36 days ago
DIXON, CA - Billed as the 2009 Guinness Book of World Records' largest corn maze, the Cool Patch Pumpkins corn maze is now perhaps the flattest in the world.
Hit by a storm's powerful winds that swept across Northern California Tuesday, the 11-foot cornstalks were no match for Mother Nature. The maze will be closed for the rest of the season.
"It just makes you sad. There's a lot of work that went into that, and the people were really enjoying it this year," said Mark Cooley, who along with his brother Matt created the 43-acre corn maze that was more challenging than ever to navigate.
Cooley said he knew the winds were strong Tuesday afternoon and drove by to see his maze, but he didn't see the full extent of the damage until Wednesday morning when the wind and rain cleared.
"We're not sure what we're going to do with this one. Right now there's not much here," said Cooley. He said the maze would have been in operation through Halloween into the first week of November.
Cooley said while the corn maze was destroyed, he may still try to clear the paths to the lookout stations made from old cargo vans so people can at least get an overhead view of what the maze looked like before the damage.
Cooley said he plans to open this weekend to sell pumpkins and offer other attractions at his farm, such as two mini-mazes for little ones.
"We still have the pumpkin trails, the wagons, and the cars, the corn bath, straw mountain. We still have those other activities," Cooley said.
News10/KXTV
