Corn maze provides fun puzzle
Nicole Tavenner
A pup makes his way through the Glacier View Christian School’s corn maze.
Nicole Tavenner
Pastor Phillip Neuharth stands at the entrance of the Glacier View Chriistian School’s corn maze.
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
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RONAN – It looks like a field of corn ready on the brink of harvest time, but look a little closer and passersby will find a puzzle ripe for solving.
The Glacier View Christian School, located north of Ronan, is hosting a fall corn maze so families can enjoy some wholesome fun as autumn approaches.
The school, an offshoot of the Ronan 7th Day Adventist Church, decided to try to grow a corn maze after a sister church in Missoula had great success with the idea.
Pastor Phillip Neuharth started practicing with a test plot grown near Havre last year. Then, after the experiment, he and a congregation member started this spring by breaking some sod behind the school. After the seeds had grown a bit, Neuharth chalked out a route that he had drawn on paper and followed it with a rototiller.
The corn grew, and a maze emerged. Just as the school prepared to open at the end of August, rounds of thunderstorms caused problems by flattening sections of the corn.
“You would walk in and whole parts of the maze were messed up,” Neuharth said.
But a little elbow grease and some wire allowed Neuharth to get the corn back to full height.
“We wanted to have a healthy, family friendly activity,” Neuharth said.
The maze — open Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays from 4 to 8p.m. — has had rave reviews in the two weeks it has been open.
Neuharth said some children paid the $5 entry fee for a first visit, and then went home to do chores and returned with $5 in change earned by doing odd jobs so they could go through again.
Neuharth said younger children should be accompanied by an adult, but that the maze is fun for all ages. The average time for a walk-through is 20 minutes.
Ten-year-old Kaylynn Wolf had a grand time searching the maze.
“It was cool. I thought there was going to be a lot of twists and turns and there were,” Wolf said, beaming. “It was super-awesome and I would definitely do it again.”
Neuharth also hid ink stamps in the labyrinth to make it a bit more challenging. When searchers found them, they stamped their hand.
Keelan Dupuis, 6, said he had fun and that the stamps were definitely difficult to find.
“It was amazing,” 8-year-old Nissa Rodda said.
If proceeds from the corn maze exceed the cost of building it, the monies will go to the church and school that built it. Neuharth hopes the maze will be open through October.
