Four of the Best Corn Mazes and Agri-Adventures in the Midwest. From Iowa and Missouri to Kansas and South Dakota agri-adventures, corn mazes, pumpkin patches and living history experiences provide screen free family fun. 

Here's the scoop: The fun stuff includes awesome corn mazes, pumpkin bowling and barnyard golf by moonlight plus haunted happenings, living history experiences, and rewarding farm animal encouters for little ones. Checkout the suggestions we have assembled and see what it takes to be the best. 

Living History Farms Harvest Time in Iowa (September - October). There’s no better place to experience the change of seasons with kids than at Living History Farms where connecting with the past is easy. Watch Savage's Traveling Medicine Show reflecting entertainment from the past with 19th century vaudeville skits, vintage skit, humorous poems, songs and a sale pitch for Swamp Root Elixir herbal tonic. Enjoy pony rides, old-fashioned carnival games and the 1875 traveling museum of curiosities. Visitors are invited to try stirring apple butter, cranking the cider press, and to sample an apple fritter right out of a Dutch oven. Learn about the history of corn with hands-on activities and watch demonstrations of the machinery used to harvest corn. Family Halloween Nights include wagon rides, marshmallow roasts and jack-o-lanterns - ideal for families with young children. Best Part: Enjoy an evening horse and wagon ride through the fields and country roads of the complex pulled by Percheron draft horses or draft mules.  Bonus Points: To facilitate learning, LHF has created a clever and engaging, interactive page just for kids. (Living History Farms, 11121 Hickman Road, Urbandale, IA  50322. (515) 278-5286(515) 278-5286 or www.lhf.org) 

Beggs Family Farm Fall Festival, Corn Maze, and Pumpkin Patch in Missouri (October). Share the fun on a real working farm that has been in business since 1895. Each season Beggs creates an awesome corn mazes and hosts a fun-loving festival days. Ride the Barnyard Express or play pumpkin tetherball. Cheer at the pig races or pick your family’s favorite in the field mouse race house. There’s time for close encounters with pigs, chickens, sheep, goats, and cows plus they offer a long list of authentic farm life activities including: wagon rides, a bonfire, pumpkin picking, straw jump,  a real gemstone mining sluice, rope maze, farm rover races, and a monster slide. Best Part: Stay around after sunset and play golf  by moonlight in the barnyard. Bonus Points: Checkout Phobie’s Farm haunted house  boo barn. (Beggs Family Farm 2319 St Hwy U Sikeston, MO 63801. (573) 471-387 or www.beggsfamilyfarm.com)

Heartland Country Corn Maze in South Dakota (August - October).  North of Canton and south of Sioux Falls towering stalks of corn farm dozens of passageways in this year’s 11-acre maze. Anchored along the trails within the corn are 10 checkpoints with questions about local history, agriculture and local geography making the experience more like a corn quest. The same experience may be repeated by flashlight creating and an entirely different maze adventure. Best Part: On Halloween weekend the maze will be haunted.  Bonus points: Those who discover the hidden checkpoint will receive free treat. (Heartland Country Corn Maze 27455 SD Hwy 11, Harrisburg, SD 57032. (605) 743-5984 or www.heartlandcountrycornmaze.com)

Gaeddert Farms Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch in Kansas (late September - October).  For more than a decade Gaeddert Farms has been creating unique corn mazes.  Each year guests are invited to navigate through the five-acre corn maze, and enjoy a hayrack ride out to the pick-your-own pumpkin patch. Some things are free and some cost a fee but it’s all pure Kansas-style fun.  Activities inlcude a jumping pillow, double tunnel slides, hay bale maze, hay jump, tire mountain and tire tunnel, pumpkin bowling, barrel train, teeter-totters, sand box, and steer roping. Try your skills with the pumpkin cannon, sling a pumpkin or try to hit a target with the corn cannon. Best Part: On weekends see the maze using a flashlight or navigate by moonlight. Here's the deal. Look for a discount coupon at their website.  (Gaeddert & Martisko Farms 13209 E. 82nd Ave. Buhler, KS  67522. (620) 543-3073 or www.kansasmaze.com)

More ideas may be found in our aMAZEing Fun folder. 

Please tell mom! We want to expand the list and need your help. If you have a favorite fall festival or know of an awesome corn maze please "Tell Mom" and we will add it to the list. Our next round up will include family-friendly winter celebrations and enchanting Santa Trains. We are building the list right now and would love to have your feedback. So just "Tell Mom!"

Information researched and posted by Nancy Nelson-Duac, Curator of the Good Stuff for the Family Travel Files. Images provided Beggs Farm, Gaeddert Farms, and Living History Farms. Sometimes things change, so please confirm details before making plans. Copyright updated 2015.