Corn maze craze: Where to get lost this fall

The A Maze In Corn corn maze in St. Adolphe, Man. Uploaded Sept. 6, 2024. (A Maze In Corn)

Corn maze season has officially begun throughout Manitoba – a sign that fall is just around the corner.

For Clint Masse, the co-owner of A Maze In Corn, it's an exciting and busy time of year as they prepare to welcome thousands of Manitobans over the next couple of months.

Cutting the maze design is the easy part for Masse, who can do that by himself. It's getting the rest of his property ready – from the petting zoo to the sunflower field – that takes a lot of work.

"You got to get ready for all these people that are going to be on your property. And being a seasonal business, everything shuts down," he said. “You shut it all down, you put it all away, and now you got to fire this whole thing back up. (It's) been three weeks, about seven of us working full time."

It's been a great turnout so far this season Masse said, but he noted it was a tough start, as the sporadic weather conditions made it difficult for the corn to get going.

"Probably had the worst growing conditions we've had in 27 years. So you're trying to baby this corn through and you're trying to top dress fertilizer and you're trying to encourage it to grow."

Secord Corn Maze, just north of Dauphin, Man., put the final touches on their maze last week and started welcoming people to explore Sept. 3.

It's the seventh season for them and Shelley Secord said they have learned a lot about the process through the years.

"We've learned that you cut the corn when it's shorter rather than when it's taller. (The) first year we did it, we waited until the corn was literally 10 feet tall. So it was like cutting pathways through a whole bunch of thickly growing saplings," Secord laughed.

Kids playing inside the Secord Corn Maze. Uploaded Sept. 6, 2024. (Shelley Secord)

They have also expanded the number of activities for people to enjoy, both inside and outside of the maze.

"We have a lot of homemade, old fashioned kind of activities and games…we do different themes, and so we're changing things out."

Boonstra Farms near Stonewall is in the midst of opening weekend. Danielle Boonstra is the owner and operator and said there is a level of excitement when people start scouring through the maze, as they know fall is here.

"You get the hayride, you get the petting zoo, the 10-acre corn maze. We also have a chip truck that's open and there's a little miniature scavenger hunt," said Boonstra.

The making of a corn maze 

Boonstra said there was a time when their mazes would be different designs from a Winnipeg Jets logo to famous country singers.

"One of our first country ones was Miranda Lambert. So there's a big picture of Miranda Lambert with a cow…there was also Brad Paisley," she said.

One of the previous corn maze designs at Boonstra Farms in the shape of the Winnipeg Jets logo. Uploaded Sept. 6, 2024. (Boonstra Farms)

However, she said using a GPS to put an entire picture into the cornfield became expensive, so they went back to a traditional-looking maze.

"We are just cutting it ourselves and just going wherever. When it's a couple of inches tall, (we go) with a riding lawnmower," said Boonstra. "Sometimes my husband will sit on the lawnmower and then my little son will say, 'Hey dad, turn here,' and then, 'OK, turn here.' It's kind of fun."

She said they try to make the mazes a little difficult, but still easy enough for little kids to enjoy.

Boonstra Farms' Brad Paisley corn maze from 2013. Uploaded Sept. 6, 2024. (Boonstra Farms)

It's a very similar mapping process for Secord. She will spend the winter drawing up a different design and then the cutting will start when the corn is short.

"I draw something out on graph paper and then I show it to my husband, and he goes, 'Oh my goodness, how am I going to cut that?'" she laughed. "We'll use like a heavy-duty whipper snipper…and we do all the pathways that way. So basically, it's my husband ahead of me cutting and it's me behind him yelling that he needs to go north or south or west," said Secord.

She too likes to make the mazes just hard enough that all ages can have a fun time.

Both Boonstra Farms and Secord Corn Maze offer activities inside the maze as well, such as word scrambles, where people work to collect letters and spell words.

Secord Corn Maze also has themes every year – 2024 is all about corn.

One of the many activities people can enjoy when going to Secord Corn Maze. Uploaded Sept. 6, 2024. (Shelley Secord)

Over at A Maze In Corn, Masse breaks out the technology to make his maze every year. He maps it all out using the GPS and then cuts the field.

He noted he has also found a sweet spot for how complicated the maze gets.

"I've found that middle ground. This is a fun fact from the first time that we were doing mazes, I think maze number three. We found out that the human psychology does not want to go backwards. So right now, we don't have any dead-end stops. We have dead-end loops where you loop around, but it's difficult to get people to stop and turn around. They will just go right through the corn and then make a new pathway," said Masse.

The closer it gets to October, the more it starts to feel like Halloween at the mazes.

Masse said they grow around 25 varieties of pumpkins and they will do a small pumpkin expo near the end of September.

Pumpkins can also be found at Boonstra Farms at the end of the month, and the maze gets a Halloween theme.

"We have the Tower of Terror, so it's kind of like a haunted house. Then we have a black hole, which is kind of an illusion. You walk across a bridge and there's a spinning drum around you that's filled with black lights. It kind of feels like you're tipping. The kids really like that," said Boonstra.

Secord said after Thanksgiving, the Halloween decorations will start to pop up in her maze.

All three mazes will be open until the end of October. Ticket prices and hours of operation can be found on each of their websites.