GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Several farms in the Midwest are among those nationwide offering corn mazes featuring the likeness of late country music superstar Dolly Parton.

The mazes were created before the entertainer died on Aug. 25, but her passing could result in more people than originally expected coming to celebrate her life and mourn her death.

“We’re very saddened by her loss but we’re excited for the opportunity,” said Ed Robinette, a fourth-generation owner of Robinette’s Apple Haus and Winery outside Grand Rapids.

“Me and my friends and family, we’re all big Dolly fans. So, everyone is all excited,” said Ashley Perez, general manager of Harvest Tyme Family Farm near Lowell, Ind.

The two farms along with 18 others nationwide and in Canada have images of Parton in their corn mazes under an agreement struck with her in spring 2025 to promote her Imagination Library.

Imagination Library has provided over 300 million books to children worldwide to encourage them to read since founded in 1995 by Parton, who was inspired by her father’s inability to read and write.

A portion of the proceeds from the corn mazes will go to Imagination Library.

The mazes were planned well before her death as part of the annual Country Music Corn Maze campaign with help from The Maize Inc., a group helping farmers annually choose an image or theme for their corn mazes to generate interest from paying customers.

Originally, the Dolly mazes were supposed to debut in fall 2025.

However, the death of her longtime husband, Carl, pushed things back a year out of respect for Parton and her need to mourn.

Work on the maze images began in the spring when the corn plants were just a few inches above the ground.

“Dolly’s impact on the world and her love for farming is immeasurable and our corn maze tributes now take on new meaning and significance as we honor her and her beloved Imagination Library,” said Brett Herbst, founder of The Maize Inc. and designer of the Dolly mazes.

Robinette said the 6.5-acre corn maze at his family farm has a new image each year.

One of them was the American Flag commemorating the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil from 25 years ago, and cartoon character Charlie Brown.

He said thousands of people come to his farm every fall to pick apples, take part in the maze and other attractions like wagon rides and a bounce house.

The farm also has a market, cider mill and bakery. There are about 18 acres of apple trees, a half dozen acres of sweet cherry trees and two to three acres of peach trees.

Robinette is hoping the Dolly maze, also featuring images of a butterfly and guitar, brings more people to his farm than usual in the coming weeks as temperatures begin to feel more like autumn.

“Dolly has a lot of followers and that’s the reason we chose it. We thought it would be of great interest to our visitors. It should be a good year,” he said.

A three- to four-acre maze displaying a different image each year is offered at Harvest Tyme Family Farm along with wagon rides and pumpkins from a one- to two-acre patch. People can also ride the 10 carnival rides on the property, which is open to the public strictly during the fall season.

Perez also expects a larger turnout judging by the number of social media posts about this year’s maze.

“I’ve seen multiple comments about, you know, we’re definitely coming this year because of this,” she said.

According to The Maize, people navigating each of the mazes will look for clues and play an interactive game quizzing them on how much they know about the singer from East Tennessee.

The locations of the mazes can be found at https//:themaize.com/pages/dolly.

The Maize creates mazes for over 320 farms and has designed more than 6,000 corn mazes since first introducing the concept in 1996.

Herbst said nearly 120 of those mazes have been images of country music stars and depicted country music themes within the past four years.