Let’s get lost: Clearwater Corn Maze open through October

By JENNIFER K. BAUER
jkbauer@inland360.com

LEWISTON — With the shortest stalks towering 8 feet tall, the Clearwater Corn Maze opens Friday, Oct. 2 at its new location at Lewiston’s Community Park.

This year’s maze offers 2.9 miles of twisting paths that from a bird’s-eye view mark the University of Idaho’s 125th anniversary with trails spelling out “1889” and “Idaho” and following shapes like a pumpkin and a witch’s hat.

“When you’re in there you get lost because you can’t see out,” says Lewiston farmer Steve Kaufman of Kaufman Farms, which collaborated with the University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences to create this year’s maze.

The maze moved from its original location at the Lewiston Roundup Grounds to the park because the park could provide a more reliable source of irrigation water, says Larry Makus, associate dean at the college. Potlatch No. 1 Federal Credit Union offered its parking lot for the event.

The maze will be open Fridays through Sundays during the month of October. Here’s a few more facts about this year’s maze:

–Tickets ($6) will be printed with a map. People will be able to punch their ticket at stations within the maze. After visiting all the stations, tickets can be entered in a drawing.

–Outside the maze, the Kiddie Corral returns with concessions, a straw bale maze for small children, sandboxes filled with peas, a milking demonstration and other activities.

–On Halloween the maze will be “haunted” by University of Idaho students in costume.

–The popular pumpkin cannon will be missing from this year’s event because the pumpkin crop did not come through, Makus says.

–When the maze ends, the corn will be harvested for grain for cattle. A portion of maze proceeds will fund activities of the college’s clubs through the Agricultural Student Affairs Council.

if you go
WHAT: Clearwater Corn Maze
WHEN: Open Fridays through Sundays in October 2014; 6-10 p.m. Fridays and Halloween; noon to 10 p.m. Saturdays; noon to 5 p.m. Sundays
WHERE: Lewiston Community Park
COST: $6 per person, kids 4 and younger admitted free
OF NOTE: Parking for the maze is at Potlatch No. 1 Federal Credit Union, 1015 Warner Ave.