Exploration Acres is an amazing corn maze and popular fall attraction in Lafayette, Indiana. Here they have a large eighteen mile corn maze, that is split into four sections. Each section gets harder the farther you go into the corn maze. They also have a large pumpkin patch that you can take a hay ride out to. You can go out and find the perfect pumpkin. They have food trucks and a small store also selling food. There is a kids area with a straw mound, corn piles and many other things. Finally, our favorite part, there are rentable fire pits. You can bring hot dogs and smores to roast on the fire and hang out with family and friends.

This year’s corn maze is celebrating Purdue’s 150th anniversary. When you first walk in the corn maze, they hand you a pamphlet that has tear off coupons that you hole punched at different locations in the Maze. This is the main point of the maze: to complete the maze you need to get all twenty eight coupons punched. Amelia Airheart, Neil Armstorng, and many other designs are the pathways in the maze to show the giant leaps Purdue has taken in its 150 years.

During their off season (the spring and summer months) they have a large rentable barn. The barn is rented out for many different occasions like weddings, family reunions, large parties and other special occasions. This barn was built in the 1920’s by family farm owners Lewis and Hazal Beeler. The barn was used to house the livestock, and equipment that farmed their 550 acre farm.

When Lewis and Hazal sold the animals and only farmed, the existing house and barn were in disrepair. Later generations fixed the existing buildings and opened in 2008 as Exploration Acres Inc. and have become the corn maze we now know. 

After their fall season the corn is harvested. The play areas are put away and the fun fall attraction becomes a normal farm. People live in the home that was built on the site in 1920, and the corn maze is missed until the next season.