For more than 20 years Robyn and Artie Cole have offered a spooky, fun and frightening adventure for families to enjoy. The Exeter Corn Maze will soon open for the season with even more to offer their guests.

Robyn Cole, owner and operator of the Exeter Corn Maze, said the season will start on Sept. 3, and it will end on Nov. 6.

“Prices have increased, like they have everywhere else,” she said. “But, we have added even more activities to make it worth it.”

The Exeter Corn Maze will have a new pumpkin carousel, a new four-story slide, a new train ride, a hay ride at night called Frights and Lights, and a four-story free-fall ride.

“Everything is included in the admission price,” Cole said. “People can pre-order on the website, or purchase at the gate.

“We are also adding more concessions, the Burger Barn and Country Side Concessions.”

Cole said over the years as the popularity of the Exeter Corn Maze has grown, more and more out-of-towners are coming in.

“I would say probably 90 percent of the visitors are from out of town,” she said. “We are seeing a lot of repeat out-of-town guests and seeing guests from Kansas City, St. Louis, Tulsa, and Fort Smith.”

Cole said one way she knows a lot of the customers are coming back is because they reserve the fire pits early.

“They know from being here in years past that you have to book those up quickly,” she said. “I have been booking probably 20 reservations for the fire pits per day. All of the slots will be taken soon.”

Cole said one of her and Artie’s favorite things about running the Exeter Corn Maze is to spend time with the people they work with and their friends.

“Just the feel of working here and offering something that so many people enjoy,” she said. “It is fun. I think the biggest hit this season will be the new slide. The go-karts are always a huge hit, and overall, I think that people really enjoy the haunted stuff.”

Cole said the Maze and barn will be haunted all season, however, on Wednesdays only the haunted part of the corn maze will be haunted.

“This gives people who don’t necessarily like the scary stuff a time to come and enjoy it too,” she said. “We have plenty of general admission things to enjoy that aren’t haunted too. We have the you-pick sunflowers and pumpkins, and this year, we are opening the apple orchard.”

Cole said since it is the first season for the apples, there aren’t as many, so the orchard will only be accessible with a general admission ticket.

“One of the major challenges in preparing for this season has been the building,” she said. “We started building for this season before last season was even over. And we still aren’t done. We should finish things up by next week or so.”

Cole said the weather also stunted the pumpkins a bit.

“We will have more than enough,” she said. “And, we irrigated for the sunflowers and corn so they are fine.”

Speaking of sunflowers, that is the theme for the maze this year.

“It is a large sunflower with ‘Happy Fall’ in the middle,” Cole said. “We haven’t done one that was just fall-themed and it sounded fun.”

Cole said last year was probably the biggest growth she had seen for the Exeter Corn Maze.

“We love to do this,” she said. “I do hope that the construction can slow down eventually – it adds up to be a lot of work. We talk to tons of corn mazes all over the country every year, people always have new ideas. This year, the big thing was the slides, and we went big. Artie doesn’t do anything small.”

The Coles are finishing up construction for this season, but they are already working on next’s years big project.

“People will see it this year as they visit us,” she said. “We are working on a roller coaster to open next year.”

For more information or to purchase tickets, people may visit the Exeter Corn Maze website at www.exetercornmaze. com.