A-mazin’ family builds frozen treat on their farm

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This article was published 04/01/2019 (2800 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Clint and Angie Masse have built a snowy version of their original corny idea, and it could put their St. Adolphe-area farm in the Guinness World Records.

The owners of the popular A Maze in Corn fall attraction, the Masse family has constructed an elaborate snow labyrinth out of two metre-high snow-packed walls on the same site, located about a 10 minute-drive south of the Perimeter Highway on St. Mary’s Road. It will officially open to the public at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The maze required four tractors, a snow-making machine, about 300 semi-trailer loads of snow, 1,280 metres of wall and cost about $50,000 to build but Angie said it’s going to be “snow mazing.”

This past fall was A Maze in Corn’s worst in 21 years because of wet, cold weather. The snow maze will be a chance to recoup some of the losses and grow the business, she said.

Getting through it will take about an hour, she said.

“We’re sticking with our same theme as the corn maze, which is ‘outdoor fun with friends and family.’ We’re big winter people and we think that as long as you dress properly, you can really enjoy the winter in Manitoba and be active,” she said. “You can come out here for a couple of hours, be active and get the fresh air.”

Clint, who designed the snow maze, has been in contact with Guinness. Barnes & Duncan Surveying, Geomatics & Engineering will do an official survey Feb. 10 which will be submitted to Guinness in the hopes it will be declared the world’s largest snow maze.

“It (the record) means something to us but I hope it also means something to everyone who’s supported A Maze in Corn over the last 21 seasons. Without their support, we couldn’t even try to do something like this. Every Manitoban should be Manitoba proud and a Guinness World Record would put us on the map,” Clint said.

Their competition for the record is in Thunder Bay and Poland. Thunder Bay’s Fort William Historical Park holds the Guinness World Record of 1,696 square metres when its snow maze was measured on Feb. 15, 2015.

“We’re bigger than that because we’re also trying to be bigger than the one in Poland,” Clint said.

Snowlandia Park in Zakopane, Poland boasted its size at 2,500 square metres when it opened a year ago, according to media reports.

“As far as our exact square metres, I don’t want to disclose it until measuring day, in case the Polish people are reading the Winnipeg Free Press,” he said, laughing.

It’s taken about a month to build the maze, which features about a kilometre of walking paths, fire pits and snow sculptures inside its walls.

“It’s been so exciting,” Angie said. “All the neighbours, friends and staff who have come out to build it have made it such a fun project. We’d work so hard each day, starting at eight in the morning; we’d have a bowl of soup or chili for lunch that neighbours brought by for us and then we’d keep working until night.”

Angie said family members and another 10 staff are operating the venue, including “maze hosts” who will be stationed inside to assist guests or help them find one of several exits if they are lost.

“The scavenger hunt for this year will be to find the warming fires. We’re going to have warming fires in each of the four corners and a centre fire in the middle of the maze,” Angie said.

Outside the maze, there is a snow mountain for climbing, a snow slide, sleigh rides, a pumpkin barn turned into a warming hut and a snack shack with hot beverages and food available for purchase.

Building the maze was “really, really hard and it was a lot of work,” but said the project will grow if it’s successful this year, Clint said.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca