Corn Dogging

The operators of the Amazing Maize Maze cornfield escape game in Camarillo will open today for their second season, hoping to make corn as exciting as--well, as exciting as corn gets.

Both mazes and cornfields have their place in art and history. In one of the most famous Greek myths, Theseus got lost in a maze but kept his wits and managed to kill the monstrous Minotaur, then went on to marry the queen of the Amazons. At the battle of Antietam in Maryland in 1862, so many Yankees and Rebels were shot down on Mr. Miller’s farm that the area is now known to history simply as The Cornfield.

Mercifully, Minotaurs and Minie balls will be absent from this maze.

Strange as it may seem, civilization in the Western Hemisphere is built not on greed nor even concrete, but on corn. And this isn’t just some Nebraska Cornhusker’s delusion of grandeur. According to Betty Fussell, who wrote “The Story of Corn,” now in its sixth printing, “Corn has been the basis of our agribusiness since the 1850s. . . . Only 1% of the corn grown is for human consumption; 99% goes for something else.”

Putting fun into some of that corn are Richard and Beth Rogers, who own Pacific Earth Resources, the property where the Amazing Maize Maze is now growing. According to maze manager John Burton, a guy from New York City--an area not known for its agriculture--is to blame for all this.

“A guy named Don Frantz, who is associate producer for ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’ on Broadway, is from New York City. Even though they don’t have any corn there, he did make a maze for the cast of the ‘Today Show’ in Rockefeller Center. He heard about the idea around 1991 from a documentary and the movie ‘Field of Dreams.’ He made his first maze in 1993. There have been 27 mazes since then all over the country. We found him on the Internet.”

*

There will be two mazes at the site this year, the second to open in September. Each will be approximately four acres, with the Aztec calendar, known as the Sun Stone, the dominant theme of both.

Beth Rogers explained the calendar connection.

“Incorporating the Aztec calendar into the maze activities will offer our visitors a look at how nature affects growing cycles and the ways in which peoples have dealt with its effects throughout history. The Aztec people were very dependent on agriculture and worshiped many agricultural gods to ensure success of their crops, including Centeotl, a corn god.”

But the owners have decided to skip one of the less pleasant aspects of the Aztec experience.

“We try to downplay the human sacrifice element,” said Burton.

And don’t worry about losing your way. The whole maize mania is just a game, anyway, and an organic one at that. Last year, more than 50,000 folks paid to get lost.

“It’s a very family-oriented game,” Burton said. “You get a team together, maybe two to five people, and you get a flag for your team. Then you each get a game board and each hidden mailbox has a game piece you tape to your game board once you find it. Usually, it takes about an hour to complete the game, but we had people out there for up to five hours last year. We have 48 speaker poles where you will be able to hear the announcer, who will give directions and play music--there will be a lot of stuff happening.”

So far, the corn is about 3 feet tall and growing rapidly. Fed by a maze of drip-irrigation tubing, the corn will get much taller as the summer progresses, but the current height of the crop will not diminish the game aspect of the maze.

“This variety of corn is not for human consumption but for cattle,” Burton said. “It’s over 3 feet tall now, and it grows about a foot a week--and this variety gets to be between 9 and 11 feet tall. Last year, we started later when the corn was taller, but the mailboxes are already hidden, and that’s most of the challenge. The maze is the game and the corn is the aesthetic--and the corn is ready now.”

DETAILS

Amazing Maize Maze, Las Posas Road near Hueneme Road, Camarillo; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily; $10 adults, $7 children 4 to 12, under 4 free; 495-5678.