PEORIA MAGAZINE October 2022

Eight-year old Justin Jeffries and his parents, Gina and Justin, find the exit after walking through the corn maze at Ackerman Family Farms in Morton

S E E D A N D S O I L

MAYBE I’M AMAZED Corn mazes confound – and thrive — in central Illinois

BY STEVE TARTER PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

W elcome to autumn, a time of falling leaves, pumpkins and corn mazes. Those mazes have become an integral part of the harvest scene in Illinois, a state with a lot of corn. The twists and turns may confound young visitors but not the farmers who now employ modern technology to create the attractions. There are even businesses to help set up corn mazes, said Craig Tanner, vice president in charge of growing operations at Tanner's Orchard in Speer. A member of the fourth generation of Tanners now operating the bustling

20 years ago alongside apples, cider, doughnuts, pumpkins, farm animals and all those jams and jellies. “We always had a different design. The first time it took 12 hours just to plant it,” he said. Now Tanner uses Maze Play, a company out of Idaho that helps set up some 150 corn mazes across the country, providing designs, planting the seed as well as step-by-step directions for creating a specialtymaze along with supplying marketing support. Shawn Stolworthy, founder of Maze Play, started the business with the help of his brother just over 20 years ago. “We had to put our life savings into the

An aerial view of a Tanner’s Orchard maze design from 2014.

farmmarket, which for twomonths out of the year is undoubtedly the busiest spot in Stark County, Tanner said the corn maze took its place at the market

12 OCTOBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE