Brian and Catherine Bell will be doing their best this fall to put something of a corny spin on the old put-down expression, “get lost.”
Today, the first paying customers will actually engage in the experience of getting lost when they enter the Bells’ Regal Corn Maze, a project that combined the highest levels of computer technology with the ancient art of planting corn.
“It’s incredible how they do this,” said Brian, “You give them the dimensions of your cornfield and they lay the whole thing out in about an hour and a half.”
The “they” is a Utah company called The Maize and the design its workers gridded out on the Bells’ Bell Farm Road, 6.1-acre, corn crop was something of a generic maze with a Halloween motif.
“They tell you that for your first maze, you should keep it simple,” said Brian, an accountant.
At the center of the maze is a design resembling a haunted house, and lost-getters enter the cornfield by way of the top of one the house’s steeples.
Those looking for a quick maze fix can zig-zag their way through a small portion of the carved crop, whose stalks range from 6 to 10 feet tall.
A full tour around the entire maze will take the average person from between 45 and 60 minutes, said Catherine, a wedding planner.
The couple, who have become maze enthusiasts themselves over the past several years, figured the time was right to get into getting lost.
“We’re very excited to get started,” said Catherine. “And even though we open (today), I’m kind of hoping we don’t have too big of a crowd because we have some bugs to work out.”
There are also some deer and groundhogs to think about.
During a quick jaunt down one of the trails of the maze, she picked up a half-eaten ear of corn and told of the problems the couple has had with deer invasions.
“They just take what they want and then grab another one,” she said.
But that problem will work itself out when enough people visit the maze to cause the human scent to take hold.
“Once that happens, they’ll stay away,” Brian explained.
But there are also some groundhogs who burrow their way under the ground of where a bat in the design is carved into the maze.
“I still have to work on that,” Brian said.
But there is more to the Regal Maze (the name comes from a combination of the Bells’ girls, Reagan and Allison) than getting lost in a cornfield.
The attraction sits on a total of 23 acres and all around it are things to do. The grounds include a “corn cannon,” hay mountain and cow train, among other features.
Want to Go?
The Regal Corn Maze is located at 347 Bell Farm Road in Statesville.
It is open weekends from Sept. 11 through Halloween Day and on weekdays during those weeks for field trips and group events.
Admission is $7 for adults; $5 for children aged 5 through 12; free admission for children younger than 5.
For more information call (704) 348-1648 or visit www.regalfarm.com.
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