Dixon Patch Viewfinder: Cooleys and Crew Begin Laying Out World's Largest Corn Maze

A crew led by Cool Patch's Matt Cooley was out in a field adjacent to the old Milk Farm location on Friday, beginning the process of laying out this year's corn maze, which will open to visitors September 16. The Guinness Book of World Records says it's the world's largest. The location is just across Freeway 80 from Dixon.  

In order to time the maturation of the corn properly, corn for the maze is planted much later in the season than usual. On Friday the crew was placing white flags at regular intervals. Next, each of those flags will be replaced with a flag carrying a location designator. 

Crews will again go into the field with a corn-cutting device beginning July 18 to cut the maze's passageways. After that, Roundup will be sprayed on the cut walkways to insure the corn doesn't return there (after all, corn is a member of the grass family and could easily grow back). 

This year, the corn maze has been moved to a different field in order to avoid plant diseases, according to Matt Cooley. Still, the field will offer 43 acres of mind-teasing twists and turns.

In the next field to the east, pumpkin plants are just emerging from the soil -- some 40 varieties of them -- timed to also mature in time for the grand opening in September. A few stands of corn have been mixed in with the pumpkins for variety. 

Brothers Mark and Matt Cooley also commercially farm sunflowers, wheat and tomatoes nearby.

In terms of anything new this year, Matt and Mark are considering building a tunnel. However, he didn't speculate on the possibility of alien spaceships dropping by to create crop circles.

For more information visit www.coolpatchpumpkins.com.