A custom corn maze has sprouted in Altoona for a fall family festival. What to know:

Chris Higgins, Des Moines Register
·2 min read
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Altoona's summer of corn is coming to an end.

A fall family festival, the final event of the city's CORNival, will be Saturday, Sept. 23 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Intrinsic Ag near Olde Town, 102 First Ave. N., according to a news release. The summer-long CORNival has commemorated the 100th anniversary of a significant corn harvest, and the festival is in the area where that corn was planted.

Altoona's summer-long CORNival is coming to an end near Olde Town on Sept. 23, which will include a custom corn maze and other activities.
Altoona's summer-long CORNival is coming to an end near Olde Town on Sept. 23, which will include a custom corn maze and other activities.

The centerpiece of the event will be a custom corn maze with the city's logo in the center. There will also be an inflatable, pumpkin painting and food trucks. A farmer's market will feature local artists and vendors.

Altoona's corn statues will also be staged at the fall family festival. After appearing around town all summer as a group, the statues are expected to pop up in various locations in Altoona later this year as new public art installations.

The event is free, aside from food and items available for purchase.

What is the CORNival celebrating in Altoona?

A nod to the growing suburb's agricultural past, CORNival celebrates the 100th anniversary of the country's first acre of commercial hybrid seed corn being harvested.

The 1923 harvest came during an Iowa State University corn yield contest. George Kurtzweil, his sister Ruth and friend Henry A. Wallace decided to compete with an acre of experimental hybrid corn, a newly developed strain, on the Kurtzweil family farm in Altoona.

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They didn't win, but they got a contract for their corn seed, laying the foundation for what would become Johnston-based Pioneer Hi-Bred International, one of the world's largest seed companies.

Wallace, of Des Moines, the son of then-U.S. agriculture secretary Henry C. Wallace, went on to serve as agriculture secretary in the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, then as Roosevelt's second vice president.

Chris Higgins covers the eastern suburbs for the Register. Reach him at chiggins@registermedia.com or 515-423-5146 and follow him on Twitter @chris_higgins_.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Altoona's summer corn festival comes to an end with custom corn maze