Lend Me Your Ears

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

Actually, Don Frantz was thinking that. And apparently he was onto 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 literally began cutting a swath through the country. His career--once working for Universal Studios and later for Disney--gave him a taste for grand visual productions.

In Pennsylvania, he’s 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 in Camarillo on Thursday, this one representing a California mission surrounded by birds and trees. The maze, the company’s first on the West Coast, will be open through the end of the year, except on 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?”

Cutting two miles of maze into 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 maze’s 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 hand-held hoes to carve out the pattern, inch by inch. Three rounds of aerial surveillance were conducted to scout for visual blemishes. The rows of corn had to be precisely 30 inches apart or the design would fall apart.

The farmers who offer their fields for Frantz’s mazes are heavily involved and seek potential profit. They provide the fields, shoulder most of the costs and keep most of the money. Frantz receives a royalty for producing the event; he wouldn’t say how much.

Frantz says he looks at his mazes as a way to educate Americans about the farming industry and, in the process, save some small farms who need the 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.

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Last year, Richard and Beth Rogers, owners of Pacific Earth Resources Inc. 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’ll get 50,000 visitors between now and the end of the year, when the corn withers and the maze closes. But he doesn’t 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 be set up with educational material about the agriculture industry. Inside the maze, 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. The maze is divided into 12 sections overlapping six regions marked by colored ropes. In each section, participants receive one of 12 pieces of a map of the maze.

The journey through the maze also provides clues to a crossword puzzle about the history of missions, with questions such as: first name of the Franciscan who founded the first California mission in 1769; sounds like an evergreen grown by Pacific Earth. (Answer: Father JUNIPERO Serra).

A maze worker stands atop a tower to help participants who truly are lost. Stranded visitors can call out for help on “telestalks,” large plastic tubes located throughout the maze to be used like megaphones. Water fountains are available throughout the maze, as is one portable toilet. “You gotta find it, that’s the joke,” Frantz said, giggling.

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Some people will probably need the outhouse more than others. 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 says the longer you’re inside the labyrinth the more valuable the experience. One life lesson 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.

FYI

Camarillo’s Amazing Maize Maze opens Thursday at the intersection of Hueneme and Las Posas roads. It operates Thursdays through Mondays, from noon to 8 p.m. through the summer and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the fall. Tickets are $8 for adults, $5 for children ages 4-12 and free for children under 4. Discounts are available for groups and charity fund-raisers. For more information, call 495-5678 or visit https://www.AmericanMaze.com.