Explore Colorado Farm’s 25 Years A-maize-ing Corn Mazes

When the air and light change around the middle of September, our family feels the call to all things fall.

The cool mornings beg for sweater weather (even if high temps can still hit near 90 degrees).

The light and the air hint at the changes coming even on those warm afternoons.

They cue the best family traditions: pumpkin patches (including the search for Colorado’s biggest pumpkin), autumn train rides, leaf-peeping drives and corn mazes.

Anderson Farms

For us, that not-to-miss corn maze every year is at Anderson Farms in Erie, Colorado.

The Andersons came to Colorado in 1911 and farmed south of Mead until Interstate 25 was to be built in 1958. They sold some of their land for that project and bought the “South Farm” near Erie.

They grew corn, sugar beets, barley, alfalfa, and wheat and, in the 1930s, began raising cattle.

As Colorado — and thus farming — changed, the Andersons changed, too.

In 1997, the family started a small pumpkin patch with hayrides and a few farm animals as added attractions. Then, in 1999, they added Colorado’s first corn maze.

Corn mazes are a relatively new phenomenon, said to have been born in Pennsylvania in 1993.

Here’s a bit about the history and how they are created (including a cameo by our own Anderson Farms).

The Andersons have been an integral part of growing — and spreading beyond Colorado —the concept of “agritainment,” an opportunity for farming families to remain profitably on their land. While projects like this grow to full-time operations that can supplant the original agricultural focus, they give all of us a touch of that autumn harvest feel and fun.

Keep scrolling to see how the Anderson Farms corn mazes — all 25 of them — have grown over the years.

Anderson Farm Fall Festival

Where: 6728 County Road 3¼, Erie

When: Sept. 25-Nov. 2, 2024

What: Activities include wagon rides, corn maze, combine slide, pedal karts and trikes, wall ball, farm animal viewing, a pumpkin cannon and more.

Add-on events: A petty zoo, gem mining, paintball shooting galleries, escape rooms, campfire party sites, pony rides and more.

Plan your weekends now. And get your corn maze tickets. Anderson Farms activities do sell out.

Anderson Farms' Corn Maze Designs Through the Years

Colorado's Anderson Farms was among the early farms to adopt "agritainment" by turning its corn fields into a-maize-ing mazes.

Today, the maze itself is actually mazes, with four halls of corn sending attendees across 8 miles of trails covering 25 acres of land.

The farm's fall festival has grown to include several attractions and has become a family tradition for thousands of Coloradans.

Here, take a look at the decades of designs and how the maze has grown through the years.

Gallery Credit: Christine Kapperman

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Gallery Credit: Emily Mashak