This article was re-printed with permission from Debra Fitzgerald, Pipestone County Star.
A cornfield not far from Edgerton has the state of Minnesota carved into it with all 87 counties delineated. The maze is the artistic creation of Seth and Randy Spronk of Edgerton. This is the fourth year the father-son duo have designed and cut their own pattern into a cornfield just outside Edgerton to benefit the Rock River Pumpkin Festival that takes place this year on Saturday, Oct. 1. The corn maze opens to festival-goers on that day and thereafter, to the general public for the month of October, according to Denise DeKam at Southwest Minnesota Christian (SWC) High School, the primary organizer of the event.
The idea for the image of this year’s corn maze popped into Seth’s head during a brainstorming session. Getting that idea onto the field was a lot trickier. The two have gotten faster, cutting, as a general rule, 1-2 miles of maze path across 1-2 acres of field, but, “This is one of the more complex mazes we’ve done,” Seth said, due to the number of individual paths required to create 87 distinct counties.
“Technologically daunting” is one of the ways Seth described the designing process, which can be vastly oversimplified by stating he uses three different software components to design and geo-reference the image, before taking it to the field on a skid-steer’s GPS. From that point on, “I just turn on the air-conditioner and find a good radio station,” he said.
The Spronks create the maze not because they’ve got a bunch of spare time. “It’s a benefit for the community and local schools,” Seth said.
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