Every weekend in October, the makeshift family at the Mike Kaiser Poor Farm Haunted Corn Maze gather to scare people senseless.
There’s a bond behind making people scream. All of the performers in the haunted maze are volunteers, and most have been offering their time for years. Some of the volunteers are even former customers who had so much fun getting spooked they wanted to be on the other side of the show.
Co-founders Sherry and Mike Kaiser fix dinner for all of the volunteers each Friday and Saturday. When Mike Kaiser goes to the store or to run errands, he inevitably hears someone call him by his nickname, “Uncle Mike.”
“It’s funny, I go in many places, I’ll be standing in the middle of a store and hear it. Then I have to try to figure out where it came from,” Mike Kaiser said.
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The people involved with the corn maze feel they’ve created something unique over the past 18 years. They celebrate moments of joy and fun together, but in the past year, they’ve also had a number of tragedies to contend with.
One volunteer, Kyle Warren, died from complications from diabetes in late 2017. Lung cancer killed another volunteer — Sherry Kaiser’s niece Rebecca Sizemore — and cancer as a whole has impacted numerous participants in the maze.
In remembrance of those who have died and been affected by the two diseases, the Kaisers have planned a pair of benefits to help raise money for both cancer research and diabetes treatment at Indiana University Health.
“This is going to be an emotional year for everyone, since these happened right after the maze was done last year,” Sherry Kaiser said. “We lost some major parts of our maze this year.”
Warren had worked at the maze every year since high school. The 21-year-old was rushed to the hospital when his blood sugar spiked to dangerous levels in late 2017. Though he did not know it, he was diabetic. The episode left him in a coma, and he died on Dec. 8.
Sizemore had worked at the corn maze for the past 18 years. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in March, and died in August.
On Oct. 6, the haunted maze will host a cancer night to honor Sizemore and others close to the Kaisers who have struggled with cancer. Money raised that night will go to the Simon Cancer Center’s research fund.
A tribute to Warren is scheduled for Oct. 27, and proceeds from that night will go to IU Health for diabetes research and awareness. Out front of the maze, the prop that he always used in the maze will be set up front with a sign that says, “Never forgotten.”
“He was one of those kids that always laughed. These people grow on us,” Mike Kaiser said.
Even though all of the participants are volunteers, the Kaisers try to take extra steps to thank them for their help. Meals are served to everyone before the maze opens each weekend night. Characters can take a break to grab some hot chocolate or other snack throughout the night.
Parties are held before and after the season ends as a thank you.
Each night, visitors can vote for the character who scared them the most. At the end of a weekend, the character with the most votes receives a gift card or other small token of appreciation.
“We always try to make sure that the volunteers are appreciated,” Sherry Kaiser said. “It’s like a family.”
That family atmosphere is the foundation of the Kaisers’ haunted attraction. The focus isn’t on gore, but rather on suspense.
“We want kids to be able to come out. We don’t want to traumatize them,” Mike Kaiser said.
Eerily rustling dried corn stalks, studded with rusty farm implements, creates the perfect setting for a haunt.
The maze is cut out of 6 acres of corn on the Kaisers’ property. When the corn is about 6 inches tall, Mike Kaiser cuts it for the first time to make the maze, then trims the path throughout the summer.
All of the props used in the maze are handmade by Mike Kaiser. A machinist by trade, he uses his home workshop to recycle old junk into objects of horror. Scrap metal becomes a ghostly tractor. A spinning tunnel in the maze was crafted out of massive spools used to hold cable.
The nearly 20-year haunted tradition has its roots in a dare.
When their children were younger, the family would go to haunted houses and outdoor attractions every Halloween. Mike Kaiser would come out of each scare and say the same thing — that he could do it better.
“I had an old gentleman who worked with me heard me talking about it. He said, ‘You know what the difference is between them and you? They did it,’” he said. “So I said I’d show him, and I did it.”
The first few years, local 4-H participants and then FFA members helped put the corn maze on. The Kaisers used a portion of the proceeds to support those organizations.
But when their son graduated from high school and was no longer in those groups, their association with 4-H and FFA waned.
“By then we’d had so many people who came through the maze that came back and wanted to volunteer,” Sherry Kaiser said. “Then we have some family members who wanted to work with us.”
One of those regulars was Sherry Kaiser’s father, Eugene Wilkinson. He would stand by the road, directing people where to park and tending the bonfire where people gathered before and after going into the maze.
Wilkinson died from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, in 2007. Following his death, the Kaisers decided to designate a night to benefit multiple myeloma research at IU Health Simon Cancer Center.
“That year my father died, it was an emotional year. But you grow,” Sherry Kaiser said. “Still, it’s a sad disease, and that’s why we wanted to keep doing something.”
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Mike Kaiser Poor Farm Haunted Corn Maze
When: Every Friday and Saturday in October
Hours: Non-fright corn maze 7 p.m. to dark; fright maze, dark to 11:30 p.m.
Where: 1650 N. County Road 800E, Franklin
Cost: $10; kids 5 and under free
Benefit nights
- Oct. 6: A portion of admission costs and all sales from the concession stand will go towards cancer research at IU Health Simon Cancer Center
- Oct. 27: Tribute to Kyle Warren; a portion of admission and all concession sales go towards diabetes research at IU Health
Information: MKPF.com
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