Opening soon: ‘Lost in Corn.’

Have corn prices fallen that low?

Or are farmers just seized with sudden attacks of whimsy?

Whatever it is, the result is an explosion in the number of corn mazes — what the Eye calls maize mazes — along the Front Range.

Well, maybe not an explosion. But at least a couple are up and running, with farmers charging admission for anyone who is consumed with desire to wander around in tall corn. (Are they counting the number of people who go in? And then the number who come out?)

One maze, in La Salle, charges $4 for children, $6 for adults to roam around a corn mock-up of the Denver Broncos horse-head logo.

The newest corn maze entry is in Evans, on the site of the huge proposed housing development known as Tuscany at 47th Avenue and 37th Street.

There Greeley real estate broker Jim Martin and partner Bill Neal, the Fort Collins developer of the Rigden Farm mixed-use project, plan to build 1,000 housing units in a master-planned, new-urbanist community.

But first, a corn maze.

If one can get above it all — say, in an airplane — one would see that the maze spells out the word “Tuscany.” That fact will be lost, though, on those who wander the tall corn.

Credit Linda DiOrio at newly formed Tuscany Real Estate in Greeley for the corn-maze idea.

“She saw one back east somewhere about a year ago, and said, ‘Hey, that would be such a great idea,'” Martin said.

The Evans maze spreads out over eight acres, with more than three miles of twisting, turning pathways through the 10-foot-tall corn. What better way to spend an autumn afternoon?

Tuscany is throwing the maze open to community non-profit groups as a fund-raising tool through Halloween, when — alas — harvesters will raze the maze.

So far, the Greeley Sliders girls softball group, Greeley Central High School, the Greeley Jay-Cees and the Windsor High School band booster club have signed for two-week stints running the maze, charging $5 bucks a pop for the privilege of getting lost in corn.

on Facebook on LinkedIn