Tom, Cindy and their kids fashioned a way to pull the hay barn from the barnyard with the use of a house trailer frame and our White tractor (this is the tractor used for the wagon rides). That is when Tom proposed that they move the hay barn that sat in the barn yard that use to hold hay for the milking cows out to the backyard and create our now pavilion. In the summer of 2003 the family knew what they needed to do to make their dream of having a business on the farm again. The family felt a loss without being able to serve the community and looked for another way that they could use their family farm to do that again. Tom and Cindy would be forced to leave the skating rink in 2001. Vickie would marry long time friend Matt Knepper on May 19, 2001, Kim would marry Andy Ames on Apand Hazel would marry Travis Tracy Oct. During this time Tom and Cindy’s daughters are graduating from high school and even marrying. As all this is going on the family leased Skating Dimensions in Kendallville and would run the local skating rink for 3 years. This was a hard decision for the family but what was best for Tom’s mother. After a period of time the family realized they could no longer care for her at home and she was placed in a nursing home. Tom’s mother (Grandma Ruby) was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and the family would move from the original farm house to the house next door to live with her to make the transition easier for his mother. As time passed and children grew, life on the farm changed. They cash rented the farm land to the neighbor and the farm continued to produce crops. The family never left the farm even though they no longer milked cows.
#AMAZING MAZE PITTSBURGH DRIVER#
At this time Tom would go to work for Central Noble schools as a custodian and Cindy had been working as a bus driver for Central Noble for several years. As time went on milk prices dropped and the family was no longer able to continue milking cows and sold the herd.
The family came together stronger than ever to continue on with the dairy farm. During this time they would grieve the loss of their son Mike at the age of 9. Tom and Cindy lived and worked on the farm operating a dairy farm with approximately 40 head of cows. Kim Trowbridge (Ames), Mike Trowbridge, Vickie Trowbridge (Knepper) and Hazel Trowbridge (Tracy). Over the next 10 years they would have 4 children. The entrance to the maze is located at 5905 Saltsburg Road (Route 286).Tom Trowbridge and Cindy McKenzie married on Aug. “It’s been in our family for 252 years,” said Cassie Gearhard, who’s married to Mike Gearhard and who helped design this year’s maze. “We get mostly adults and teens doing that,” Gearhard said.Ībout 10 family members share duties operating the weekend maze attraction. The attraction can be navigated at dusk with the aid of flashlights. Gearhard said they’ve never had to rescue anyone from the maze and folks won’t get lost. “My favorite part was finding the five animals in the corn,” Rayne said. McBride accompanied her daughter Rayne inside the maze. “It was our first time here and we didn’t get lost,” joked Shanika McBride of Murrysville. Aerial photos of each year’s maze are displayed on the Gearhard Farms website. The design of the maze is revealed to visitors after they complete the trek. Visitors are given clues and five pictures of animals to find located throughout the maze.
#AMAZING MAZE PITTSBURGH FREE#
Admission is free for children 4 and younger. Hayrides are $5 each, and maze admission is $7 per person.
Herb Gearhard designed all of the mazes for 18 years. Guests can purchase a trip on a hay wagon pulled by vintage tractors driven by Mike Gearhard and his father, Herb. The attraction is open on weekends (5-9 p.m., Fridays and noon-9 p.m., Saturdays and noon-7 p.m., Sundays) through Oct.
“It’s just us sharing our farm with people.” The Gearhard family owns and operates the farm, which was founded in the late 1760s and passed down through the family over generations.įounded in 2000, the maze is designed to be family-friendly and fun for all ages, said event co-organizer Mike Gearhard, rather than being a spooky Halloween attraction. The 2021 maze, spread over two acres, opened in September and runs through this month. Gearhard Farms, in Murrysville near Washington Township, creates a new maze through a cornfield each year.
The oldest operating farm in Westmoreland County has another distinction: a cornfield maze that has been amazing people for more than two decades.
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