Irons Mill Farmstead honors legendary CBS game show host Bob Barker with larger-than-life corn maze
NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. (KDKA) -- Now that the calendar has flipped to September, fall festivals are popping up everywhere. But not many can claim something as big as Irons Mill Farmstead in Mercer County.
They decided on a theme this year that has people saying, "Come on down."
Cut into the rows and rows of corn, you wouldn't know it from ground level; but once you see the bigger picture, you realize that you're wondering through an intricate image of Bob Barker.
"Bob Barker is a legend across all demographics," Rob Milliron, the owner of Irons Mill Farmstead, said. "Everybody, for the most part, knew Bob Barker and 'The Price is Right' gameshow."
Every year at Irons Mill Farmstead, the family owners pick a different theme to celebrate. This year, they wanted to go big.
"We ended up, 'Let's give away a car, but how can we do that?" Stacy Milliron, Rob's wife, said. "He said we should do a game show. Then, we thought, car, 'Price Is Right.'"
Then, the wheel started spinning.
"We looked up Bob Barker and we're like, 'He's gonna be 100 this year in December," Stacy said. "He was born in 1923, it's 2023. This is his 100th year.'
"This was back in late winter we were looking at this. Yeah, this was months ago. We have to do a Bob Barker theme," Rob said.
The planning takes months, and just a week before the farmstead was getting ready to open to the public for the season came the news of Barker's passing.
As the world celebrated Barker's life and legacy, the saddest part for the Milliron family is that Barker passed away before being able to see the maze.
"The plan was once we did the reveal to send it out to some contacts out there and just, at least, let him see it," Rob said. "That would have been pretty neat for him to be part of that in a way. See some farm in Western Pennsylvania is honoring him."
So, how the heck did they create such an impress maze?
"It's computer-generated on a gridding system on a computer," Rob said. "We do plant the corn a couple different ways so it actually is like a grid pattern out there in the corn. And, then, we go in there when it's about four or five inches high and we cut the maze, the paths in."
When you see what they're able to do, it seems like this family was born to be farmers.
"We're not farmers," Stacy said. "We have no idea what we're doing. I barely mow grass. I actually don't mow grass."
"If anything, I gained a tremendous amount of respect for what they do and farming in general," Rob added.
The family pivoted from running a farm after they bought it in 2009 to running a business that centered around something they love - family.
"Instead of growing animals and raising animals, we grew children and thought of a business that we could start on the farm," Rob said.
"We have six kids," Stacy said. "We moved to the farm with two originally. So this whole time we've been building the business, we've been having kids along the way."
And with kids in mind, a day at this farm will keep you busy.
"It's an all-day, don't come here thinking you're only going to spend an hour or two. If you want to do it all, it's gonna take four or five," Stacy said.
With a chunk of that spent getting lost in the mind and jawline of the legend - Bob Barker.
