By LINDA McGURK
Indiana Correspondent

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — About a year ago, Tim Fitzgerald was standing in the driveway of his grandparents’ old farmhouse south of Lafayette, with a stack of drawings in hand and a bold business plan in mind.

On Aug. 15, his and his family’s agritourism venture, Exploration Acres, finally opened its doors to the world, and after passing the halfway mark of the opening season, Tippecanoe County’s newest tourist attraction is officially a success.

“Last night the whole parking lot was full. It was the first time I’d seen that and I was thrilled,” said Fitzgerald, president of Exploration Acres.

That Saturday night alone, the site had 1,000 visitors, and it’s on track to meet the goal of 8,000-10,000 visitors for the season.
“Most people come back more than once. Some have already been here four times and they bring more people with them. We’ve had a lot of international visitors too,” Fitzgerald, of New Palestine, Ind., said.

Just as Fitzgerald envisioned, Exploration Acres has breathed new life into a family farm that was slowly falling into oblivion after his father, Lewis Beeler, was no longer able to work it. A 15-acre corn maze is the site’s biggest attraction, but as visitors discover, activities on the farm run the gamut from a ducky race and straw mound to a pedal-car track and corn cannon.

“When people get here, they see that we have so much more than the corn maze and they don’t expect it. They’re surprised that everything is included (in the admission fee), except for the corn cannon,” said Mary Branstetter, Fitzgerald’s sister and co-owner of Exploration Acres.

The siblings can probably thank their marketing savvy for a significant part of the facility’s initial success.

Aside from running radio ads and putting up a billboard, they’ve printed and distributed 30,000 discount coupons to local stores frequented by their two main target groups; families and college students. Word of mouth has taken care of the rest.

In fact, Exploration Acres has become such a hit with the Purdue crowd that the Big Ten Network recently decided to film one of its off-campus “Friday Night Tailgate” episodes there.

“They always try to find the ‘hot spots’ where all the students like to hang out. Of all the off-campus locations out there, they chose us,” said Fitzgerald.

During the filming, the Boilermaker mascot, Purdue Pete, tried out the ducky race, went on a hayride, wreaked havoc with the pedal cars and shot the corn cannon, using the film crew as live targets. The episode ends in the corn maze, where Pete chases the film crew with his hammer, The Shining-style.

The maze, which really consists of three interconnected mazes featuring cartoon farm characters, can be intimidating for some – especially after dark – and plenty of people get lost, said Rusty McIntosh, a junior in a local high school who works as a “corn maze cop” at Exploration Acres.

“It happens just about every night,” he said. But McIntosh knows his way around the seven-plus miles of trails, and finding people who don’t know where they are or how to get out is part of his job. “I can do the smallest maze in about two minutes and the biggest one in 20,” he said.

“It was really hard, there were a lot of circles,” said Meaghan Greene of Lafayette, after she made it out of the maze. A first-time visitor to Exploration Acres, Greene said she’ll probably come back.
Her friend, Megan Gosewehr of Lafayette, was also impressed by the experience. “I really like the atmosphere here. There’s something for everybody, little kids and older people,” she said.
Branstetter, Fitzgerald and their brother-in-law, Mike Tebben – who’s also a co-owner – all have other full-time jobs and are working around the clock during Exploration Acres’ opening season. But it’s clearly a labor of love.

Branstetter said restoring the farm and working together as a family toward a common goal has been a bonding experience, as well. “There were times when I didn’t think we’d be able to pull it off by opening day but we were ready. And a lot of people comment on how smooth everything is running, they can’t believe we’ve only been open for seven weeks,” she said.

“Dad doesn’t get around much, but he’s very happy to see people on the farm again. And that was my motive too – to bring the farm back to life.”

For more information, go to www.explorationacres.com