The Louisiana Maze is full of twists, turns, dead ends and corn. For the past seven years, thousands of people have made it a fall tradition to visit southern Louisiana’s first cornfield maze, which relocated to the Poplar Grove Plantation in Port Allen this year. “It’s a big puzzle, and you get to be the rat,” Louisiana Maze owner Donald Courville said. The 10-acre cornfield maze sponsored by WAFB Channel 9 and Kleinpeter Farms Dairy features a new maze layout every year. This year’s design is a cow with the words “Udderly Corny” above it. “We promote agriculture,” said Courville, who has been farming for more than 30 years. “For the designs we take turns to have every aspect of agriculture represented. We also like plays on words.” Past designs include crawfish, alligators, sugarcane and the Scarecrow from “The Wizard of Oz.” Courville said 20,000 people visited the cornfield maze last year, and he expects just as many people to visit this year. He said most of the visitors were local, but he was amazed to meet so many people from outside of Louisiana. He said the cornfield maze attracts people of all ages. “The maze is intriguing to a lot of people,” he said. Courville said most people solve the maze in about an hour, but it usually takes them longer at night. The maze’s paths are not lit, and visitors are not allowed to carry large flashlights. “It’s very challenging at night,” he said. “If you take a vehicle to find a place at night, it’s harder to find it. It’s the same with the cornfield.” Elizabeth Repass, English senior, said she and her friends solved the maze in two hours. “We dropped our maps on purpose,” she said. “We got lost because they said it would be more fun.” Jacqueline Serio, pre-medical freshman, said she had fun when she visited the cornfield maze two years ago, but the new location will affect if she goes again this year. “It’s not that far out of the way, but it depends on if I had people who wanted to go with me,” Serio said. Courville spends a minimum of $10,000 each year to maintain the Louisiana Maze. “I have to pay for fertilizer, seeds, herbicide and things like that,” he said. The cornfield maze will be open Thursday through Sunday, Sept. 16 through Dec. 3. Portions of the maze will be haunted in October. Other attractions at Poplar Grove Plantation will include a vortex tunnel, a jumping pillow and a pumpkin patch in October.
—–Contact Angelle Barbazon at [email protected]