This website serves Farmers and Ranchers in the Kansas AgriTourism Industry.For family outings, go to http://www.travelks.comWelcome to Kansas AgriTourism!This website has been developed specifically for Kansas farmers and ranchers involved in AgriTourism, rural properties where the traveler has an opportunity to experience farm and country life far from the hustle of the city.The site is a project of the Kansas Agritourism Advisory Council, working in cooperation with:the Kansas Agriculture Marketing Division and the Travel and Tourism Division of the Department of Commerceand with financial assistance from Frontier Farm Credit.We invite you to explore this website to find a variety of articles and resources that will help you succeed in agritourism.If you have any questions, please contact the Department of Commerce, Travel and Tourism Division, and ask for the Agritourism Liaison.
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This Family Farm is Thinking "Community"From the Goodland Cowboy cut out in their maze, to the Field of Hope sunflower field that stands next to the maze, Bryce and Jessica Cole seem very pleased to be able to give back to the community where they grew up. “We’re pretty proud to be in Goodland,” Bryce said. “I like to think we’ve really given back something too. It’s only our second year in business, so last year we tried to keep it to the basics, and then build it as we go. This is good family fun.”
The average time to find your way through the 10-acre maze is about an hour to an hour and a half. The farm also has a pumpkin patch, a hay castle for climbing, and a corn box for the younger kids. This year Bryce is adding some bridges overlooking the corn maze, and has a corn cob cannon that he expects the teens will enjoy. They sell kettle corn, bottled water, soda and decorative cornstalks, but basically concentrate on the corn maze at present.
It was just two years ago that Jessica and Bryce decided to build a corn maze, and shortly after, they attended a regional Kansas Agritourism Conference in Colby (2005). Bryce said he felt they really picked up some helpful ideas at the conference on marketing and some of the basics of an agritourism operation. “I think it helped us avoid some pitfalls,” he said. “Thanks to the conference, we also met several other operators, and continue to network with them.” The following year, it was Bryce giving the advice, as Cole Family Farms was one of the stops for the Northwest Kansas Experience: Agritourism Plus, a locally sponsored agritourism conference.
“As a new operation, I talked about why and how we set up our farm for tourists, and talked about some of the pitfalls they might want to avoid,” Bryce said. “I presented five reasons that Jessica and I decided to do a corn maze.” Five Reasons to Do a Corn Maze
Among the things we learned is that marketing can be expensive, although we did get seven newspaper articles. We also learned more about the heat factor, and we’ll be open later hours when things cool off, and we learned that the more atmosphere we provide, the more buzz (word of mouth advertising) we’ll get.”
“This year, we hosted 3 or 4 birthday parties and a couple of big office parties at the farm,” Jessica offered. “We have a large Quonset hut, and had a group of about 300 in their for one of the parties.” (A bit of trivia: Quonset huts, which are found frequently on farms because they provide a solid, inexpensive building structure, were first manufactured by the navy on a base at Quonset Point in Rhode Island—hence, the name.) “We have the corn maze open on weekends for six weeks. We stay open to 10:00 p.m. on Saturday nights with a flash light maze. And then we have the Haunted Maze the weekend before Halloween,” Jessica said. “The Haunted Maze is a charity fund-raiser. This year, it will be for the Catholic Youth Group. The kids will “haunt” about a third of the maze, and they in turn receive a portion of the proceeds. Last year’s group made about $400, and they have a lot of fun setting it all up.”
“They felt the sunflower was a good symbol of hope, and contacted us with their idea,” said Bryce. “To help support the organization, sponsors can buy a sunflower. It’s still a pretty new project. Next year, we hope it will be more successful for them. They are looking for someone to donate the seed, and maybe each donor will also receive a packet of sunflower seeds with their donation too. We are also talking about cutting their logo, a sunflower, into the sunflower field.” Another community project will occur in September, when the Carnegie Arts Center and the Goodland Public Library will host an outdoor showing of Kevin Costner’s “Field of Dreams.” This is the last of series of summer movies sponsored by the arts center and the library.
The Cole’s feel they are very blessed to live in Northwest Kansas in Goodland. It appears that Goodland is likewise blessed to have Bryce and Jessica Cole and their three children, Grace, Henry, and Eve, living in community with them. For more information, visit www.colefamilyfarms.com |
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“In a rural area like ours—it’s about two hours drive to the next corn maze—this is really a great place for groups to go somewhere together,” Jessica said. “We had about 2,000 visitors to the corn maze last year, and a lot of them were groups—church groups, school groups, and so forth. We also provide educational field trips, though gas prices became an issue for some of the schools bringing in children by bus.”
Cole Family Farms is right at the edge of town in Goodland, Kansas, just a few miles off I-70, so the new maze has a great location for serving Northwest Kansas with some clean family fun. Admission is $8 for those over age 13, $6 for ages 6-12, and free to children age 5 and younger. They also have a season pass for $40 for those age 13 and older, and $30 for those under that age. Jessica indicated that they have a lot of kids go through the maze several times, and coming back again every weekend.
The farm has been in Jessica’s family for three generations. Her grandfather, William A. Davis, once grew sugar beets on this land. She and Bryce have been adding to the farm for the last 12 years since they were married, and grow corn, soybeans, a little wheat and sunflowers on the farm, in addition to the corn maze and pumpkin patch. 
The two-day workshop and tour was planned by a group of community partners including RC&Ds, extension, cvb's, economic development, conservation districts, chambers of commerce, NRCS, community foundations, and others. Their goal was to develop a 9 county northwest Kansas consortium of all involved in rural tourism—agritourism, cultural tourism, bed and breakfasts, and pure rural enjoyment businesses. 
Bryce also presented a brief overview of how they started preparing for the corn maze, beginning with research existing agritourism in the area. Based on the research, they planned the “look and feel” they wanted, and developed the added attractions that complemented the maze. They also developed the logo, a website, and their marketing plan to build the right “buzz” about the new corn maze in Goodland.
“Signs are very important, and one thing the workshop folks were very interested in was the way we developed some very inexpensive signs. I went to Commercial Sign Company in Colby. Using computers to generate the signage, the company produces the 5’ x 15’ vinyl signs that Bryce then mounts on three round bales. He’s also used the signs attached to a semi-trailer for another inexpensive, temporary sign. The total cost is about a third the cost of the typical wooden signs, according to Bryce. 
The maze was designed by professional Brett Herbst, The MAiZE company, and features the Goodland Cowboy, along with the words Goodland and Kansas. “That’s always going to be in our maze,” said Bryce, referring again to his pride in his hometown and state.
Cole Family Farms is also the location for “The Field of Hope,” a 40-acre field of sunflowers planted in cooperation with a group called the International Foundation for Research and Education on Depression (
“We really aren’t doing much but providing the space. It’s free to anyone who wants to come,” Bryce said. “The movie will be projected on the side of the barn, and we’ll put out some hay bales for folks to sit on. They don’t have to go through the maze to see the movie—it’s just something we can do for the folks here in Goodland.” 