Corn Maze design celebrates southern Alberta’s attractions

By Lethbridge Herald on July 24, 2025.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman The Lethbridge Corn Maze is ready to open its doors to the public to showcase their latest design highlighting Southern Alberta on Friday morning.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Corn Maze is ready to open its doors to visitors on Friday morning with their latest maze design highlighting what southern Alberta has to offer, from Chinook winds to beautiful landscapes to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and more. 

Theo Slingerland, owner and operator of the Lethbridge Corn Maze, says the maze design is one of his biggest challenges every year, and this year was no different.

“This year we decided on a southwest Alberta theme, so we did the buffalo jump with three buffalos in there, we have clouds that represent the wind, and the outline of Chief Mountain from a picture I took from my yard.”

The design process usually takes place in the winter while the maze is shut down, then in May the corn is planted and in June Slingerland begins to cut out the corn maze following his design. 

“I mow it according to the map I made, and at the end of July we start opening the maze so people can get lost in it until the end of October,” he says.

He’s perfected his technique after many years of mowing the corn maze into different designs, and even though his ways of doing that are trade secrets, he shares that he mows the corn maze the same way he designs it. 

“I design it myself, so I have learned how to make it easier for myself in the last 26 years, and it takes me about two days to cut it out,” says Slingerland. 

The design is cut out before the end of June while the corn is still short, and then it becomes a matter of maintaining the new paths.

“The corn continues to grow around it and then I just have to mow the paths a few times and that’s it. After a few mows it stops growing on the paths.”

Slingerland says he wanted this year’s design to highlight what the region has to offer, not only because it’s the home of his business but also because it is something that connects with those who also live in southern Alberta. 

Some years have been easier than others when it comes to creating a maze design, as he has had the opportunity to highlight big events like Alberta’s birthday in 2005, the Lethbridge Corn Maze 10th anniversary in 2009, the 100th anniversary of 4-H Canada in 2013, and the 150th birthday of Canada in 2017 among others. 

Established in 2000, the maze was a slow process at the beginning, as the concept of a corn maze wasn’t very popular and not many people knew about it. 

“It was a slow-moving process, people didn’t have a clue what a corn maze was,” says Slingerland. “But over time, the interest grew and now after 25 years, we continue to add things every year like our petting zoo, our train rides, our jumping pillow, and this year we added a corn box.”

The corn box is a similar concept to a sand box, where people can go in it and play but instead of sand, there’s corn kernels. 

“And the corn maze has grown a little bit as well, from seven to 10 acres, and in the corn maze itself over the years we have done games, trivia games, scavenger hunt, and a small sun maze made out of sunflowers.”

The sunflowers have started to bloom, but they should be in full boom in the next couple of weeks. 

Slingerland says the evolution of the Lethbridge Corn Maze has partially been influenced by suggestions from visitors. 

“We listen to the people, sometimes I have people asked me do you have this or that, and then I look into it and if it fits within our theme I try to do it.”

One expansion that was not necessarily directly influenced by the public from a suggestion standpoint, but more as a result of visitors’ behaviour, was the petting zoo. 

“We have always had animals in our farm, and we started to notice that people were drown to them,” says Slingerland. “We had a couple of calves and pigs, so we thought we should expand on that and add some more animals and let people pet them.”

He says their biggest success so far has come from adding the goats, as many people enjoy having the opportunity to snuggle up with a goat. 

“Some people come in here and they don’t even go in the corn maze anymore as there are so many things to do in the yard.”

The newest Corn Maze design will be open to the public on Friday at 10 a.m. following summer hours of operation.