See if you can find your way out of this favorite fall activity in Dunmore.
In 2018, Michelle Wilfong, a high school teacher in Pocahontas county, overheard some of her students talking about how cool it would be if there was a corn maze to go to nearby—closer than the nearest one, two hours away. “Hey, Mrs. Wilfong,” they said, “you should have one on your farm.” At the time, Wilfong and her husband, Charles, had just given birth to their son, Charles Albert Wilfong III, “CW” for short. With a little arm-twisting from her students and inspiration from their newly named son, CW’s Corn Maze came to life and officially opened to the public in 2019.
The maze is located on the Wilfongs’ 10,000-acre farm in Dunmore. They raise livestock there and a number of crops, selling vegetables at the local farmers market, to community members, and to the school system. “We also sell our own meat,” Wilfong says. In fact, they try to use as much of their own meat for concessions during the corn maze months as they can. They have plans to offer a larger stand and a greater variety of foods in the future.
But for now, CW’s Corn Maze is a small, family-run operation. “It’s primarily just my husband and I and our son, and then we have some close friends, and we do hire some high school students to help us as well,” Wilfong says. The Wilfongs also pick a theme for the maze each year, settling on “Dino-Mite” for the 2022 season.
“Our son has been addicted to dinosaurs for the past year, so whenever we asked him what he wanted to do for the corn maze, he said, ‘Dinosaurs!’”
Not only will CW’s Corn Maze offer the Dino-Mite challenge, but the Wilfongs plan to offer haunted hay wagon rides, nights reserved for exploring a haunted corn maze, and opportunities to navigate the maze by flashlight.
And there’s more. “Every year we have continued to reinvent and add new things,” Wilfong says. “This year we are excited to announce that we have a u-pick sunflower field in conjunction with our usual u-pick pumpkin patch.” Also new for guests this year are a mining sluice and a large jump pad.
Admission to the maze is $10 per person, with a discount for groups—the Wilfongs are interested in hosting more schools and youth groups. The maze is tentatively scheduled to open September 24 and run until the Sunday before Halloween. Head down to the maze Saturdays and Sundays through the late harvest season to see if you can find your way out.
READ MORE ARTICLES FROM WV LIVING’S FALL 2022 ISSUE
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