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Maize MAZE Local farm builds corny attraction for tourists By Mark Freeman JACKSONVILLE � After more than 200 hours of work and well over $3,000 invested in the Rogue Valley�s newest Harvest Festival promotions gimmick, Chris Knox desperately hoped that his 5-acre corn maze didn�t look like Minnesota. Or worse, Idaho. But a flight over the maize plot at White�s Country Farms two weeks ago showed the two miles of pathways Knox cut through rows of 8-foot-tall cornstalks were, indeed, etched into the pattern resembling the good ol� Beaver State. "What a relief," sighs Knox, the farm�s manager. "When I finally saw it, I thought, wow, it really does look like the state of Oregon. That was way too much work for it not to look right." Attraction opens Saturday White�s Country Farm Wildlife Corn Maze Adventure opens Saturday as part of the Harvest Festival activities at the farm, at 393 Jacksonville Highway. The maze is open from 3 to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends. When the Wildlife Images animals are in the maze from noon to 4 p.m. on weekends, tickets cost $5 for adults and $3 for kids 4-11, with kids 3 and under free. When the animals are gone, tickets cost $3 and $2, respectively. Balloon rides are available weekends beginning at 9 a.m. and running as weather permits. By the end of this month, Knox hopes this mega-version of ag-art known as cornfield mazes will help lure thousands of people to White�s Jacksonville Highway farm this month to plunk down cash for pumpkins, cornstalks, balloon rides and other activities. Beginning Saturday and running through October, the public is invited to check the layout�s geographic authenticity as well as view some of Oregon�s wild critters up close and in cages. This creative twist to the regular Harvest Festival fare is as much to provide fun for school kids and city folk as it is a creative way for small farms like White�s to turn a profit in the 21st century. "It�s a new way for us to continue farming," says Knox, a 28-year-old Oregon State grad. "We call it entertainment farming. It�s farming, but it�s also for entertainment." Competition for the Harvest Festival buck in the Rogue Valley has helped create this maize monster-maze. Just a decade ago, only one local farm marketed itself to families as a place to drink apple cider and pick pumpkins. White�s started the Harvest Festival theme five years ago, and now a half-dozen farms in the Medford area do similar events. During past autumns, Knox has cut a maze through a half-acre of maize, which is a form of corn, at the farm that also sports pumpkin picking, animal-feeding and other activities. Last year, Knox began kicking around the idea of doing something on a larger scale. Searching the Internet, he found companies charging about $10,000, to plant a cornfield and transform it into intricate mazes visible from the sky. Hoping to do it himself, Knox planted the 5 acres of corn in June, then waited a month for the stalks to grow about 6 inches. He called on Harold Center, a surveyor and family friend, and the pair started plotting the design of Oregon as if they were laying a roadway. After staking off the design, Knox and some farm hands played a large-scale version of connect-the-dots, using machetes and shovels to dig lines between the stakes. As the corn grew around the outline, Knox began hacking and digging another two miles of connected pathways inside the Oregon outline. But there�s just one entrance and one exit, with the most direct path between them covering more than a half-mile, he says. The pathways also reach six separate clearings where animals like owls, eagles and maybe even a bear cub and a fox, will be displayed. The animals are from Wildlife Images rehabilitation center in Merlin, which will be getting a donation for taking part, Knox says. But the coup de grace came just two weeks ago when another family friend took Knox in an airplane ride over the field to take pictures and see that, sure enough, the outline looks like what it�s supposed to look like. Knox whisked his film over to a local Albertson�s for developing, and when he picked up his pictures the next day he knew from the checker that the maze looked amazing. "She said, �It looks like someone put a picture of the state of Oregon in some field�," Knox says. "I said, �Lady, you just made my day�." Knox hopes the maze draws about 10,000 people who will pay from $2 to $5 each. The farm will charge $5 for adults and $3 for kids ages 4 to 11 on weekends when the Wildlife Images animals are there; during weekdays and early weekend mornings, the prices will be $3 for adults and $2 for kids. Kids 3 and under can go free. The maze opens Saturday and will remain open through October, weather permitting. Donations will be made to Wildlife Images and some local school clubs that will help maze visitors each day, Knox says. Knox doesn�t call the maze a gimmick. But he acknowledges that it�s done to set his farm apart from others who are all after the Harvest Festival buck. "If there isn�t any competition," Knox says, "we probably wouldn�t be doing this." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.