Maize Maze to Return With Some New Twists

CAMARILLO —  The Amazing Maize Maze, a cornfield labyrinth with East Coast roots that debuted here last summer, is back for a second season.

Richard Rogers, owner of Pacific Earth Resources,which operates the attraction, said Tuesday that planning is underway for this year’s maze, scheduled to open June 8 and run through the end of the year.

Last year, the maze drew about 50,000 visitors, mostly children and families, according to Rogers. Rogers said he lost money, mostly because the cost for county permits exceeded $100,000, though some of the permits are good for a decade.

While last year’s maze was based on the design of a California mission, this year’s theme is the Aztec calendar, a “celebration of time” to commemorate the new millennium, Rogers said.

This year, Pacific Earth Resources will grow a second four-acre field alongside the first maze. In the fall, when the first maze begins to dry up, the second planting will be ready for cutting, allowing for a fresh green maze that can remain open through the winter holidays.

Admission to the attraction will increase this year to $7 for children and $10 for adults, up from last year’s $5 and $8. Group discounts will continue to be available.

Developed in 1993 by New York producer Don Frantz, the Amazing Maize Maze concept has taken on different themes in several states. Clues and interactive games are developed in concert with each maze’s theme, to teach participants about a period of history as well as about group and survival skills.

This year’s Camarillo maze is likely to teach participants about agricultural gods worshiped by the Aztecs, organizers said.

County supervisors greeted Rogers warmly on Tuesday when he came before them to present several members of the county’s planning department with plaques thanking them for helping his maze to operate smoothly last year.

“Get lost,” he told supervisors, reciting the maze’s slogan. But he admitted that speaking it to politicians had an added benefit: “It is cleansing to say that.”