Local corn maze uses GPS planting technology to create their design

The Wild Adventure Corn Maze in Eastern Idaho has been a staple crop in the community since 1998.

“I know my kids it’s a tradition to come every single year,” said visitor, Tara Demkowicz.

The family attraction was started by Shawn Stolworthy who sold the rights to Richard Johnson. He operated it until last year before selling it to Ryan Searle.

“We kind of shadowed him for a year and went, ‘you know we like how this is going,’ and we didn’t want to change anything,” said the owner of Wild Adventure Corn Maze, Ryan Searle.

As a previous potato grower, Searle says, running a corn maze isn’t much different, “the amount of time and effort that goes into it, is really similar to potato harvest.”

Although, the crop he harvests now can walk and talk.

“The corn maze, ideally, you’re harvesting people right? So you want people to come out and enjoy the maze, have a good time, it’s a unique experience,” Searle said.

Creating the maze is done by GPS planting technology, which plants the seeds in the form of the design, so when the crop is finished growing, only a few touch-ups are required before they open.

As for brainstorming the theme for the design, Searle said that is done before the previous season has even ended, “before we’re even done with this year we’re already thinking about next year, we want to make it bigger, we want to make it better.”

As Searle approaches the end of his first year owning wild adventure corn maze, he is grateful for the joy and success they have had. While yearly improvements will be made throughout the years, the main improvement Searle is hoping for is the weather.

“Saturday’s have been a horrible horrible time of us this year, I think we’ve had two out of the five Saturdays been good weather,” Searle said.

When the weather allows, visitors can enjoy three different mazes as well as thirteen other activities, including a zip line, corn cannon, jump pads, and a barrel train.

“It’s just fun the kids love it, all ages,” Demkowicz said.

KIFI 2019