Amazing Mazes



	Owned by Matt Lark, Lark Ranch is about four miles north of Loogootee. Last Fall, about 4,000 students visited the ranch to see a variety of different crops in a farm setting.

Lark Ranch

Owned by Matt Lark, Lark Ranch is about four miles north of Loogootee. Lark is an Indianapolis attorney who owns more than 1,000 acres in Martin County.

This is the second year for a maze at Lark Ranch Last year’s version allowed visitors to wind their way through the likeness of a sunflower. It takes an aerial view to fully appreciate it, but this year’s maze is the image of a cowboy riding a horse and carrying a flag. All of that is contained within a circle that carries the words, “God Bless the USA” on the outer edges.

Lark said about 4,000 students, mostly from southwestern Indiana, visited the ranch last fall.

The maze opened Sept. 19.

“We were real crowded,” Lark said, adding that school groups already have begun scheduling trips this year. “We have had a lot of school groups from all the surrounding area (make reservations) and we even have school groups coming from as far away as Scottsburg, Indianapolis and Evansville.

All students, kindergarten through third grade, at Loogootee West Elementary School are scheduled to visit Lark Ranch next week.

Alice Jones, a kindergarten teacher, said that even though the children are from a rural area, they get to see crops they haven’t seen before. Cotton is among them. Lark grew cotton last year as an experiment, realizing there were few instances of cotton having ever been grown this far north.

Jones said the visits to Lark’s place have become p art of the field trip offerings every year at Loogootee. “This is our fourth year, and he keeps adding a little bit every year.”



Registered Texas Longhorns are one of the attractions at Matt Lark's ranch.

Third-grade teacher Kay Ackerman said there’s plenty for the youngsters to experience. She said, “They get to see how pumpkins and corn and sunflowers are grown. And he has lots of cotton.”

Lark said, “Our big thing is making it educational for the children, where they can see a lot of different crops in a farm setting.” The list includes everything from sugar cane to cotton to buckwheat to sunflowers. Lark said the ranch also features 10 varieties of pumpkins and about 60 varieties of gourds.

In addition, Lark Ranch features five varieties of popcorn that can be popped in the microwave while still on the cob. The corn comes in red, blue, white, yellow and a mix that Lark said looks like Indian corn.

“They’re all really unusual except for the yellow and white,” Lark said, “and they have real good popping expansion. People buy them basically for popcorn and for ornamental use.”

In addition to the crops that students see at Lark Ranch, they also get a chance to see longhorn cattle.

By Roger Moon

Corn Maze at Lark Ranch is Ideal Southern Indiana Family Entertainment!

Amazing Mazes