# How do they make corn mazes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 13, 2006, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-corn-mazes/372589 "2006-09-13T19:10:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-corn-mazes/372589/1 "2006-09-13T19:10:16Z")
Do they use GPS? Some are so complex, I can’t imagine how they could be done just by sight. Since crop circles started before GPS became common, How did the pranksters get them so perfect? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Call_Me_Shirley)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-corn-mazes/372589/2 "2006-09-13T19:19:17Z")
There is a corn maze near my home, I asked the guy how he did it and he said GPS. He just programs it in and the tractor drives itself. The way that crop circles have been faked is well documented, and I’m sure it can be found on google. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-corn-mazes/372589/3 "2006-09-13T19:25:35Z")
It’s extremely easy to make a perfect circle. All you need is a stake and a length of cord. Stake the cord to the center, hold on to the cord, then walk around in a circle. Child’s play. More complicated shapes can be made using surveying techniques that were old-school even back when they were building the pyramids in Egypt. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-corn-mazes/372589/4 "2006-09-13T20:15:47Z")
Thanks to you both, my guess was pretty close. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-corn-mazes/372589/5 "2006-09-13T20:58:14Z")
Amazed by maiz mazes, huh? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-corn-mazes/372589/6 "2006-09-13T21:13:25Z")
You know what would be really cool? A cornfield Pac-Man game! The farmer would have to hire some energetic kids or teens to play the ghosts, but just think about it. The power pills could be a giant pumpkin resting on a couple of hay bales with some sound-effect gadget that makes a loud, siren-like sound for, say, fifteen seconds. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-corn-mazes/372589/7 "2006-09-13T21:24:40Z")
[Cecil on crop circles](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_075.html). ---
**Author:** ![xbuckeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9e8a1a/32.png) [@xbuckeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xbuckeye)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-corn-mazes/372589/8 "2006-09-13T22:56:27Z")
They had a news fluff piece on a few months ago where the farmers went out when the corn was still short and marked the route with those little surveying flags. Then they went in with a harvester and took out the paths. So really, the maze has been there for months now. I’m going this weekend to get lost in a dinosaur that is 3 miles long! URL isn’t working for me right now [linky](http://www.treinenfarm.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-corn-mazes/372589/9 "2006-09-13T23:53:45Z")
Friends of mine own several farms and have a huge craft show and a festival for a weekend in October selling thousands of pumpkins and pies and all sorts of other sundries. While the corn is still knee high in the early summer one of the brothers-in-law sketches out a rough map and drives around on his riding lawnmower making the maze. It’s not one of these amazing dinosaurs or elaborite patters that other posters have seen, but it’s a lot of damn fun Sunday night when everything is said and done and we are beered up beyond belief, relieved that it’s all over and we go bombing around full speed in a golf cart.