GPS Used to Create U.S. Map Corn Maze
Description: Emailed image
Circulating since: 2003
Status: Authentic
Summary: Emailed image shows a corn maze carved in the shape of a United States map with the aid of a GPS unit and a laptop computer.
Email example contributed by Robert M., Apr. 29, 2003:
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Subject: Cornfield and the GPS
 Click to Enlarge |
Comments: The corn maze you see in the aerial photo above is real. It was created in 2003 by a farmer in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee named John Rose and GPS consultant Franck Boynton (of NavtechGPS). Using an off-the-shelf computer program, Boynton was able to match a scaled drawing of a U.S. map to the GPS coordinates of Rose's 10-acre cornfield and output a georeferenced grid providing the farmer with precise, real-time directions via his laptop computer when mowing the field. According to Boynton the procedure cut the number of man-hours it usually takes to produce a corn maze from 280 to 21, a 13-fold reduction.
Seasonal corn mazes are a popular rural attraction and can be quite lucrative for farmers, especially when they're created using time-saving GPS technology, which is becoming more and more common. In September 2008 as this was being written, Rob Stouffer of Precision Mazes in Missouri told the Southtown Star he had completed GPS-assisted mazes in 30 different states and Canada so far this year.
Sarah Palin corn maze
One of the more eye-catching mazes of 2008 is the cornfield portrait of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin in Whitehouse, Ohio.
Sources and further reading:
A GPS Corn Maze: A New and Novel Application of Satellite Navigation
Quarterly Newsletter of the Institute of Navigation, Winter 2002-2003Corn Maze Popularity on the Rise
Southtown Star, 21 September 2008Corn Maze Takes American Turns
Newark Advocate, 17 September 2008Sarah Palin Corn Maze
Associated Press, 25 September 2008
Last updated: 09/22/08
