‘She’s real special’: Taylor Swift-inspired corn mazes in Ohio and Maryland go viral
Wheeler Farms in Ohio and Maryland Corn Maze announce Taylor Swift corn maze attractions for fall
Nancy Strong, 90, recently attended two “Eras Tour” concerts in Paris and London to celebrate her milestone birthday. The Dallas, Texas, based business owner went with her family members said it was an experience she will never forget.
Swifties now have an opportunity to check out festive, fall masterpieces inspired by the pop star Taylor Swift.
Two farms in Maryland and Ohio are going viral after photos of detailed Swift-themed corn mazes began to circulate online.
The mazes appear to have people trying to figure out how the intricate designs are laid out, while others are jumping to the conclusion that extraterrestrials are now Swift fans.
Duke Wheeler, manager and owner of Wheeler Farms in Whitehouse, Ohio, has been in the corn maze business for over 20 years and has overrun Wheeler Farms since 1990, he told Fox News Digital.
Wheeler Farms is traditionally a Christmas tree farm, but staff started creating mazes to fill the time leading up to winter.
“You work hard in the winter, [and then] you don’t have much work. So we got into a facility called the ‘Butterfly House,’ where we import butterflies all over the world, and then from there, we got a cornfield that’s 16 acres, and we started having mazes,” Wheeler said.
Each year, Wheeler Farms will present a new themed corn maze based on what’s popular at the time — from the life cycle of a butterfly to even Sarah Palin.
This year, Wheeler sought advice from his daughter and grandchildren who encouraged him to draw inspiration from Swift.
“She’s real special,” Wheeler said.
The process that goes into making the detailed design takes time and a lot of corn, he said.
“We plant the corn at a normal time in spring. This year was a little late because of the rains. We had a lot of water here, so we plant it like normal. And then when it’s about 4-to-6 inches tall, we design the maze,” Wheeler said.
“We had an artist draw up [the design] first, and then we use GP coordinates to try to create the paths in the pictures and that’s it. We cut the corn. [We’ve] cut the plants a couple of times in the last two months just so it’s not too high. You know, people like walking in cornstalks.”
Wheeler said that due to heightened interest, he is planning on stepping things up this year and making sure it’s “unbelievable.”
“It’s just being with family and friends and no cell phones and just having fun,” he added.
If you aren’t in the Midwest, but are closer to the East Coast and are hoping for another Swift-themed fall event, consider checking out the Maryland Corn Maze.
Carol Paul, owner of the Maryland Corn Maze, located in Gambrills, Maryland, was also inspired by the Time’s Person of the Year recipient when it came to this year’s corn maze theme.
It was her son’s friend who first proposed the idea of using Swift as the central focus for the maze and, at first, Paul did not think it was the right idea.
“I was really worried at first… [my daughter-in-law] said, ‘She’s the most wholesome thing out there,’ so I started following it, and I was like, ‘I think it’s true. There’s nothing bad out there about her,’” Paul told Fox News Digital.
Paul thought about how much her daughter-in-law loves the pop star and figured that Swift fans might be the perfect audience.
“I started thinking, ‘You know what? It’s [my daughter-in-law’s] age bracket that decides who comes here. It’s the moms who decide, or it’s the girlfriends who decide what they’re doing on the weekend,” Paul said.
Paul consulted with her daughter-in-law to learn everything she could about Swift.
Usually, Paul and her team start thinking of maze ideas about a year before the next season opens, and they need a final design mapped out by February so they can start growing the corn.
“By the end of June, we plant and we always plant just a rectangle, plant the whole field, and then we go in and we use some good old fashioned arithmetic, and we use Jeeps and we spray paint points and we string them and flag them and then we kind of just kill down the corn in those paths,” Paul said.
Paul works with the Utah-based company Maize to turn designs into something that can be turned into a full-scale corn maze.
The Maryland Corn Maze is a full-scale fall festival and to continue with the Swift theme, a singer, Kanin Wren, will come out and perform the artist’s hits for one night.
Paul is even working with concessions to make a lavender lemonade inspired by the singer’s hit “Lavender Haze.”
Paul has had her own fair share of fun, creative corn mazes including a Harry Potter theme.
