone who enters carries a flag so the maze master, who sits on a tower in the middle of maze, can spot them easily.

Twelve to 15 different mailboxes are located inside the maze. They contain map pieces that form a pattern to help guide you through the maze.

Reach a dead end in the maze — and you will — and you may encounter "kernels of knowledge." These bits of information, all related to the maze theme, are clues to solving a crossword a puzzle. "The solved puzzle enables you complete a word scramble, which provides a clue to getting out of the maze," Frantz said.

Those who need hints to get through the maze can pick up the "telestock," a long tube running through the maze, and talk with the maze master. Average time to go through the maze, if you want to collect all of the Kernels of Knowledge and map pieces, is 1 hour 10 minutes, Frantz said. "Of course, you can also not play the game and just have a good time walking through the cornfield."

For all ages
An Amazing Maize Maze can hold about 700 to 850 people at one time, Frantz said. The record for one-day attendance is 4,300. Since 1993 about 1.4 million people have navigated Amazing Maize Mazes.

The mazes appeal to all ages, Frantz said. "It's a low-tech activity, and all of the towns where the mazes are are very family oriented and friendly."

Many older adults enjoy the mazes because they know someone in the family who owns or once owned a farm, he added. "The Amazing Maize Maze is kind of a way for them to go back to the farm."

For elementary school classes, the maze is an exercise in map reading. "We also have a world cultures course that teachers can incorporate into their classroom lesson plans. The course traces the art of the maze from Greek Mythology all the way through to the American maze."

'A great date'
Sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer once went through one of the mazes. Afterward, Frantz said, she commented that all couples should go through the maze early in their relationship because they can learn so much about each other.

"The maze forces you to talk with one another," Frantz said. And, quite frankly, you go under a little stress — you see what somebody's like under pressure. You see their decision making and how they react once they accomplish something."

It's a great date, he added. "We've had numerous honeymoons and weddings at the maze because it was a couple's first date."

Building a maze
Maize mazes are temporary, since they survive only one season before being harvested. The American Maze Company has three maze designers, an art director, two theatrical directors and a music director. In November they start to develop a new maze design and new games for the following year.

"We begin by selecting an image to create, in line with the year's theme," Frantz said. "We lay on the game board and all the elements. Then we figure out how to cut it and sculpt it into a cornfield."

The "seminal moment" when building the maze is the cutting, he said, which occurs when the corn is about 6 inches high. "For two days, eight to 12 people will individually cut the stalks to create the sculpted shape. It becomes a piece of landscape artwork, all done by hand."

Frantz writes the clues and the puzzles, as well as the scripts for "Stalk Talk."

"Our music director puts to together music that is appropriate to the maze. There's a core instrumental part. Then we insert theme-specific music."

The beginning
Frantz remembers when the maze idea first occurred to him. "I was producing and directing shows for Walt Disney World. I read a short article about mazes in England, and pondered why we didn't have mazes in America."

At first he considered making a maze out of hedges, like other mazes around the world. He dropped that idea in 1991 after seeing the movie Field of Dreams. The film stars Kevin Costner as an Iowa farmer who builds a baseball field in his cornfield.

"The next day, I flew across the country and looked down and saw the crop fields swirling below me and realized that that was the American maze. I decided to create a maze on an American scale — on an American farm.

The first American Maize Maze opened in 1993. It was built in the shape of a dinosaur cut out of three aces in a farmer's field in Annville, Pa. It was reputed to be the largest interactive cornfield maze in the world at the time. The Amazing Maize Maze broke that record in '93, '95 and '96 with 6-acres-plus mazes.

When you go
The mazes typically are open during the summer and harvest seasons. Often they're the focal point of fall festivals. Admission (about $7 to $10) and operating hours vary by location. The Rural Hill maze is closed for 2003 — it operates every other year.

Frantz said each maze location has ample parking space for motorhomes.

Travel bureaus, mapping software, trip routing services and fellow travelers help motorhomers stay on the right path. Why not get lost for a change, in fields of gold and green?

Amazing Maze
www.americanmaze.com