Falcon may not have a corn maze, but it does have Dave and Cathy Vredeveld, who, for the third year running, have built a Halloween maze out of wooden panels.This year, the maze is over 2,000 square feet.Each room has a theme, ranging from a spooky ghost who floats in the air, waving her arms and bobbing up and down, to singing skulls and a giant animated spider, with its unexpected victim. Other scary features include eerie tombstones, a pirate rising from his deadly grave and a replica of the alien from the movie, “Alien.”Cathy Vredeveld said her husband often gets ideas for the maze from the online Home Haunters community.”It started as a one-night event in 2006 for our local geo-caching community,” Vredeveld said. “The maze was a side attraction to that first party.”Other than party-goers, we had about 30 guests, mostly neighbors. Last year, we had about 150 guests, and we hope the event will grow every year.The maze gets more complex each year, and Vredeveld said they’re both to “blame.””We tend to dream big and feed off each other,” she said. “We both love being creative and we both love Halloween. Plus, it’s just fun!”The two of them have “dabbled” in making latex masks and have also made plaster casts of each other’s faces, Vredeveld said.”Dave loved Star Wars when he was growing up,” she said. “He made his first costume when he was 11 – a storm trooper – and he was very proud of it. He just loves doing that kind of stuff.”Construction on the maze started the first weekend in September, with the whole family, a neighbor and some friends putting up the walls and working evenings and every weekend to fill the rooms with props.The maze will be open from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 19, and Friday,Oct. 24, through Saturday, Nov. 1.”There is no fee for entry, but we do have a donation jar in case guests want to leave something,” Vredeveld said, adding – somewhat ruefully, “We spend more money on it than we should.”The Vredevelds’ Halloween maze is located on Abilene Drive. Take Woodmen Road to Highway 24. Turn left on Highway 24, turn right on Cottontail Drive, then turn right on Abilene Drive and head toward the spooky lights.
