For more than a century, Rex Larsen’s family has farmed the same land in Utah county.
“That farm has been in existence since 1869 so I think that's 157 years,” Larsen said.
In that time, they weathered every storm.
But more recently, drought, residential development, an aging workforce and volatile markets have strained farmers statewide — forcing some to leave the industry for good.
Around 2017, feeling that pressure, Larsen turned to his family for ideas.
“I just kind of jokingly said, help me make more money,” he said, “so my daughter created a Google document that everybody in the family could give input on.”
His daughter suggested a corn maze. Larsen agreed, and the “Glen Ray Corn Maze,” named for his father, was born.
Traditionally, the Larsen family farm grew hay, crops and reared cattle. When he first opened the maze, he said it was slow going and he had his doubts.
“All summer long, I wandered around the corn maze, and I thought, I don't know that I'd pay anybody to walk through a corn maze,” he said.
But people showed up.
After that season, they officially ventured into agritourism as a way to supplement their income. Now, the farm also features a pumpkin patch, giant slides, yard games, a haunted corn maze and tours. Larsen said while it makes up just around 10% of his farm's total income, the agritourism operation is self-sufficient. He said he “wouldn’t keep doing it” if it wasn't helping his family pay the bills.
“It's financially better than just growing corn. We're able to make expenses. We have some money to divide at the end,” he said.
Farm-based tourism can include all kinds of attractions — from corn mazes to tractor rides to workshops and farm stays.
In Utah, it is growing “really quickly” according to Terry Camp, vice president for public policy with the Utah Farm Bureau Federation.
With market volatility and foreign conflicts like the Iran war, costs are rising. Just in the last month, average fuel prices have surpassed $4 per gallon everywhere in the state. Demands for Utah exports like alfalfa have also significantly dropped. Camp said all of these factors are driving farmers to look for extra income.
Plus, Camp said the state is starting to pay attention to the idea at a legislative level. HB31, passed in 2024, gave liability protections to farmers who host the public. In other words, if a visitor ignores a posted warning like “don’t play with the bull” and gets hurt, the farmer now has legal protection.
To him, a new law like this means the state is “committed to growing agritourism as an industry.”
The state’s agritourism registry shows more than 65 such registered businesses in Utah. Other than this list, there is little state-level data on it. But that is about to change.
“I'm really excited about a study we're launching, in partnership with the office of tourism. Just this week we've started, – and we should have the data available by this fall,” said Caroline Hargraves, director of economic development for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.
The most recent national data is from a 2024 study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which found farm-based experiences contributed around $1.26 billion to the economy in 2022. That was a 12% increase over 2017.
From Hargrave’s point of view, this growth has only continued.
“I've been at the department for about six and a half years now. Even in the last year, there's been an uptick in interest.”
And the Larsens have responded to that interest, too.
In April of this year, they expanded to open the Utah Tulip Festival at their farm. They set aside five acres of land and planted 250,000 flower bulbs imported from Europe. People can buy tickets to picnic, take photos, pick their own bouquet and spend the day walking around the farm.
Rex Larsen said his neighbors thought he “was crazy” when he first plowed his alfalfa crop to make room for a corn maze.
“They finally caught on, and so it was kind of fun to kind of surprise the neighbors, if you will, so yeah, it's been an interesting endeavor.”
