Maze of Maize Built as a Field Day for Families

Who would have thought people would pay money to visit a cornfield in the middle of the summer and walk through a tangle of stalks to come out the other end with nothing but a sunburn and a sense of accomplishment?

Actually, Don Frantz was thinking that. And apparently he was on to something.

Inspired by the Kevin Costner movie “Field of Dreams,” Frantz--a self-professed fan of mazes--noticed the crop patterns during a coast-to-coast flight in 1991. The New York resident, who over the years has been a Broadway producer, dancer, juggler, magician and theater manager, came up with an idea that became the American Maze Co.

By 1993, Frantz had shaped his first “Amazing Maize Maze” in his home state of Pennsylvania, and he began cutting a swath through the country. His career, including work for Universal Studios and later for Disney, gave him a taste for grand visual productions.

In Pennsylvania he has done a cornfield maze shaped like the Liberty Bell. In New Jersey he has created an interpretation of the famous painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware.

Frantz’s 18th maze opens Thursday at Hueneme and Las Posas roads in Camarillo, this one representing a California mission surrounded by birds and trees. The company’s first West Coast maze will be open from noon to 8 p.m. through the end of the year except Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

“There’s a certain magic to it,” Frantz said. “Our generation wants the experience of low-tech, simple. What fun is a video mall for a family to go to?”

Creating an intricate pattern over four or five acres of corn takes Frantz and the farmers he works with months of planning and planting.

The Camarillo pattern was designed on a computer grid that contains the same number of rows and columns as the maze. Then it was a matter of getting into the field and using hoes to carve out the pattern, inch by inch. Three rounds of aerial surveillance were conducted to scout for visual blemishes. The corn rows had to be precisely 30 inches apart or the design would fall apart.

The farmers who offer their fields for Frantz’s mazes shoulder most of the costs and keep most of the money. Frantz receives a royalty for producing the event; he would not say how much.

Frantz said he looks at his mazes as a way to educate Americans about the farming industry and, in the process, save some small farms that need an economic boost. Though he declined to reveal how much farmers have earned on his mazes, Frantz said it costs between $70,000 and $250,000 to put together an Amazing Maize Maze from start to finish.

Last year, Richard and Beth Rogers, owners of Pacific Earth Resources in Camarillo, heard about Frantz through a friend in the Midwest and decided to host a maze.

“We were talking about the difficulty of getting across to children and people what farmers do,” said Richard Rogers. “People think corn comes from Vons or a stand on the corner.”

Rogers estimates he will have 50,000 visitors by the end of the year, when the corn withers and the maze closes. But with tickets at $8 for adults and $5 for children, he does not expect to make much of a profit, if any; local fees and permits alone cost about $100,000, with about half of that spent to cover extra traffic enforcement.

Outside the maze, booths will offer educational material about the agriculture industry. Inside, other lessons will unfold.

From his years in the entertainment industry, Frantz knew people might get bored or frustrated if they were led blindly into a maze of thick 10-foot-tall stalks and told to find their way out.

So he designed the mazes as a setting for problem-solving techniques and history lessons.

Families, co-workers or friends are encouraged to enter the maze as teams. Each team gets a colored flag and a brief orientation.

Even an expert at the maze will spend at least 30 minutes getting through it. The record for the longest time spent deciphering a Frantz maze: four hours and 22 minutes.

But Frantz said the longer you’re inside the labyrinth the more valuable the experience. One lesson in life that participants should learn is to keep their eyes on the big picture, he said.

The other lesson, for those in panic mode, is to take one step at a time.

“The journey is more important than the destination,” he said.