Creating

Award-winning Mazes

Our secret method

Step 1

Laying out the path for mowing
We use a grid system and talented kids to show us where to cut the trails, instead of GPS
Step 2

We start early
We cut the maze into the field when the corn is less than a foot tall
Step 3

First we mow, then we till the trails
Step 4

Patience and precision are the traits required for maze-cutting

How We Make the Treinen Farm Corn Maze

Phase One: Imagine

At Treinen Farm we create our mazes from scratch, using our imaginations, our love of exploring, and lots of graph paper.

Angie and Alan brainstorm. Angie scours the internet for illustrations and photographs to get the the creative juices flowing. We listen to our visitors’ ideas. We keep a big file of inspiring images.

Example: Inspirations for the 2016 corn maze

Rainbows, Kittens, and Killer Baby Unicorns

The 2016 maze was based on all of the amazingly cute things we can find on the Internet: cupcakes with faces! Ninja Kitties! NARWALS! NARWALS! NARWALS!!!

And Unicorns. So many ways to describe unicorns: adorable, beautiful, menacing, bloodthirsty…

Art Inspiration: This year I experimented with a cute, cartoony style, inspired by the Japanese art style “Kawaii” (meaning “cute”. )

Narwals because they are the unicorns of the sea
A tiny baby rhino because rhinos are real-life unicorns
Kitties because they are funny and there would be no internet without them. These kitties are ninjas.
Rainbows because they go with unicorns, and also are symbols of gender-diversity
The unicorn is wearing an infinity symbol, which is a symbol of neurodiversity

Phase Two: Design

Angie spends about 40 hours working through the maze design in Adobe Illustrator. Many drafts later, she and Alan lay out the design on graph paper, a giant grid that tells us where to mow the corn.

Phase Three: Mow

Now it’s time for the maze-cutting extravaganza — usually timed to coincide with the very hottest days in June, just for extra fun.

Call us crazy or call us old-fashioned or just call us the Treinen family. We cut the maze trails into our corn field ourselves, using smart kids and a grid, instead of machines guided by GPS.

Watch our theme take shape

As the year progresses, Angie adds images to our Pinterest boards. You can watch our theme take shape by following her board.

This maze is for you!

We love creating mazes that include something for everyone

For the math and science geeks, we build into our designs math concepts like fractals, the Golden Spiral, and irrational numbers
For lovers of a good tale, there’s a story behind every maze design. For example, the 2011 Icarus corn maze had a Greek Mythology theme with the stories of Icarus, Daedalus, the Cretan labyrinth, and Theseus and the Minotaur. The 2012 Technology maze drew inspiration from Leonardo DaVinci’s “Vitruvian Man”, clockwork, ray guns, steampunk, tesseracts, nanotechnology, and robotics. The 2015 maze is drawn from Aesop’s fables.

Whether you are here for a third grade field trip, a corporate team building event, or a relaxing family outing, we want you to have lots to talk about.

How We Make a Maze

How We Design the Maze (Playlist)

Visit us at the Treinen Farm Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch!
W12420 WI Trunk 60
Lodi, WI 53555

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