Staff Writer
CARIBOU — Engrained in seasonal tradition for the fifth consecutive year, Goughan’s Berry Farm has created a Maine state masterpiece on a cornfield canvas using a weed whacker as a brush, the truly stunning detail of which can only be truly appreciated from the sky.
Contributed photo
Goughan’s Berry Farm’s annual corn maze is now open from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. seven days a week until Oct. 31.
Starting fresh every year with six acres of grain as a pallet, Mark and Gloria Goughan look for conceptually significance of their design, taking into consideration the ideas of five or six key members of the community, and the word around the community has been “celebrate.”
“This year we were getting all those buzz words about 150ths and parties, and if you listen to the news or you read the newspapers, you knew the 150th was coming up for Caribou and Presque Isle, and there was [also] a 150th in New Brunswick,” Mark Goughan said. “That planted the seed of celebration, but there’s always a celebration in Aroostook County every year,” he added, stating that they decided that this was the year to celebrate Aroostook County.
All Roads Lead to Aroostook County is the theme of this year’s corn maze, which sprawls over the six acres like a page from an oversized atlas, complete with the vegetative versions of major routes.
Aside from finding their way out, visitors have three games they can play in the maze; winning any of the three earns the reward of a free ice cream cone.
Game options include State Trivia, where five of the 10 questions must be answered to win; Maine Geography, where five of the 10 questions must also be answered to win and the third game is a find-and-seek of various iconic-Maine items including six lighthouses, six ski mountains, five potatoes, five saw mills and four blueberry rakes.
According to Mark, you enter the maze in Kittery and emerge in the North Western Maine Woods.
Winding your way around ‘the state’ will take at least a half hour to 45 minutes, though maze-wanderers could easily spend three hours pondering which path of the roads diverged in the corn to travel.
The maze is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Oct 31 and costs $7 per person. Children under 5 are admitted free.
While the maze is an adventurous destination for all ages and remains an attractive activity in The County, the saying rings true that success does not come easy.
Mark’s son-in-law, Jason Shannon, has field preparations for the maze down to a science at this point.
“He plants the field twice in each direction, which is common sense so you can’t see down row of corn, and then I go in with a weed whacker and cut out the design when the corn starts to grow,” Mark explained, adding that while he’s a self-proclaimed inept artist, he has always been good at math.
“It’s just lines,” he said modestly.
He’s created such designs as a Moose; the Maine Potato Board’s popular character, Spuddy; a Goughan’s Berry Farm spin on the painting, American Gothic, by Grant Wood; and an eagle.
Goughan’s Berry Farm is located at 875 Fort Fairfield Road in Caribou.
