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Log inWandering Maine's corn mazes
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Wandering Maine's corn mazes
by Outspoken on Thu Sep 18, 2008 3:21 pm
Wandering Maine's corn mazes
Farms around the state offer fun for families and other adventure seekers.
By DEIRDRE FLEMING
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
MECHANIC FALLS — Fifty minutes may sound like a long time to spend in a cornfield. But it seemed more like 15 during an effort to make it through the corn maze at Harvest Hill Farms.
Walk through one opening, wander around, stop to decipher clues. Maybe jog for a bit.
Finally, hope and wonder if a way out will appear. It is a-mazeing when it does.
The maze was the creation of Maize, a Pennsylvania company that specializes in creating intricate corn mazes using satellite technology.
Other farms around Maine have mazes cut with intricate patterns, games or clues. Some, like Pumpkin Valley Farm in Dayton, offer moonlit mazefests or flashlight fun.
Many mazes that have been run for years have become more elaborate.
In Dayton, Pumpkin Hill Farm used to offer 10 questions to help maze goers find their way out of the maze. This year, word games are spread throughout the maze, challenging visitors to figure out the "conundrum" and qualify to enter a prize drawing if they succeed.
"We started out with the 10 questions. If you guess right, it guides you through the maze. If you guess wrong, you may go in circles a few times," said Pumpkin Hill Farm owner Keith Harris.
An hour spent figuring out a corn maze goes faster than one would think. At least, it did at Harvest Hill's new cornfield maze, which is cut and decorated in the image of a pirate ship.
Several quiz stations in the maze provide insight into famous pirates, such as the fact that Thomas Tew was a sea captain from Rhode Island who turned pirate or that Black Beard was as real pirate.
Interesting as these fun facts are, they offer little understanding of where the exit lies. Mostly, an intrepid explorer must follow her senses, listening to the rustle of nearby trees or a tractor in the distance – even the formation of clouds above.
Without these available clues, it's easy to circle back.
Even the wooden platform overlook in this corn-maze-cut pirate ship does not offer a view to the exit. After almost an hour of wandering around corn-stalk corners, you begin to wonder if the monarch butterflies that seem to be everywhere are pointing to the way out.
Probably the best way to approach a corn maze is to consider it like a woodland trail wandering every which way, rather than like a man-made house where you enter one door and leave the next.
"It's a living piece of art," said Sage Peterson, spokesperson for Harvest Hill Farms.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=210718&ac=Go
Photos By John Ewing/Staff Photographer
The corn maze at Pumpkin Valley Farm in Dayton.
Farms around the state offer fun for families and other adventure seekers.
By DEIRDRE FLEMING
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
MECHANIC FALLS — Fifty minutes may sound like a long time to spend in a cornfield. But it seemed more like 15 during an effort to make it through the corn maze at Harvest Hill Farms.
Walk through one opening, wander around, stop to decipher clues. Maybe jog for a bit.
Finally, hope and wonder if a way out will appear. It is a-mazeing when it does.
The maze was the creation of Maize, a Pennsylvania company that specializes in creating intricate corn mazes using satellite technology.
Other farms around Maine have mazes cut with intricate patterns, games or clues. Some, like Pumpkin Valley Farm in Dayton, offer moonlit mazefests or flashlight fun.
Many mazes that have been run for years have become more elaborate.
In Dayton, Pumpkin Hill Farm used to offer 10 questions to help maze goers find their way out of the maze. This year, word games are spread throughout the maze, challenging visitors to figure out the "conundrum" and qualify to enter a prize drawing if they succeed.
"We started out with the 10 questions. If you guess right, it guides you through the maze. If you guess wrong, you may go in circles a few times," said Pumpkin Hill Farm owner Keith Harris.
An hour spent figuring out a corn maze goes faster than one would think. At least, it did at Harvest Hill's new cornfield maze, which is cut and decorated in the image of a pirate ship.
Several quiz stations in the maze provide insight into famous pirates, such as the fact that Thomas Tew was a sea captain from Rhode Island who turned pirate or that Black Beard was as real pirate.
Interesting as these fun facts are, they offer little understanding of where the exit lies. Mostly, an intrepid explorer must follow her senses, listening to the rustle of nearby trees or a tractor in the distance – even the formation of clouds above.
Without these available clues, it's easy to circle back.
Even the wooden platform overlook in this corn-maze-cut pirate ship does not offer a view to the exit. After almost an hour of wandering around corn-stalk corners, you begin to wonder if the monarch butterflies that seem to be everywhere are pointing to the way out.
Probably the best way to approach a corn maze is to consider it like a woodland trail wandering every which way, rather than like a man-made house where you enter one door and leave the next.
"It's a living piece of art," said Sage Peterson, spokesperson for Harvest Hill Farms.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=210718&ac=Go
Photos By John Ewing/Staff Photographer
The corn maze at Pumpkin Valley Farm in Dayton.
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Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
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