A Different Kind of Crop: How a Corn Maze Grew Into a Family Legacy

What started as a way to supplement farm income has grown into a fall tradition for generations of families. On a farm, sometimes the best ideas come from simply looking at what you already have and asking, ”What else can we do with it?” In today's farming network, it is becoming a daily question. For Grandpa Leon, magazine articles from the Midwest eventually led them to plant a field of corn; with a few winding paths, and the rest is history. 

Today, the Walla Walla Corn Maze is a familiar part of fall in the Walla Walla Valley. But when the idea first came up, it wasn't about building a destination attraction. It was about finding another way to bring income back to the farm.

Those magazine articles sparked an idea, and he brought that idea home and talked with his children and their spouses. Pulling this off would take all hands on deck. 

"We needed a way to supplement the farm," the family explains. "They had heard that it worked for that purpose in the Midwest, and there was no one around here who had started a corn maze, so they decided to give it a shot."

They hoped a few people from the area would show up. Twenty-six years later, what began as a secondary income idea has now become much bigger. It is a business, but it is also a family project, a fall tradition and, for the younger generation, simply part of growing up.

For a farmer, corn is corn — until you grow it for a maze. The goal isn't to produce the biggest ears or the highest grain yield. In fact, some of what a farmer normally wants is exactly what the maze doesn't need. "We need it to stay green as long as possible," the family explains. "We also don't want huge ears of corn, or it will add extra weight to the corn stalks."

The timing is different, too. Instead of planting when they normally would for a farm crop, the Filans wait several weeks. They plant the maze corn just a few days before Memorial Day. That later planting helps the corn grow taller, giving visitors walls high enough to hide the paths.

Planting the corn is one of the first steps, yet the maze is far from finished. By early June, the design is usually ready. But the Filans don't simply take a tractor and drive the pattern into the field. Their process is surprisingly old-fashioned — and very precise. The maze design starts on graph paper. Each square represents a 10-by-10-foot section of the actual field.

Then the family takes that design outside. The family places six different colored ribbons around the perimeter fence, with a ribbon every 20 feet. They then use stakes and matching ribbons to divide the field into four quadrants. From there, the family essentially creates a giant dot-to-dot puzzle. 

One person stands along one side of the field while another stands on the other. Dad looks at the design and calls out a color combination and a measurement. A point is marked. Then another measurement is made. Another point goes in. And another. Eventually, the field is covered in points that will become the maze. Those math classes come in handy here. 

Once all the points are marked, the family connects them with spray paint. That gives them a chance to walk the lines, check the curves, and adjust before they cut the paths. Then comes the hard part. The paths are sprayed about five feet wide. Any corn that survives the spray has to be removed by hand with a hoe. And they don't actually know what the finished design will look like from above until the path corn dies back and we get a picture from above. 

"So after we spray, we just hope and pray it turns out right," the family says. The maze may look like simple fall fun to visitors, but a lot of work happens long before the first customer walks through our gate. 

Weather is one of the biggest challenges. Wind can be especially hard on the crop, with the constant concern that the tall corn will blow over. Then there is the timing. Maze work happens at the same time the farm's regular harvest is underway, which means Dad can't simply step away from the combine or other harvest work whenever something needs to be done.

Much of the maze work falls on the family's younger generation, along with close friends who are called in when extra hands are needed. As the corn reaches full height, the leaves have to be bent down and tucked away from the paths so they don't scratch visitors. This can be a never-ending task. New leaves pop out. Someone has to go back through the maze and tuck them away again. And again. And again. That is part of what visitors don't see when they walk into a finished maze. The corn may look effortless. It isn't.

Over the years, the maze has grown along with the family. The early designs were simple. Today's designs are much more intricate, as is the event planning. The family has added a food vendor, admission and concession areas, corn cannons, a bridge, a tunnel, and a haunted house area. As the event grew, we needed more help.  During regular daytime hours, about 25 people are needed to keep everything running.

Family members handle many of those jobs. Friends help man the hill, bridge, and tunnel. Mom and an aunt work in the concession. While there is still daylight, a sister and other family members operate the corn cannons. Others spend their time inside the maze, helping visitors who have lost their way.

Trust us, plenty of people do get lost. That's part of the fun.

The family says the response from returning visitors has been one of the most rewarding parts of the business. Some families say the maze has become part of their annual fall tradition. Others tell the Filans they drive several hours every year just to come back.

In an agricultural community, this kind of connection matters.

The farm is no longer just producing something for market. It is becoming a place where people make memories. That kind of direct connection between farms and consumers is becoming an increasingly important part of Washington agriculture. According to the USDA's 2022 Census of Agriculture, Washington had 3,564 farms reporting food sold directly to consumers, totaling nearly $98.7 million. That's up from about $68.6 million in 2017.  

The corn maze isn't a food business, but it fits into that same larger idea: finding ways to bring people onto the farm and create another source of farm-related income.

Toward the end of the maze season, when the sun goes down … it becomes a haunted maze. In retrospect, the scary side of the maze wasn't part of some grand business plan from the beginning. It started with two teenage boys.

During the first year, two boys kept going through the maze over and over while their parents waited outside. Eventually, their dad jokingly asked Leon if there was anything they could use to scare the boys. As luck would have it, Leon had a taxidermied bobcat. So, when the boys reached a path near the parking lot, Leon and another family member slipped into the corn, shoved the bobcat out onto the path, and growled. The boys screamed and were scared half to death.

And apparently, that was the beginning of something. Remember how we said, sometimes the best ideas come from what you already have. The family began recruiting volunteers to scare people at night, and the idea grew year after year. You’d be shocked how many people want to volunteer for the haunted maze. 

Today, the transition from a daytime family attraction to a nighttime haunted maze is almost an operation unto itself.  First, everyone must get out of the maze; the operation shuts down for about an hour and a half. For staff, it's time to eat, put on costumes, and then everyone meets for a staff meeting.

Then the gates open again. The peaceful daytime crowd of families and young children gives way to teenagers, college-aged visitors, and adults looking for a little adrenaline. "By far the majority of people want to come for the scary time," the family says.

We mentioned that the daytime operations need about 25 people. At night, the goal is around 70. This includes 40 or more volunteer scarers, plus five or six additional people wandering the maze to help with security and anyone who needs assistance. The family members who spent the day helping visitors find their way through the maze often switch roles at night.

Now they're the ones hiding in the corn.

After all these years, the Filans have accumulated plenty of stories. Some of the funniest come from the haunted maze.

There are the people who proudly admit they scared themselves so badly they had an accident.

And then there are the men who, according to the family, will shove their girlfriends or wives out of the way when something jumps out of the corn. Just so they can get away,

The family's assessment?

"Survival of the fittest."

The Walla Walla Corn Maze has now been around long enough that one generation has watched another grow up inside it. This may be the most important part of the story.

To the original generation of siblings, the maze started as a business idea — something they hoped would help supplement the farm. Now their children carry it forward.

For those "Corn Maze Kids," it is simply part of life. "It is all we have ever known," they say. The maze has become their legacy. Every spring, they start thinking about it again. By Memorial Day, the corn is going into the ground. By June, the design is taking shape. Through the summer, the corn grows, and the work continues.

Then fall arrives. The gates open. Families walk into the corn. Children try to find their way out. Friends gather. Visitors return. And after dark, the whole place changes.

What started as a way for a farm family to create another income stream has become something the Filans never could have completely mapped out on that first sheet of graph paper. They were trying to help keep the farm going. Instead, they also grew a tradition.

And after more than two decades, the Walla Walla Corn Maze has become part of the fall landscape — not just for the family that built it, but for the families who come back every year to get a little lost together. It's a little different from the normal sights and sounds of harvest.

But then, that's what makes the maze different.

 Check them out on facebook @Walla Walla Corn Maze or email at wallawallacornmaze00@gmail.com for more information.

 The Maze opens Sept. 25th, with scary nights starting on Friday, October 9^th (Dark to 10) on select days. Approved