September 28, 2016
An ‘a-maze-ing’ tradition Around Town
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Eagle Fork Farms recently teamed with the St. Louis Blues to create a 50th Anniversary logo tribute corn maze.
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Eagle Fork Farms marks St. Louis Blues’ 50th anniversary with corn maze By Brett Auten A local farm has tipped its cap toward the St. Louis Blues in a 10-acre way. Eagle Fork Farms recently put the finishing touches on its 2016 corn maze and this year the farm, owned and operated by Charles and Laura Meyer, teamed with the St. Louis Blues to create a 50th Anniversary logo tribute maze. A sprawling Blue Note was cut into the corn with GPS precision in time for last week’s season-opener for the Moscow Mills farm. Once the Meyers got the thumbs up from the Blues to use the trademark, they sent their design ideas to Rob Stouffer at Lee Summit’s Precision Mazes. The Meyers have worked with Precision Mazes for nearly 10 years. Armed with a GPS and computer inside the cab of his Bobcat-esque tractor, Stouffer has turned the small, family-owned business into a national brand, designing and creating corn mazes in 30 states. “I was speaking with my dad about this and 20 years ago no way neither one of us would have thought that this is what I would end up doing,” Stouffer said. “But it is really fun to think about the millions of people and the family memories that
are being made at one of our mazes.” Stouffer has been using commercial grade GPS systems since 1996 and has been creating corn mazes since 2000. Building your own corn maze can take from two weeks to two months. Pricing depends on size, location, and complexity, but corn mazes typically run $2,500$6,000. “Eagle Fork is a unique setting,” Stouffer said. “It really has the feel that you are out in the country. It is an authentic farm experience. I don’t think a lot of people know what they have in Charles and Laura’s place.” Eagle Fork Farms has showcased corn mazes since 2004 and is known for its pumpkin patch, and hayrides. Charles Meyer said his great-grandparents moved to the area in 1871 from Augusta and began farming. Many years later, once Charles retired from the Coast Guard, he and Laura moved back to this region from Michigan. In 1989, the Meyers began raising and selling pumpkins from their driveway to passersby on the roadside near Highway 61. Laura, a former childhood educator including with the Parents as Teachers program, thought a portion of the farm could provide a fun, field-trip-type expe-
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rience for school-age children. Little by little, more school buses started to pull up in the fall for hayrides and fieldtrips. “It just starting growing and growing,” Charles Meyer said. “It’s a lot of work but it’s fun.” The Meyers have worked on the maze’s plans for nearly a year and the Blue Note now joins a long list of creations, whose shelf lives all come to a close at October’s See MAZE page 2
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