Annual corn 'MAiZE' offers medieval challenge

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Jill Aichinger (left), Beasley’s Orchard market manager, and Debbie Beasley stand at one of the entrances to the orchard’s corn MAiZE, which opens Friday. This year’s theme is a medieval kingdom, with the maze in the shape of a castle. Wade Coggeshall/Flyer photo

September 21, 2007

By Wade Coggeshall The Hendricks County Flyer Fri Sep 21, 2007, 11:51 PM EDT

DANVILLE — There’s one attraction here that’s become synonymous with fall.

It’s the corn “MAiZE” that Beasley’s Orchard offers central Indiana residents and beyond every year. An actual eight-acre maze is cut into a cornfield. Various themed passports containing questions to help navigate the maze are handed out to those who take on the challenge.

“It’s very popular and a lot of fun,” said Debbie Beasley, who owns Beasley’s Orchard with her husband John. She estimates 5,000 to 6,000 people go through the maze every season. “It’s a fun activity for families. I relate it to hiking. Once you’re in there, you feel like you’re a million miles from everyone. I recommend everyone try it at least once.”

Each year the maze is different and has a theme. This time it’s “Corn Castle,” with the maze in the shape of a medieval castle. Opening Friday, it was designed by Brett Herbst, whose Utah-based company Cornfield Maze designs hundreds of such networks worldwide. The Beasleys pick the theme and Herbst’s company creates the design and performs the actual work.

“They basically take anything you can think of and put it in a cornfield,” Beasley said.

A software program is used for the actual design. That actually involves most of the work. It only takes two people one day to cut out the maze, when the corn is only about a foot tall. Unlike most cornfields, the Beasleys plant their corn in both directions to make it thicker.

Beasley estimates the average person takes 45 minutes to get through the maze, though it can be done in as little as 15. There are employees stationed throughout the maze in case you get too lost.

Thanks to the Internet, Beasley’s corn MAiZE attracts visitors from as far away as Chicago and Louisville. Some people challenge themselves to walk through as many corn mazes as they can find.

“It’s astonishing to me that someone would drive that far, but they look at it as a day trip,” Beasley said. “I’d say a lot of our visitors drive more than 50 miles to get here. That’s the nice thing about the Internet — it makes our world smaller.”

Corn Castle is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 28. The maze will not be open during those times if there’s inclement weather.

Starting Oct. 5 the MAiZE becomes “Field of Knight Terrors.” Project A.N.G.E.L. will fill the corn kingdom with evil knights, fire-breathing dragons, and sword-wielding king’s men. Field of Knight Terrors will be open 7-10 p.m. every Friday and Saturday in October.

Cost for both attractions is $6 for ages 12 and older, $5 for ages 6-11, and free for children 5 and younger when accompanied by an adult. For more information, call 745-4876 or visit the website www.beasleys-orchard.com.

wade.coggeshall@flyergroup.com

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