A'mazing' place to be a bit corny

One of the best things about the Glacier View School’s first-ever corn maze is that it offers food, fun and life lessons for anyone willing to try it.

Opened at the Ronan Seventh Day Adventist Church school on Aug. 9, the corn maze is the brain child of church pastor Phillip Neuharth.

Along with some much appreciated help from congregation members, Neuharth did most of the work himself. 

“The church opened up the land and I donated my time,” he said.

The busy pastor who oversees the Ronan church and a second Hot Springs church planned, prepared the ground, paid for the seed and implemented the maze’s growth during the summer.

The tilled and rendered ground produced a lifetime of memories for those who wandered through its walkways.

Inspired by a sister church/school in Missoula that does a maze, Neuharth said that about 400 people toured the maze since its opening last summer. Children and adults alike, wandered down the paths of green, then brown corn stalks that shaded their way to the finish line.

“It was kind of in my mind,” he said. “I had a good friend who suggested I think about it. I had the equipment and it is a great activity. It is a healthy family-friendly activity. We get people from the community out there and some from the school. It’s a good way to interact with people in the community.”

Though no one ever got lost for good in the corn maze, Neuharth said that an occasional mazer might become temporarily confused about how to exit. 

“I go in and check periodically,” he said. “Sometimes they find a new pathway to get out. I do encourage kids to have an adult with them. It takes between 15 and 20 minutes.”

When designing the maze, Neuharth considered what path he’d like visitors to take.

“If someone were to fly over it, they would see that the letters of our school is the pathway,” he said. 

Neuharth said the maze also offered him many teaching opportunities through the past few months.

“There are a number of illustrations using the corn maze,” he said. “For corn to be really productive, to produce a mature ear, you have to have other corn around it. I related that to the fact that we as people really have to have each other to grow up and be fruitful in life,” he said.

Neuharth said the corn maze offers those who hear his message the ability to relate a spiritual concept to something physically understandable and common in their lives. 

“If you read the teachings of Christ, he used those types of lessons all the time when he was teaching his people,” he said. “He taught lessons about work or about planting seeds because people can relate to them.”

Neuharth said he began the corn maze project last March when he plowed the sod under. He planted the corn in May. It grew up to be well over six feet tall during its growing season, he said.

But the final time the corn maze will be open is Oct. 24 when the church hosts its annual Fall Festival. 

Neuharth said he will open the corn maze up for a night maze and let folks tour it with flashlights.

Once the corn maze closes for its first season, Neuharth said he will offer free corn to those who would like to glean from his fields.

Neuharth said he hoped someone with a combine would be able to help harvest the field.