When Skelly's Farm Market unveiled its first corn maze in 1998, the tricky trail was less than 1 acre.
This year's maze covers roughly 8 acres and is one of several that Scott Skelly cuts.
Skelly's maze-cutting method has developed with the demand, from making the measurements by hand to plotting the maze with satellite technology.
The final product, he said, has always been about the families who enjoy the maze at 2713 Hayner Road.
"Families can come out and have a fun time," Skelly, 19, said. "We feel it fits into our farm great. That's what we really like."
Skelly has had his own maze-cutting business, called Corn Mazes America, since 2004. This year's maze has a western theme and will feature buildings with a horse and stagecoach. Past themes include a gold mine, pirate ship and steam engine.
Scott Skelly starts to cut the early stages of his corn maze by using a mower outfitted with a GPS unit and a laptop computer. Skelly used to plot out the mazes by hand, but now technology makes the job much easier. This year's maze at Skelly's Farm Market, 2713 Hayner Road, has a western theme.
Kyle Stevens/Gazette Staff
Although the technology has changed, parts of the process remain the same. Folks at Skelly's pick a theme, settle on a design and plot it on a grid. The field is seeded north-to-south and east-to-west, making for thicker walls. From there, however, things have changed.
Old school maze cutting Skelly used to transfer the design from paper onto the field by physically counting rows. The space between each row was equal to one square on his graph paper. He'd do the cutting with a rototiller, usually when the corn was about 6 inches tall.
The old method could take two days. It worked fine, but he had to do the cutting when the corn was young. When he started cutting mazes for others in 2004, Skelly saw he'd need a larger window of time to fit it all in. Enter technology.
New-fangled maze cutting Skelly last year started using a global positioning system technology and an industrial mower to get the job done. He starts by driving around the field with the GPS to enter coordinates. He then enters an electronic version of the design into a computer so it can plot the maze on the field.
From there, it's just a matter of loading the design into the GPS system and following its directions as he mows. The screen displays 30 feet of field at a time as he motors along.
Skelly now can complete the process in about a day and can mow the corn at basically any time-a good thing, considering he cuts seven mazes across Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan.
Scott Skelly
The maze at Skelly's encompasses about 2 miles of paths and will take most people about an hour to navigate.
Most farmers who cut mazes later harvest the corn. Although there are more plants in a double-seeded field, they must compete for nutrients and water. Cutting plants to form the maze further reduces yield.
In the end, farmers spend more for seed, but the extra expense is offset by revenue from maze visitors.
If you go
The corn maze at Skelly's Farm Market, 2713 Hayner Rd., will open in mid-September. Last year's admission was $4, but Skelly's hasn't settled on a price for this year.
For more information on Scott Skelly's maze-cutting business and corn mazes in general, go online to www.cornmazes america.com.
