Grandpa John's Amazing Maze

By: © Nelson Taylor 2008

Festival Location: Lincoln, NE, USA

Festival State: Nebraskan Festivals

Festival Type: Bizarre Festivals

It seems there's a global crew of oddballs who search out and visit mazes around the world. Since 1995, Grandpa John's Amazing Maze in Lincoln has ranked high on their list. Each year before the fall corn harvest, the 51-year old farmer Grandpa John maps out intricate mazes on graph paper and then puts his skills maneuvering a riding lawn mower to work. And each year the maze is different. The 1999 maze was his most impressive yet, a Star Wars-inspired starship cut into five-acres of his corn field.

"The process takes months," Grandpa's wife Judy says. "Then he goes up in an airplane to look it over and takes some pictures." A perfectionist, Grandpa always does some more last-minute cutting. Sometimes he even replants some full-grown stalks in areas he took too much to begin with. From the last weekend in September to Halloween, some 22,000 people pay $5 a head to pass through Grandpa's maze. That equals $110,000, which ain't too bad for several month's work. Sure beats farming, huh Grandpa?