ERIE, Colo. (KDVR) — It started out as a farming fluke in Colorado but has since turned into a multi-million dollar industry. They call it “agra-tainment.”
In the 1950s Edwin Anderson bought a farm in Erie to grow sugar, beets, corn, and a future. Now, third-generation owner Jim Anderson runs the place and started growing pumpkins in 1997, not to make pies, but to make money.
“It started with pumpkins, and the next big thing was a corn maze. Couple years later, the next big thing expanded into the haunt,” said Anderson.
Twenty-seven years later, Anderson Farms is now the biggest and oldest Halloween corn maze attraction in the state.
“It’s a term called alternative agriculture. Rather than just raise a commodity you can set it up as a business, where you set your own prices,“ said Anderson.
Last year during their six-week scary season, Anderson Farms was visited by 175,000 people to eat, play, buy souvenirs and get lost in a seven-mile-long corn maze.
Bart Butler is the manager of a very popular attraction at Anderson Farms, Terror in the Corn.
“Terror in the Corn is a mile-long screaming experience. The misperception is that we’re just a corn maze, but actually, the majority of it is an old west town and ghost town,” said Butler.
Farming is hard. It’s a way of life. But if there is one thing a farmer does best, that is to improvise, adapt, and overcome. And for the Anderson family, that isn’t scary at all.
