The Clearwater Corn Maze is a unique experience, Brad Cannon, a member of the Lewiston Roundup Association board of directors said.
“There are not many of these in this area,” Cannon said. “If you could see the look on these kids’ faces. People want something different. The corn maze gives (that).”
University of Idaho students and faculty of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and farmer Phil Kaufman developed the corn maze.
Kaufman said the idea started years ago in two classes he and his brother were taking at UI, and later tested by John Foltz, associate dean of the college and his brother.
“I ended up moving back to farming, and so I kind of took over the reins of the project from my brother Steve on the farming side of it,” Kaufman said. “We grew it to (12) acres, and last year we were pleasantly surprised with the amount of success we had.”
Jessica Reynolds, chair of October operations, said the UI student agricultural clubs oversee and operate the corn maze.
“There were a group of students who came up the weekend of the 25th of June, and they actually cut the maze with GPS and a lawnmower,” Reynolds said. “So they cut the maze when it was short, and then they went back through and they sprayed it.”
The agriculture clubs work together to form committees for security, tickets, public relations and the haunted maze on Halloween night. When the maze is open, they volunteer their time to earn money for their clubs. Last year, about 125 students worked the maze and earned about $1,300, Foltz said.
“It’s experiential learning. It’s getting the chance to, essentially, run a business,” Foltz said. “It’s a good public-private partnership.”
Reynolds said the maze is an opportunity for agriculture students to develop communication and public relations skills.
Foltz designed the 2011 maze pattern from a Joe Vandal graphic, from which he erased connection points and added other details such as the year and a cat.
“We used GIS and GPS,” Foltz said. “So we take this (a picture) and then take the GPS coordinates the five corners, and then we assign GPS points in the field.”
Each point in the drawing where a line changes direction is a GPS point. The 2011 design used more than 800 points, Foltz said.
“We used hand-held GPS units to find those 800 points, then we put a stake in the ground, then we would mow to that,” Foltz said. “So when it’s about a foot tall, we mow it, and that’s a lot easer. Cause most people think you do it when it’s tall. But that’s really hard, cause they don’t make combines that are six feet wide.”
A faculty member’s husband, who is a pilot, sent Foltz a picture taken from the air about a week later.
“I was really happy about it, because it looked just like our design, which was what we’d planned, but you just don’t know till you get up there and see,” Foltz said. “The other coolest thing … is it’s on Google Maps… I was showing a student the other day how to get to the maze, so I pull up the map, so I zoom in, and as I’m zooming in, and showing him, I’m going ‘Oh my gosh. It’s on Google Maps.'”
Foltz said he opened the Google Maps image on his smart phone when he was at the maze Tuesday.
“And I pulled up the navigation app on my smart phone, and it found me within five feet,” Foltz said. “On the picture of the maze.”
Reynolds said the maze is an inexpensive way to have fun with a group of friends.
“On Halloween, it will be haunted. So we will have people scaring on Halloween night,” Reynolds said. “It should be a lot of fun.”
The maze, open all four weekends in October, is located on the Lewiston Roundup grounds and costs $5 for admission, $1 for a map and Future Farmers of America will be selling concessions. There is also a children’s area with a straw-bail maze and a dummy roping cow.