Anyone flying over the Cut Knife-Rockhaven area of Saskatchewan may be in store for an interesting sight below.
That sight would be a corn maze - a corn field with several walking paths in a maze design which people can try to find their way through.
The maze is located on the property of Chris Scoular, whose operation is called Bulldog Park Corn Maze. It is located to the north of Rockhaven on Rockhaven Road, south of the Highway 40 junction to Cut Knife.
The first year for the maze was 2013. Scoular was looking for something to do for his acreage and had considered strawberries and other options.
"And then this idea of a corn maze jumped out," he said.
"I investigated that further and got involved with a company out of Utah, and here we are."
The Utah company he works with to design the maze is called "The Maze." They lay out the design of the maze on a computer with Scoular's input, filling in the various circles and squares. They then come out in the spring when the corn is three inches tall, and use a sprayer to spray out the various paths in the design.
The maze itself runs for about 12 acres and Scoular estimates the crop to be about 12 or 13 tons per acre volume-wise at that location.
There was about two-and-a-half to three kilometres of pathway constructed. If you negotiate all the paths correctly without straying down the side paths, it takes a little over two kilometres to get out, Scoular said.
There are two parts to the maze at Scoular's property. One takes about 15 minutes for someone to go through while the other takes about an hour to complete.
In the long portion, participants can play a game called "passports" where each is given a game card and must answer about ten questions at numbered points set up inside the maze. If they answer the questions correctly, they go on to the next number. If not, they are redirected in a circle right back to the same number as before.
The maze is unique for the area. Scoular said there is one down in Lumsden and Edmonton has one as well. Saskatoon has one, too, he said, but there is nothing within a couple of hours of Cut Knife, he said.
"Other areas of Saskatchewan and the country have corn mazes, so why can't we have one," he figures.
The goal of the maze is mainly educational, as a way to get people interested in corn and in agriculture.
"It teaches kids about agriculture and farming and the way of life, and getting out in the field and being a part of nature with the farming end of it." said Scoular. "That's important for kids to learn about."
Already, the corn maze has attracted interest from area schools. Two school groups had been at the site the day the Regional Optimist visited on Oct. 2, which just so happened to be the coldest day of the growing season.
"I'm getting a lot of class trips now, a lot of team-building," said Scoular.
Clubs and businesses have also come out, he said, with the maze seen as a way for team-building. Usually there to greet the visitors are Scoular's friendly dogs Pete (a mixed Lab Retriever-German Shepherd breed) and Meadow (a German Shepherd).
Most people are able to complete the maze without a problem, but Scoular says he and the dogs have had to go in and rescue "three or four different groups" from the maze from time to time this year.
"It's a little tricky in a couple of spots," he said of this year's maze design, which includes the words "Scoular Farm" and "1914-2014" on it, along with a design of a bull.
As it turned out, the bus carrying some students from St. Mary School that afternoon had to go back to retrieve some students who were still stuck in the maze. The students seemed unfazed by the experience, however.
As for Scoular himself, he doesn't take any chances and brings with him a map every time he goes into the corn maze.
"I don't have time to be lost out here. And it's easy to do. Some of these areas, it's so tall you can't see where you're going and you really have no idea where you are in some spots."
The corn itself was seeded in May and Scoular said it was growing at "close to a foot a week" by July.
"You can really see it growing. So by mid-August this year it was as tall as it could have got, about nine or ten feet."
The busiest time for visitors to the maze is October, though Scoular said September is probably a better month to actually see the corn because it is at its greenest. By October, the corn fields had gotten brown, due to frost and the colder weather.
The corn itself that is grown there is cattle corn that is sold on the market as feed. But Scoular said the product would probably not be the type of thing humans would like.
"The cows love it," he said, but for humans "it's a little bland for them."
"Sweet corn, I wish it was an option, but you'd never get the height out of it," Scoular said.
Scoular notes they would likely not grow high enough for the maze, so sweet-corn varieties are out.
He said the cattle corn is more expensive to grow but "yields so much per acre that you're able to balance it out." He was able to sell it at $28 to $30 a bale last year.
He expects to keep the corn maze up for a couple more weeks yet, before the corn is harvested and sent to market.
"I'd like to get to Halloween, but last year I only made it till about the last Tuesday of October," said Scoular. By that point snow was on the way, so he had to close things down.
He is hoping to keep this year's corn maze up by the final week of October, at which point all the corn will need to be baled up. At that point he can begin thinking of what design to come up with for next year's corn maze.
