Through the maze Corn as high as an elephant’s eye  BY VYVYAN LYNN
Autumn in Georgia is a time to pause and notice the beauty of our state. Yards and hillsides shimmer like jewels of gold, crimson and scarlet. Hot, heavy air is replaced by cool, crisp breezes. Children are back in school. Friday nights usher in another year of football with high school bands playing fight songs and young men battling on the gridiron. Saturday mornings dawn with cornflower-blue skies, and it seems like the perfect time to escape from everyday routines and get lost in the beauty of a fall afternoon. If you’d like to take getting lost literally, Georgia agritourism (also known as “agratainment”) businesses are on hand to grant your wish with corn mazes of varying degrees of difficulty. Rock City’s Enchanted MAiZE Since the mid-20th century, barn rooftops throughout the Southeast—approximately 900 in 19 states—have been enticing travelers to “See Rock City.” The late Clark Byers of Trenton painted the now-historic ads, and the current owner of Rock City continues to add attractions to lure tourists. In 2002, Bill Chapin, president and CEO, decided to include an agratainment product to the Blowing Springs Farm site—a corn maze. Chapin met with Brett Herbst, founder of The MAiZE Co., which specializes in creating corn mazes. One of the important items was the location. “Brett knew the location would factor in and create a unique maze because the pattern could be seen from above by visitors to Rock City Gardens. Rock City’s Lover’s Leap gives a birds-eye view of the maze,” says Karen Baker, Rock City marketing director. The Enchanted MAiZE covers 10 acres and is broken up into two phases. “Most folks can finish the smaller section in 30 minutes and the complete maze in one hour,” says Baker. Each year, as many as 22,000 people flock here. This year’s maze design is the world’s largest coupon. “It was a lot of fun to work on,” says Baker. “Guests who mention they saw the coupon will get $1 off admission.” Visitors can also enjoy the Rock City birdhouse barn, which was moved from Dalton and houses food service and retail. Included is a children’s playground, farm animals, a “cow train” and hayrides. This year, prepare to be scared as well as enchanted. The “Forest of Fear” will open Friday and Saturday nights in October. The Rock Ranch Corn Maze The Rock Ranch, a 1,250-acre ranch in Barnesville owned by Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy, is committed to giving visitors—especially young visitors—an experience that shows that learning is fun. Running a ranch requires staff members to pay attention to Mother Nature and they are keenly aware that in the fall, Georgia is naturally decked out for a party. With this in mind, they have activities each Saturday for their Fall Family Fun Weekends.  “This year’s theme is reading,” says Jeff Manley, general manager. “It’s not an overall literacy program, but we simply encourage children to read.”
The 2007 corn maze goes along with the message and is called “Get Lost in a Good Book.” The Rock Ranch is partnering with the Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy in this effort. “One of their goals is to encourage reading, and reading to children by giving a brand-new book to children each month,” he says. The partnership is visible with Ferst’s logo as centerpiece for the maze: The Little Train that Could. “The maze has the Chick-fil-A ‘C’ at the top and then it says ‘Get lost.’ Next is a cute little train, and then under that it says ‘In a good book.’ We chose the Bible to symbolize the first book,” says Manley. The Rock Ranch had its first maze six years ago and staffers have learned valuable lessons about weather and marketing since then. “The first two years we thought we’d offer a maze and people would visit from all around,” says Manley. They found out differently, however. “We asked people to drive sometimes two hours—if driving from the north side of Atlanta—to do a two-hour experience, and then drive two hours home. “Last year, The Rock Ranch offered Fall Family Fun Day. We needed to have a lot of activities with the maze,” says Manley. Fall Family Day 2007 includes bands, dance teams and themed weekends. This year’s weekends offer a hot-air balloon race, a craft festival, a bluegrass festival, a Christian concert the Saturday before Halloween, a Boy Scout weekend and a Girl Scout weekend. On Nov. 3, visitors can bring in a Halloween pumpkin and there will be creative ways to destroy them.  North Georgia Corn Maze
The North Georgia Corn Maze, in Cleveland, opened in 2003. Owners John Callaham and Heath Biggers decided to add agratainment to their existing business plan. Their maze is not theme-driven. “Our maze is different than most corn mazes and that’s the way we planned and designed it,” says Callaham. The eight-acre North Georgia Corn Maze is more like art and features geometric shapes. It takes about 10 hours to cut the maze using GPS (global positioning system), but the owners depend on the Lord for the rain. “It’s been scary,” says Callaham. “Every year, it keeps us humble and on our knees praying for rain. This year, it was late June and we were in an intense drought. The governor had a day of prayer designated for rain. It started raining that day and has rained ever since,” he says. But they keep a sense of humor mostly and enjoy the mystery behind corn mazes as well. “We really like the crop-circle type and have aliens that visit Cleveland each year and create our maze,” says Callaham.  In reality, Adrian Fisher, of Dorset, England, designs their corn maze each year. Fisher, winner of six Guinness World Records and 12 design-and-export awards, created the very first corn maze. His mazes are peppered all over the world; one is located at the Mall of Georgia in Buford. Fisher’s mazes are challenging. “You have to piece his mazes together like a puzzle—almost like an Indiana Jones-type thing,” says Callaham. Don’t be alarmed though that you may never find your way out. The North Georgia Corn Maze has eight different checkpoints. “As long as you can read a map, you can make it, but the problem is, there are so many circles it is easy to fall off the map,” says Callaham.
The North Georgia Corn Maze experience also offers a “Barn of Fear,” movies under the stars and hayrides. For families with small children, Callaham recommends a daytime visit; for teenagers, an evening experience is more fun. “The most fun is when kids come in groups of at least four and compete to see who can get out first,” he says. Callaham’s staff does have to find people at times, but, it’s usually the stray 10-year-old who got away from family. Dating teens may “try” to get lost, however. “We have to watch that. There is a spot in the back corner of the maze that we frequent to keep folks moving along,” notes Callaham. —Vyvyan Lynn is a freelance writer living in Kite.
Other corn mazes: We recommend you contact the corn maze before visiting; many have differing dates of operation. • Cagle’s Dairy Farm, Canton and Resaca (new in August), caglesdairy.com/farmInfo.php. (770) 345-5591 • Cypress Hollow Farm, Louisville, cypresshollowfarm.com. (478) 625-7552; (478) 494-0123 • Grandpa Jones Corn Maze, Ellijay, www.grandpajonescornmaze.com. (706) 273-2306 • Little River Farms, Resaca, littleriverfarms.com. (706) 629-9688 • Moody Maze, Hoboken, btconline.net/~dwmoody. (912) 458-2230; (912) 288-4730 • North Georgia Corn Maze, Cleveland, northgacornmaze.com. (800) 959-1874 • Rock City’s Enchanted MAiZE, enchantedmaze.com. (706) 820-2531 • Southern Belle Farm, McDonough, southernbellefarm.com. (770) 954-0923 • The Rock Ranch, Barnesville, www.therockranch.com. (706) 647-6374 • Uncle Shucks, Dawsonville, www.uncleshucks.com. (888) OSHUCKS, (888) 674-8257; (770) 772-6223 • Washington Farms, Watkinsville, washingtonfarms.net. (706) 769-0627; Loganville Farm, (770) 554-8119 • Yahoo Farm, Jasper, www.yahoofarm.com. (770) 735-3638 For festivals: www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org:80/GApumpkins.php | 
