Merrow Maze is his work of art

The theme for this year's maze is Connecticut Firsts. Photo courtesy of Chris Kueffner.

There is only one more weekend to visit the Merrow Maze on Route 32 - Nov. 1 and 2. Hours are between noon and 5 p.m.

Driving through Mansfield along Route 32, between Willington and Willimantic, it's hard to miss the sign that urges you to "Look!"

Zipping along, though, it's not likely you will "look" at much - some corn stalks, a cool old barn, a funky green house that is the original Merrow family homestead.

But should you happen to be a pilot in a small plane passing over the property on your way to Windham Airport, the view is quite different.

From the sky, you would see a "drawing" full of odd shapes - a giant tape measure, something that looks like a flying saucer from a 1950s Sci-Fi movie, circus tents and other stuff, as well as the words "CT Firsts."

What you would be looking at is a four-acre "art project," Merrow Maze, created by math teacher Chris Kueffner.

It's an art project you can walk through, because it is carved out of a cornfield.

Kueffner has been "drawing" in the cornfield since 2001, when he decided to do something with the field he acquired when he bought the Merrow property - something that would pay homage to the history of agriculture in Connecticut.

"I've long been a wannabe farmer," Kueffner said. At first he considered grazing animals, but because he and his family don't live there (he rents the house), there would be the hassle of putting up fences and traveling to feed the animals.

Then he was inspired by a friend's corn maze in Middletown. "I picked his brain about it and it seemed like the perfect project... the land would be productive and it would fulfill my desire to pique people's interest in learning about farming," Kueffner said.

The maze had to have a theme, he decided, and would need to be illustrated with what he calls "elements," and the teacher side of him felt compelled to research these elements - and to plant tidbits of information in the maze.

The first year, the theme was agriculture. With the help of farmer Paul Peters (also known as Pumpkin Paul) to make the best use of a long, thin part of the field, one of the elements was a cornucopia with fruit spilling out of it. (The Heckler brothers, dairy farmers from Coventry, have planted the field since the second year.)

Kueffner learned a few things the hard way. "I lay out my design with black plastic instead of using an herbicide - or going through with a machine and cutting things down, like I did the first year. That was so labor intensive and I ended up with so much material," he said.

Kueffner transfers his sketch for the maze to the field by eye. "I do it after the seeds are planted but before the plants come up - and then I'm able to get an idea of what the design looks like, but it's only when I get a pilot to take me over it, do I see if I did it right or not," he said.

His "drawings" now include:

• 100 Years of Flight
• Mansfield's 300th Celebration
• Connecticut's Trees and Forests
• Clean Energy
• A salute to the year both UConn's men and womens' basketball teams won the National Championship (that year, from the air, he saw that he'd created a sneaker with an enormously long tip and had to make adjustments by hacking away at some corn stalks)
• and this year, Connecticut Firsts.

It took time for word to get out about the Merrow Maze, but Kueffner now averages about 1, 000 visitors a season. "Divided over 10 weekends, that's about 10 people an hour. Obviously, it doesn't really come out that way. Columbus Day weekend was very busy, and then I've had days when maybe two people show up. You have to deal with the vagaries of the weather," he said.

There is only one more weekend to visit Merrow Maze, Nov. 1 and 2 - between noon and 5 p.m. Admission covers the costs of creating and maintaining the maze: $6 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under. There also are family discounts and group rates.

There's one question visitors sometimes ask that rubs Kueffner, an otherwise very friendly and down-to-earth guy, the wrong way. It is, "What does your maze support?" - meaning, what charity?

His reply is, "It supports preservation of open space, it supports working farmland and the feel of an agricultural community. It supports what is here."

Posted Oct. 25, 2008

Chris Kueffner stands in one of the paths of Merrow Maze. Photo by Brenda Sullivan.

The 2003 Merrow Maze with the theme of 100 Years of Flight. Photo courtesy of Chris Kueffner.

Visitors to Merrow Maze get a check list to see how many of the info-bits they can find - Chris Kueffner stands beside one about the two-prong socket, a Connecticut first.

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