A-Maize-ing Attraction Draws Obies to Kipton

Just when you thought corn had lost its novelty, along comes Adam's Corn Maze. A few miles south of Oberlin in nearby Kipton, this tribute to everybody's favorite grain is not for the faint of heart. Cut out of eight acres of feed corn (so bring your own food if you plan to go), the maze is chock-full of dead-ends, false leads and look-alike corridors.

After seeing several flyers for the maze around town, my friends and I decided to take on the challenge. With our classes over and the spirit of TGIF coursing through our veins, we hit Route 58 last Friday afternoon ready for adventure.

We arrived just as it was opening for business and were greeted by two people at a folding table in front of a small trailer. After paying the five-dollar admission fee, signing in, and each receiving a blank index card, we were directed toward the entrance. The cards, we were told, were for the little rubber stamps scattered throughout the maze. Find all eight stamps and win a bag of chips (or a soda, if you're thirsty).

Although the exit was only a few feet from the entrance, it was clear as soon as we entered that there would be no shortcut out. Fifteen minutes and two stamps later, we decided to add some extra incentive to finding the exit. We split up ­ guys versus girls ­ and decided that whichever group got out first would have to make the other dinner the next night.

Determined not to let our sex down, we females blazed off around a corner only to bump into our male competitors a few twists and turns later. Several minutes of frantically running through the labyrinth ensued, with our group making no progress whatsoever and continually seeing other Oberlin students just as confused as we were.

We decided to employ some sort of strategy to our wandering, first by making arrows out of cornhusks and then by using various landmarks as guides. After almost an hour in the maze, we finally made it to what we thought was the exit. But alas, peeking out from behind the corn stalks, we saw that not only had we lost the bet ­ the guys were sitting comfortably by the trailer ­ but we were coming out the entrance. Losers twice-over, we accepted our defeat with quiet dignity and they got veggie burgers the next night.

Despite my rather humiliating experience there, I managed to talk to Adam Woodrum about his maze. This is its second year, although last year it was a mere five acres. Woodrum is a sophomore at the Agricultural Technical Institute in Wooster; his family owns the farm he used as the site of the project. He came up with the idea for it several years ago after hearing about a corn maze in Dayton. "As a kid, I thought it would be awesome," he said.

He first drew up the layout of the maze on graph paper and then, with the help of some friends, constructed it out of the corn with lawn mowers and weed eaters. It took 200 hours, almost the whole summer, to complete. The time they devoted seems well worth it though, as 2000 people came to the maze last year and Woodrum expects around 3000 this year.

Adam's Corn Maze will be open through October, the last three weeks of which it will be haunted in honor of Halloween. It is open on Fridays beginning at 5:00 and Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00. To get there, take Route 58 South, turn west on Route 20, and then south onto Gifford Road. You won't be disappointed, although I can't promise you'll come out with your pride intact.