Haunted Corn Maze Iowa Amazes Visitors

By Alexandra Anderson


Creating a haunted corn maze Iowa involves carving an intricate pattern into a corn field. Viewed from the air or in an aerial photograph, these cheeky works of art are quite impressive. When decorated annually in honor of Halloween, they become instruments of terror. Visitors grope their way out to safety, confronted by the occasional grisly surprise.

From early October, farmers adorn their masterpieces with spooky ornaments, charge admission and invite tourists try their luck amid the spooks and ghouls. Once the Halloween festivities are over, the crop is harvested. A family-friendly, community social event becomes an ingenious source of extra income for America's hard-pressed farmers.

Corn, or maize, is a yellow cereal grain. It grows on structures called 'ears' on long, strong stalks with broad, long leaves. The scientific name for maize is Zea mays. Records show that it was cultivated since prehistoric time in South America. The golden kernels may be scraped off or served fresh on the ear, as a vegetable accompaniment to a meal, processed and packaged as a popular breakfast cereal or lightly oiled and cooked at high heat to produce popcorn, a savory cinema snack.

Another interesting Halloween outing is to pay a visit to the Buddy Holly crash site in Clear Lake. Rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens perished here when their Beechcraft Bonanza crashed in poor weather. The trio were traveling from a gig at the Surf Ballroom onward to their next venue in Minnesota.

Iowa is a haven for Halloween enthusiasts. Located in Villisca, the Axe Murder House stands as testimony to the fact that the state earns more money from tourism than it does from the entire corn industry. A grisly murder took place here in 1912, when Josiah Moore was hacked to pieces alongside his wife and their six children.

Fortunately for sci fi nerds and those of a sensitive disposition, there is more to Halloween than blood and gore. The future birthplace of James T. Kirk, commander of Star Trek's flagship, the Starship Enterprise, is marked by both a plaque and a replica of the famous, albeit fictitious, space craft. Each year on March 22, fans converge on the town in homage to a man who lives mainly in our imaginations.

Unintentionally, the Gateway to Iowa, a massive metalwork called 'Odyssey', located outside the town of Council Bluff, provides another link between Halloween and the Hawkeye State. Designed by New York artist, Albert Paley, and costing $3.5 million to construct, the statue consists of four conical arrangements of spiky metal. Local motorists refer to it as, among other things, 'Freddy Krueger Hands'. Such derision is surprising, considering that the Golden Spike Monument, another tall, pointy structure, was built in 1939 in tribute to the Transcontinental Railroad.

There is certainly more to this quiet, low profile state than the casual visitor might expect. Its haunted corn maze Iowa and bizarre, piercing metalwork suggest that it has a distinct playful side.




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