We pick our way through the overgrown path, corn extending 10 feet in the air on either side of us. I strain my eyes through the green ears but can only see a few feet in either direction. I look up, and the only view is blue sky, fluffy white clouds and the golden tops of stalks swaying slightly in the wind. Except if I stand on my tiptoes, then I can glimpse the iconic outline of Lookout Mountain. I haven’t stepped foot in a corn maze in years, but there really is something thrilling about getting lost.
As we exit the maze, Rock City Marketing Director Karen Baker explains that the paths will be re-weeded and mowed in preparation for opening day of the Enchanted Maize at Blowing Springs Farm. In fact, lots of planning goes into this fall-time favorite that sits just across the Georgia state line, she says.
The farm-complete with a Civil War-era house and a pond in the shape of the state of Georgia-was bought expressly for the purpose of a corn maze in the early 2000s, and every June seeds are sown into the field to produce the tall sea of stalks.
The Rock City marketing department also starts early in the year by gathering around a table and brainstorming ideas for the grand design. It’s generally around this time of year that lots of corny puns get thrown around about the “amaizing” maze, she jokes as we step into a ruby red barn that houses a ticket counter in view of the cornfield. Sometimes the design process is easy, Baker says, but it depends on the year. In the past, they’ve themed the maze after special anniversaries or general autumn staples. “This year, we have alien crop circles that have appeared magically in our corn,” she laughs. “It has a tie-in to our haunt, Blowing Screams Farm.”
Once they have the design nailed down, they send it off to The MAiZE Inc. for the design to be “mazified,” which is a real thing. The MAiZE actually has a hand in designing and implementing 260 corn mazes across the country, including Chattanooga’s local mazes: Enchanted Maize and the River Maize near the Ocoee. “They give us an idea. Sometimes they just describe it in words, sometimes it’s a picture online, sometimes it’s hand-drawn,” Kamille Combs, marketing director for The MAiZE, says from her post in Utah. “We go on the computer and recreate that design for them and make sure they’re happy with it. Then we mazify it and make sure it’s the right challenge level.”