Something unusual is growing in American cornfields this fall. Farms from Maine to West Texas planted patriotic portraits into their corn this year, including bald eagles, the Statue of Liberty and the Declaration of Independence, and they open for visitors this September. The creative brief came from the same place for all of them: America’s 250th birthday.
Cartoon characters and video game themes have filled these fields for years, with farms switching designs every season. The semiquincentennial gave them a once-in-250-years subject, and each farm ran with it differently. Some designed mazes meant to be seen from the air. Others built ones you have to solve from the inside.
Patriotic Corn Mazes Pop Up Across the Country
The scale ranges from five-acre trails to 30-acre installations visible from passing aircraft. Treworgy Family Orchards in Levant, Maine, a four-time USA Today 10Best national corn maze winner, packed four acres of 60,000 cornstalks with a bald eagle, the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell. Valley Corn Maize in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, went bigger, dedicating all 30 acres to the America 250 logo and all six U.S. military branches, opening Sept. 12.
Over in South Dakota, Heartland Country Corn Maze near Harrisburg carved an 11-acre bald eagle perched above an “America 250” sign for its 27th season. Stony Hill Farms in Chester, New Jersey, tied its maze to “NJ 250,” honoring the state’s own 250th alongside the national milestone.
Richardson Adventure Farm in Spring Grove, Illinois, calls itself home to the world’s largest corn maze, and this year’s design earns it. Twenty-eight acres, 9.7 miles of trail, three signers of the Declaration of Independence, a 13-starred early American flag and fireworks streaming from a star reading “250.” MazePlay, the Idaho-based design company behind the layout, also helped the farm open a renovated octagon barn this Sept. 12, a structure the farm says dates to 1876, exactly 100 years after the Declaration was signed.
Cherry Crest Adventure Farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a past USA Today national top maze winner, named its five-acre design “Let Freedom Ring,” with nearly 2.5 miles of paths and interactive checkpoints celebrating American symbols and traditions. Near Lubbock, At’l Do Farms in Texas opens Sept. 12 with its own America 250 design.
Farm Mazes Turned Into Puzzles and Escape Rooms
Middle Springs Farm in Paris, Kentucky, did something no other farm on this list attempted. It built two mazes at once. According to LEX18, the Bourbon County farm’s main corn maze walks visitors through 250 years of American agriculture with educational stations from 1776 to today. The bonus maze, made from sorghum-sudangrass, flips the concept entirely, asking visitors to imagine what farming looks like in 2276. Both are designed and cut in-house.
Skelly’s Farm Market in Janesville, Wisconsin, skipped the patriotic theme this year and went full escape room instead. Its 2026 maze, “Deserted Island Escape,” puts visitors through six acres of trail with original characters called the Squashees, puzzles and a real door at the exit. A smartphone app adjusts difficulty by age group. The farm’s GPS shows visitors their live position inside the maze. Skelly’s has been doing this since 1998 and won Wisconsin’s 2025 Governor’s Innovation in Tourism Award, and it knows what it’s doing.
The Way These Mazes Are Made Is Changing Too
Most corn mazes start the same way. Farmers plant a full field, then cut the design into the crop with GPS-guided mowers or tillers once it grows. Some farms tried something different this year.
A-Maize-ing Farms in Mayfield, Kentucky, programmed the maze layout directly into the planting process. The planter skips rows where the paths should be, so the field grows into the finished design without any cutting. The farm told WPSD Local 6 that MazePlay used a custom planter to do it for its “God Bless America” America 250 design. Skelly’s says on its website it did the same with a neighbor’s precision planter and software built in-house over 20 years, saving seed and cutting down the mowing time.
These designs won’t last. Many of these farms harvest the corn for feed by winter and the mazes disappear with it. If any of these are within driving distance, September is the time to go.