This Autumn, Lose Yourself in These Seven Corn Mazes

Few things are more intrinsically American than baseball, apple pie, and enormous crops of corn cut into puzzling labyrinths. Sure, corn mazes originated as a British tradition, but American farmers quickly adopted them as a way to attract tourists to their homesteads in the months leading up to winter. Today, there are thousands of corn mazes spread across the country, all cut into shapes designed to impress pilots overhead and trap visitors inside. We’ve found seven of the largest, smallest, and just plain weirdest corn mazes in America. Corniest: Cool Patch Pumpkins, Dixon, CA September 20 to November 2 Lots of mazes claim to be the world’s largest, but Cool Patch Pumpkins is the only one that’s featured in the Guinness Book of World Records. Brothers Matt and Mark Cooley started with a modest 15-acre maze to help sell their pumpkins in 2000, and they kept adding acres every year in hopes of setting a record. They achieved their goal in 2007, but they’ve shown no signs of letting up; this year, the maze is a staggering 60 acres of intricately cut corn. Scariest: The Fritzler Maze’s Scream Acres, La Salle, CO September 20 to November 1 Phase 1 of the labyrinth at Scream Acres has no scares, which is probably what makes it so unnerving. Groups hold hands and silently plod ahead through the darkness, expecting the ominous shoe to drop at any moment. That moment comes in Phase 2, where shadowy creatures lurk among the corn stalks and haunt those who take too long to solve the puzzle. Coolest Tribute: Richardson Farm, Spring Grove, IL August 30 to November 2 Richardson Farm grabbed the media spotlight in 2013, thanks to its 33-acre tribute to the Beatles. This year’s iteration features a bicentennial tribute to “The Star-Spangled Banner” that’s as patriotic as it is befuddling. The complex design works in elements such as battleships, barracks, soldiers, and one majestic Old Glory. And unlike the standard single-exit maze, this one includes five different puzzles to solve. Smallest: Queens County Farm Museum, Queens, New York September 20 to October 26 (Weekends) It’s hard to imagine how a farm could even exist—much less thrive—within the boundaries of New York City. But the state’s oldest farm, which dates back to 1697, is still in use and even features its own corn maze. The maze occupies a modest 3 acres, but what it lacks in size, it more than makes up for in difficulty. The average person takes 45 minutes to find their way out of the tiny corn jungle. Most Adventurous: Davis Farmland, Sterling, MA August 14 to October 26 (Weekends) A mere corn maze isn’t enough for the folks at Davis Farmland, who flank their 8 acres of corn with a three-story zipline, a pirate slide, a double-decker bridge, outdoor laser tag, a life-size chess games, volleyball, and even a corn crib (whatever that is). They keep the maze open after dark for flashlight games and even serve burgers and snacks at the halfway point. Least Corny: Long and Scott Farms, Mount Dora, FL October 4 to December 14 The corn maze at Long and Scott Farms is impressive enough, but what sets this farm apart is something called a Confusion Tree Maze. More than 1,000 ligustrum trees form a meandering path that stays open throughout the year thanks to Florida’s warm weather. But—lest we forget the crop that started it all—the trees are planted in the shape of an ear of corn. Most Difficult: Great Vermont Corn Maze, Danville, VT July 26 to October 21 “We do not recommend the maze for 90% of teenagers,” reads a refreshingly stern warning on the Great Vermont Corn Maze website. That’s because it takes a minimum of two hours to complete the puzzle, and people often continue to push their way through the corn up to five hours after they enter. The staff will jump in and start to help once closing time approaches, though they recommend arriving as early in the day as possible.