by Mike Orso
Richardson’s Adventure Farm in Spring Grove wants to take you and other visitors back 40 years with its world’s largest corn maze tribute to the movie, “Back to the Future” this fall. Entitled, “Back to 1985,” the maze recognizes the year the classic U.S. film was released and features path routes around and in between movie characters, buildings and even its famous DeLorean automobile. The farm officially opens its fall season to visitors Saturday, September 6.
“People come out and they want to tell you their experience of going through the corn maze,” said Robert Richardson, 76, on how customers of its first maze nearly 25 years ago encouraged the farm family to transition almost the entire farm to agritourism. “We’d sit around the campfire talking, and then after a while you needed two campfires, and then three campfires and it kind of grew from there.”
In addition to the tried-and-true corn maze, pig races, carousel, zip-lining, zorb-ball-rolling, mini-train riding, sunflower fields and picnic with campfire rentals, one of the two new features visitors to the Spring Grove farm can expect this fall includes a low-rope course.
“There’s like 12 pods and then there’s a balance beam between one pod and one side and another hand-over-hand type of thing, but all low to the ground,” described co-owner George Richardson, 73 who has milked cows, raised pigs, grown Christmas trees and entertained farm guests with his brother his entire life. “I’ve done it with my granddaughter, they’re fun for any age.”
Visitors can also check out the farm’s Koi fishpond, the destination’s other new feature for 2025.
“The waterfall comes out of a grill from a ’67 Ford pickup truck, said George, about the area of the farm that will feature the colorful, active carp. “You’ll be able to buy some fish food and throw it in.”
Also new on the grounds but separate from the Adventure Farm will be a haunted corn trail. Not new, but modified, is the farm’s freshly insulated barrel house, which serves draft beer for up to 200 visitors.
“We got spray foam on the ceiling and we’ll have heat and air conditioning in there,” said George. “It will be a really nice, environmentally controlled place. Anyone can go in there and take your food truck food in and eat it and just get out of the weather a little bit.”
The entertainment venue has taken the McHenry County family farm from the brink of financial disaster to new heights as it has transitioned from primarily one that raised pigs to one that now grows family bonds through the Christmas trees, tulips, sunflowers and the country fun they now provide. The brothers and their father left the dairy business in the mid-1960s and transitioned to pork until the hog market crashed in the late 1990s. Prices they and other pig farmers received at the time went from 50-60 cents per pound to as low as 7-8 cents per pound. Carol Richardson, 78, wife of Robert, said the family had farm-raised pork and some beef in the home freezer to eat, but not much money left for other food staples as the market prices for their pigs tumbled.
“I went to Aldi’s with $16 in cash,” said Carol, a Crystal Lake native. “That’s all I had for a week and I had three kids. There were five of us at home.”
The family had started growing and selling Christmas trees in the early 1980s, but that venture alone did not generate enough money for two families to thrive.
“We had to decide what bills to pay,” said Robert, who holds an agronomy degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). “George bought a cooker, so we did pig roasts on weekends once-in-a-while just to make grocery money. It was hard.”
Enter the family’s first corn maze they decided to grow in the early 2000s.
“We’ve been selling Christmas trees for 37-38 years, that’s what got us our start,” said George, an agricultural mechanics graduate of UIUC. “We started that as a side business. We realized we like talking with people a lot more than talking with pigs and we like the retail dollar better than the wholesale dollar.”
The farm, which employs over 200 seasonal workers, will likely sell more than 200,000 homemade apple cider doughnuts to the more than 10,000 visitors they will welcome daily by mid-October.
“In the fall, it’s everything from whole generations, people from the city, or groups of people from the city that just want to be out in the country,” said Wendy Richardson, 76, wife of George and a St. Charles native. “They want to do some wine tasting and see a pig race. Maybe they do the corn maize, maybe they don’t.”
Richardson Adventure Farm September hours will be 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 9 p.m. on Sundays. Hours in October will be 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and noon to 9 p.m. on Sundays. Fees vary from approximately $24/person in September to $30/person in October. For complete hours, fee and more information go to https://www.richardsonadventurefarm.com/.
This year’s corn maze on Richardson Adventure Farm takes visitors back to 1985. The corn grown for the maze is sterile and only produces cobs with few or no kernels. “We’re not here to get anybody hurt, so we’ve found a sterile variety with an empty cob with leaves,” said Robert Richardson about the corn used to prevent visitors from picking and throwing the ears. (Photo by George Richardson)
The entrance to the Richardson Adventure Farm notes the family began farming near Spring Grove in 1840. The family has also recently disassembled and eventually plans to rebuild an historical octagon-shaped dairy barn once located on the Hatch family farm near Spring Grove.
George, left, and Robert Richardson built and opened the farm’s first corn maze in 2001. They represent the family’s 5th generation on the farm, with George’s son and Robert’s daughter also working on the farm representing the family’s 6th generation.
Wendy, left, wife of George Richardson, and Carol, wife of Robert Richardson, near a photo of last year’s corn maze that honored John Deere, the famed farm implement pioneer. The two work full-time doing bookkeeping, taxes, customer communications, booking group events, social media and more.