THIS MAZE IN MOULTON HAS MAIZE

Family decides to use cornfield for Texas-themed fun

September 18, 2007 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.
By Rebecca Holm - VICTORIA ADVOCATE

MOULTON - Listening to 58-year-old Elyse Chaloupka talk about her family's corn maze, you can almost picture yourself there, hearing the crickets in the fields and screams of delight from children as they race through the seven-acre cornfield.

Family members - Chaloupka; her husband, Gene, also 58; his brother Ernest Chaloupka Jr., 53; and his wife, Helen, 52 - have created Rocky Creek Maze, 784 Lavaca County Road 251 on their farm. Starting on Sept. 28, the maze will be open to the public on Friday through Sunday through the end of November. It will also be open for schools during the week.

"The thing that I think that is going to be really different and cool is that we're going to be open at night until 9 p.m.," she said. "We're going to sell glow sticks (so) it lights up your path with a kind of eerie green light.

"For some of the older kids going through at that time, I think it'll be something exciting, something really different, because they are always looking for something more challenging."

The maze, designed by the Chaloupka family, is a complicated giant Texas flag framed by the words "Farming in Texas" and "Lone Star State,"while the field of the flag has images of farming equipment, a cow and even three stalks of corn.

"We've walked through there several times, and it's pretty confusing," she said.

For those who have a fear of getting lost, the family will have workers scattered throughout the maze to help people. Postcards with an aerial photo will also be available for purchase.

So why crop circles, reminiscent of extra-terrestrial landings?

Chaloupka said that about two years ago her husband had read an article about corn mazes in a magazine.

"He just started bugging me about it," she said. Her husband persuaded her to do some research into the growing trend of crop mazes.

The two then contacted MAiZE, a company that specializes in building cornfield mazes, and visited a MAiZE corn maze in Hondo.

While in Hondo, the couple learned about a MAiZE conference in Seattle, Washington.

"So we went to Seattle, Washington, and met some of the other maze owners and some of the things that they did at their mazes, and we just decided we wanted to do it," said Mrs. Chaloupka.

The couple came up with a design and sent the idea to MAiZE. The company refined the design and broke it down into a grid to make it easier to cut the elaborate design, she said. Then workers from MAiZE came out to the family's farm to cut the corn.

"I guess they use GPS ... I really don't even know how they figure it all out," she said.

Chaloupka said the whole process took about half a day.

"It looks like it's going to be popular, and it looks like its going to be a lot of fun," she said.