Rural Hill Amazing Maize Maze, Etc.

This past Saturday, amidst the nasty weather, Tyler, Ethan, and I headed out for our first trip to Huntersville, NC and Rural Hill's Revolutionary War Encampment and The Amazing Maize Maze. I haven't done a corn maze in years and wasn't quite sure what to expect from the encampment. I've always been the type not to appreciate Civil War Reenactments, so I was definitely skeptical of an encampment.

Side Note: Before we left, I was pretty adamant about everyone wearing quality shoes for our outing. I knew we'd be in the mud and grime. In an effort to spare my running shoes, I decided to wear my old hiking boots, which haven't been used in a few years. As soon as we arrived, I discovered chunks of dirt on the floor of the car...come to find out they were actually chunks of the sole of my boots, which had dry rotted because of lack of use. Since we were 30 minutes from our house, I tried shuffling around, but had no success. I looked like I had on boot flip-flops. I was so embarrassed to be seen but also laughing hysterically. Not a good combination if you don't want people looking at you. We ended up quite easily ripping off the soles of the boots, and I walked around hoping the rest of the bottoms of the boots wouldn't come apart. Surprisingly, my feet didn't get wet, though when it started pouring down rain, I didn't have much traction to keep me from slipping. Needless to say, I need new boots. Tyler's comment: I'm never buying boots from L.L. Bean.

Back to the story.

Even with my skepticism, the encampment was pretty neat. The crowd was small because of the weather but perfect because we got to learn and see so much.


There was a blacksmith making crosses and flowers. He used the biggest bellow I've ever seen. It was located on the ceiling of the building and he pulled on the rope and handle (see on left) in order to get air on the fire.

E got to spend some time in the pillory. I learned the pillory was where people stand up, and the stocks are where people sit down while being locked up. In the colonies, someone could be punished as an adult at the age of 14. E definitely learned he never wanted to be publicly disciplined.

The Pillory

We saw and fed some Scottish Highland cows.

We also spent about an hour listening to this man talk about guns and swords. He pretended to be a Jager (hunter) from Germany, who King George asked to come help fight against the colonial uprising. I was definitely impressed with his knowledge about guns. He had rebuilt a few of his own and shot them for us. We were shocked to hear some of the gory details of how they crushed skulls and ripped faces off, blinding people in their own blood. I was surprised, yet not surprised, that Ethan wasn't grossed out.

The Deutsche Jager

After the encampment, we headed over the the Amazing Maize Maze. We definitely didn't know what to expect from this particular maze but were impressed by their election theme. They had designed an elephant, donkey, and many stars into the maze, and there were 12 sections in the 7 acre beast. We started the quest hoping to find all of the pieces of the map (one in each section). However, when it started pouring, we decided to give up that goal and just find our way out.

E met some friends from school along the way. We definitely profited from making a team and reached the end much more quickly because we had friends. It took us 1 hour, 10 minutes to get through and we found 7 of 12 pieces to the puzzle. 

Highlights of the maze: Ethan tripping and sliding through the mud, Walking around in a very large circle for a while, passing the same families over and over again, figuring out we had to go back to the beginning and walk the other direction, meeting up with friends, and seeing the exit bridge in the distance.

Drowned Rat Edition - The Fam.