NEWBERRY COUNTY — Newberry County has a new fall tradition with Do-Si-Jo’s Corn Maze, a fall attraction that officially opened last Saturday.
The corn maze, which is located at 3086 Beaver Dam Creek Road, is what owner Joleen Hendrix calls agri-tourism.
“My husband (Blake Hendrix) has been in agriculture since he was a child, growing up on a farm and then becoming a farmer himself. I am a school teacher,” she said. “We hope next year to incorporate education and have field trips where we can invite people out to the farm during the school day and teach them about South Carolina agriculture.”
The name Do-Si-Jo combines the name of the square dance song “Do-Si-Do” and the Hendrix’s daughter Ruby Jo Hendrix. The maze was designed by Rob Souffer with Precision Maze in Missouri, and while it was not designed with any particular theme, they did use the song for inspiration.
“There are a lot of twist and turns. When I talked to Rob about designing it, we did not go with a theme necessarily, but with our name Do-Si-Jo being kind of a play on ‘Do-Si-Do’ from a square dance, and in a square dance you go round and round, and he kind of played off that,” Joleen Hendrix said.
According to Hendrix, the maze is five acres. When her husband started planting in June, she joked that when everyone was getting their corn out of the field, they were putting theirs in.
Going through the maze can take anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour, based on your navigational skills. Because of that, Hendrix recommends purchasing your tickets an hour before they close. During the day, children who are 12 can go through the maze alone, but at night the age limit increases to 15.
“Safety is our first concern. We want you to have fun, but we want you to be safe too,” Hendrix said. “My father has worked to build a stand so we can see into the maze as well.”
For the first year the maze will just be a straight forward maze, but that could change in the future.
“If our turnout is good and people show interest, hopefully people make this a fall tradition. We have a lot of ideas of things we would like to add to the maze and the property, but when you are starting out you just have to start with what you can do, and hopefully we have got a lot of activities people find to be fun, and they will want to come back year after year,” Hendrix said.
Do-Si-Jo’s Corn Maze will offer hay rides, a kiddie maze, steer roping with hula hoops, tic-tac-toe, pumpkin checkers, corn hole, a corn box and pumpkin bowling.
“Pumpkin bowling — we have some soda bottles that act as the pins and a pumpkin to roll with, you can choose your size pumpkin,” Hendrix said. Visitors can also buy pumpkins.
Getting the corn maze ready has been a family affair. Blake Hendrix did most of the work with the landscape, but Joleen Hendrix’s family also pitched in. Her parents, Dennis and Bonita, came from Georgia to assist, and her sister Melissa Corbin and her nephew Evan Corbin have also helped.
Do-Si-Jo’s Corn Maze was to open Oct. 8, but due to Hurricane Matthew the opening day was pushed back until Oct. 15. Hendrix said they might keep the corn maze open until Thanksgiving.
“We are looking at least pushing it one more weekend and then maybe the week of Thanksgiving, keeping it opened for the students out of school,” she said. “We are kind of playing with the dates right now just because our late start. We want to make up for that time.”
Do-Si-Jo’s Corn Maze will be open from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $10 for adults and 7 for students. Military personnel will receive a 10 percent discount. Groups of 20 or more will also receive a discount.
