'Get Lost Here,' Sign Urges Visitors To What's Billed As World's Largest Corn Maze In Spring Grove
SPRING GROVE, Ill. (CBS) -- About 60 miles from Chicago sits what is described as the world's largest corn maze – in the McHenry County community of Spring Grove.
Tens of thousands take on the titanic challenge, hoping to find their way out. CBS News' Mark Strassman reported Sunday night on what it takes to create it.
Some fifth-graders ended up getting themselves lost as they zigzagged through the maze, thinking, "We've got to find a way out, or this field trip could be our last."
The corn maze is rural sprawl – 28 acres in all, with almost 10 miles of trails.
"We said if we're going to do it, why not be the world's largest?" said farmer George Richardson of the Richardson Adventure Farm, which hosts the maze.
Richardson is a fifth-generation family farmer. In 2001, they built their first corn maze – with an overhead sign reading, "Get Lost Here."
"They're in a wall of corn. That's the idea, so it's extra dense from what a regular cornfield would be," Richardson said.
Most people hate getting lost, of course. But at Richardson's maze, they pay to get lost.
"We're paying for the challenge of solving the maze. They've got that map in front of them, and the challenge is finding all the checkpoints," he said. "They know they're going to get found again."
Every year, a graphic designer creates an intricate schematic. Planting starts in May. When the crop is 9 inches tall, a tractor tills the trails by GPS.
Come September, corn 9 feet tall towers over visitors.
"It can be disorienting," Richardson said. "But that, you know, that's part of the fun."
There are as many as 80,000 visitors a year. And here's a little maze secret – its design makes sure all of them get out.
Three pedestrian bridges double as landmarks, and a series of checkpoints guides you around.
"We don't want people to be lost forever, you know?" Richardson said.
After all, he noted, people stumbling around the next morning would be bad for business.
Those fifth-graders thought they'd need a search party. But they'll all make it back to Johnsburg Elementary School.
"I thought it was going to be very easy, but it turned out to be very hard," said fifth-grader Julia Loud. "I thought it was going to be my new home."
Sometimes you have to get lost to find the fun.
This year's maze honors the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The theme changes every year.
The Richardson Adventure Farm also hosts a variety of other attractions. They include a pumpkin patch, a petting zoo, pig races, wagon and train rides, a carousel, a gemstone mining trough, air cannons, and a 50-foot observation tower. The farm also hosts extreme sports including zorbing, a zip line, a bungee-enhanced bouncer, and a paintball shooting gallery.