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Keith McCord Reporting It's Fall and that means the colors are changing, the World Series is in full swing, and it's the most popular time to visit a corn maze in your area. Those mazes are not only popular in the US, but around the world as well, and a Utah County company is largely responsible!
Corn mazes really haven't been around all that long-- the first one was carved in a field in Pennsylvania in 1993. When Brett Herbst graduated from BYU with an agribusiness degree a couple of years later, he thought it would be fun to try to create one himself.
Brett Herbst, Founder, The Maize: "If I would have known what I was getting myself into in 1996, it probably would have scared me to death and I wouldn't have done it."
These days, his company, The Maize, is the world's largest corn maze consulting business.
Brett has been designing mazes for more than 10 years now, more than a thousand in all. This year he designed 200, and not just in the United States.
Brett Herbst, Founder, The Maize: "All the way from Venice, Italy, to Portugal, up in Canada. We'll do one in Mexico in about a month."
Each February, Brett sits down with his computer and starts creating new designs for his clients. The computer puts the design on a grid and calculates exact measurements. Then, in June or July, it's into an already growing cornfield --stalks only a few inches tall-- where Brett or a farmer he's trained, places markers. It's basically connecting the dots.
Brett Herbst, Founder, The Maize: "We put all these reference points--or dots-- in the field, then we connect them, and it makes a picture."
The trails are then chopped or roto-tilled out and the maze begins growing! Brett has designed five mazes in Utah this year, including the one at Thanksgiving Point. He used the design of Utah's new quarter coin for it. He also designed one in West Jordan with more of a wildlife theme, with a giant gorilla's head in the center.
Brett Herbst grew up on a ranch in Idaho; being able to still spend time in the fields and make a career out of it thrills him!
Brett's mazes have varied in size--his smallest is three acres, and the largest is 40! If you want to visit a corn maze you'd better do it soon, as many in Utah will close down on Halloween night.
