For those that have not yet ventured farther away from campus than the airport or West Towne Mall, there is a seasonal fixture we have here in Wisconsin: the corn maze. There are several across the state, and they come in all shapes, sizes and levels of difficulty.
These corn mazes can come with a fright. In Deerfield, Schuster's Playtime Farm offers an eight-acre maze that is haunted"" on Friday and Saturday nights. West Salem's Hidden Trails on Hwy 16, has a ""Wizard of Oz""-themed maze which is also occasionally haunted.
The corn mazes are extremely complex. Each farm has their own process for designing and cutting the corn to create the imaginative patterns.
Tom Skelly of Skelly's Farm Market on Hayner Road in Janesville, which by the way boasts a Wild West-themed maze this year, created the corn maze with a GPS unit, a mower and the help of his son.
Angie Treinen of Treinen Farm, located on Highway 60 in Lodi, designed her castle-themed maze on a computer and transferred it to the field using graph paper and a mower. At Treinen, the whole process takes 30 to 40 hours, so it's no wonder the Treinen Farm boasts the largest maze in Wisconsin.
In the end, both farms insist the effort is well worth it. ""It's just a fun time for the whole family,"" Skelly said.
Treinen agreed, ""It is a great thing for groups to do. It brings out the competitive nature in people.""
Even college students have fond memories of the corn mazes. UW-Madison freshman Kathleen Neelsen recalls visiting Treinen.
""It was a really fun thing to do with a group of people,"" Neelsen said.
However, she did have one cautionary tale, ""We ended up getting lost and having to walk through the corn to the highway. We did eventually get back though.""
Still, Treinen said that getting lost is no big deal. ""We always tell people not to worry. If you get lost, we will definitely find you by Nov. 15 when we plow the field.
