When Naperville resident Nancy Rice is out in the trenches of the corn maze at Keller family’s Oswego farm, she typically is one of eight who are either stationed at the beginning of the maze handing out maps or else she is somewhere within the maze making sure everyone is “on track.”
Before Keller’s corn maze opens to the public each year, workers learn the maze by practicing reaching each check point and making their way back to the start again and again.
Rice, who has been with Keller’s for four years, admits it does take her some time to learn the maze each year.
Over a typical season about 2,000 people visit Keller’s Corn Maze which is just one of several corn mazes in the area that my family tries to hit each year.
Each maze holds an unique foothold to Halloween fun like Richardson’s in Spring Grove dubbed the “world’s largest” and Lockport Siegel’s Cottonwood Farm which until this year hid workers dressed as zombies throughout the maze.
Sometimes, we come with another family and split up that way. Other times it is boys against girls and maybe now even adults versus kids. Almost always, it is a competition.
It’s probably the one time each year my kids don’t forget to not wear flip-flops.
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Rice said at Keller’s some who come are pretty good at orienteering and can whiz through it. Others are just wandering around enjoying the day, the blue sky, and the people atmosphere.
Groups typically are comprised of one or two people doing most of the map reading, while the other group members trail along, she added.
Keller’s Martha Abel (whose name had been Keller until she got married) said one neighborhood comprised of about 10 families comes every year and even created a trophy that is passed among winning families.
When the group first started coming, Abel added they were young families with small children. Now the kids hold the maps and the parents chat and follow along.
For the last two years, Keller’s maze has been divided into four sections—two geared toward those new to mazes or who have small children, Abel said. The other two mazes are much larger and one has checkpoints that aren’t marked on the map to add extra difficulty.
The biggest mistake people make most often is misinterpreting the map, Abel said.
“Sometimes people forget they are walking right on the black line,” she added.
Instead of a regular corn field, Abel said corn planted for a maze is planted in both directions leaving no rows between. “The whole corn field is very tight,” she said.
One of the Keller cousins who is an artist designs the maze each year.
Typically in June when the corn is between two and three feet tall, a tractor equipped with a computer system scans the designs and cuts the maze into reality.
Weekly throughout the summer, Abel’s brother goes back through and mows the paths.
Abel credits her brother Frank Keller IV with coming up for the idea of a corn maze 15 years ago. Even at that time, the Keller family wanted the maze to be both large and challenging, which it is—a great workout and a mental exercise.
The first corn maze located at their Plainfield Farm was dedicated to Abe Lincoln because the farm happened to be on Lincoln Highway; also because we do live in the “Land of Lincoln,” Abel said.
This year’s theme continues its fairy tale theme by paying homage to Little Red Riding Hood following last year’s Cinderella. Abel warns that while themes may be more recognizable to the younger kids, the maze won’t be any easier.
So if you go be warned and definitely don’t where flip-flops.
Cathy Janek is a freelance columnist for the Naperville Sun.