SEQUIM — Visitors can once again get lost in the land of Oz thanks to the Sequim Pumpkin Patch.
After a year off due to costs, co-owner Theresa Lassila said she’s reopened the corn maze after hearing so many requests to grow another.
The Pumpkin Patch, a 33-acre farm at the corner of U.S. Highway 101 and Kitchen-Dick Road, will be open from Saturday through Oct. 31. Hours will be from noon to 6 p.m. except Oct. 28-29, when hours will be extended for night visits to the maze.
Sister and brother Amanda and Eric Lawton designed this year’s “Road to Oz” maze in the 6.5-acre space, which costs $5 for youths 12 and younger to visit and $10 for those 13 and older.
Lassila said the maze hosts eight life-size cutouts of characters from Oz.
‘Community loves it’
Despite not hosting the maze last year, Lassila said she reopened the farm again for its 17th year because “the community loves it.”
“I just want to keep it going, and my dad loved it,” she said.
Her father, Phil Lassila, who died in January 2015, started the Pumpkin Patch in 1999. Lassila previously said her father felt strongly about the farm’s connection with the community.
To create the maze, the Lawtons design it on graph paper and with measurements in hand go into the corn field about a month before it is at its peak and spray paint where they want to cut.
They used a tractor tiller to cut the maze and smoothed it out later with machetes to take out excess leaves and branches.
Among the designs they’ve displayed — which can be seen only from the air — are a pumpkin, a cowboy boot and another “Wizard of Oz” scene.
Lassila said workers are in final preparations now, decorating and selecting pumpkins, cornstalks and gourds for the farm’s boardwalk and store. She’s already begun hosting groups such as local Boy Scout groups.
Along with the maze, the Pumpkin Patch will offer U-pick pumpkins for 50 cents a pound, a play area for children ($5), various animals and a pumpkin shoot, which costs $5 for two pumpkins and a chance at $100 if the pumpkin goes in the barrel.
Lassila said she hopes to bring in Jim Bower’s draft horses for rides, too, on weekends.
To schedule an appointment for field trips and parties, call Lassila at 360-461-0940.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
