Dead-End Field: Man Is Cutting 5-Acre Corn Maze

If Brett Herbst builds it, he is sure they will come since he attracted 18,000 visitors before.

Call it a-maze-ing or a-maize-ing. Either way, Herbst has an idea that involves a weed whacker and a corn field north of Idaho Falls.

He has started cutting a maze. It will be shaped like Idaho and have more than 30 dead ends, but only one way out.

At the moment, it is hard to get lost in Herbst’s creation. The stalks are barely knee-high.

“Right now, you can still cheat,” Herbst said. “But once the corn gets over your head, all the paths look the same. Last year, I even got lost.”

That was in American Fork, Utah, when Herbst’s corn maze believed to be the first in the West was a huge hit, attracting more than 18,000 visitors.

He plans to open the Idaho Falls maze in late August and keep it open through Halloween.

A lot of planning goes into putting the maze together.

There are computer designs on grid sheets, months of planning and a lot of cutting to do in a five-acre field.