This fall, the Twin Cities Harvest Festival and Maze isn’t just about twisting trails and towering stalks of corn. With a brand-new design paying tribute to first responders, this year’s maze is a heartfelt thank you to the heroes who keep our communities safe.
“With so many things on the news about officers passing away in the line of duty, we thought, ‘How can we do something that we truly care about and support?’” said Bear Bouwman, part of the family behind the popular maze. “It’s important to us to recognize their sacrifice.”
Corn maze a family affair
For more than a decade, Bear’s father, Bert, an experienced farmer and corn maze developer, along with his mother and five siblings, have run the Twin Cities Maze.
Since 2010, the Bouwman family has raised over $200,000 for local charities. This year, a portion of ticket sales will go to the Minnesota 100 Club, which supports families of first responders who die in the line of duty.
As for the famous maze, the design process is as hands-on as it gets.
“A lot of mazes now use GPS and tractors to automatically plant the whole maze,” Bouwman explained. “But we’re old-fashioned. We literally start at our kitchen table with a huge piece of engineering graph paper. We draw it all by hand and then plant the maze in a north-south-east-west pattern.”
Once the design is transferred to the field, two people mark it with construction paint, and a crew of seven to 10 uses hoes to carve out the trails.
“It generally takes about seven days,” Bouwman said. “And we make sure all the trails are wheelchair and stroller accessible. We even go through with a rake to make it nice and smooth.”
Visit the corn maze
The Twin Cities Harvest Festival and Maze is located off Highway 169 between Brooklyn Park and Champlin. It will be open on weekends from Sept. 21 to Oct. 27.
Jenna Gloeb
Jenna Gloeb is an Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist, media producer, public speaker, and screenwriter. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and on-air host for CCX Media. Jenna is a Minnesota native and resides in the Twin Cities with her husband, son, daughter, and two dogs.
