LINGLE – Whether it’s a tradition, a new experience or just plans for a fun day, Ellis Harvest Home offers great family fun for all ages. Guests can explore the corn maze, pick their own pumpkins or enjoy any of the other fun attractions. Getting lost is part of the adventure.

Harvest season is celebrated all around the world through festivals, great food and other gatherings. The tradition of going to pumpkin patches or harvest homes is part of that celebration. It is a time to get outdoors before winter while making connections to farms and food in a meaningful way. 

“[Ellis Harvest Home] is a great place for families to spend a lot of time and have a lot of fun,” owner Dan Ellis told the Telegram. “It is family-oriented.”

According to www.ellisharvesthome.com, Ellis Harvest Home is Wyoming’s longest-running pumpkin patch. It has been operating for 16 years. Each year the harvest home creates a unique design in its large corn maze.

There are also many other attractions including, but not limited to, a hay maze, corn boxes, spider web, grain cart basketball, wall throw, petting zoo and jumping pillow. While exploring, guests can fuel up with delicious food or drink at “The Feed Bunk” or the “Bean Bin.”

Another great attraction to the harvest home is its small-town charm.

“[At the harvest home], there’s lots of great food,” Ellis said. “It’s a place to just be outside and let the kids run, play and get dirty.”

This year’s theme for the corn maze is “It’s always sunny on the farm.” The path of the maze outlines not only those words but also a sun in the middle of the field. Previously, they have had a combine in 2022, a cow in 2021 and the “Charmin” toilet paper bears in 2020. 

Each year there is a new adventure to be had at the harvest home. Along with the new design for the corn maze, many other things change from year to year also. 

“We’ve added quite a bit of stuff and expanded our concessions for more stuff [since last year],” Ellis said. “We also put in a second jumping pillow this past summer.”

Currently, they are thinking about adding another spider web in the yard. However, Ellis said that there are a few things that they plan on staying the same, like the old truck boxes used for the loose corn. 

“We thought about replacing them, but one of our friends said we couldn’t because it’s tradition,” he explained. “You walk into the yard and they’re right there.”

The two old truck boxes filled with corn are often the first stop for families after they come to the farm. Children love to sit in the corn and play in it. There are several stock tanks also filled with corn in other spots throughout the farm. 

“It’s fun to watch families [visit the harvest home each year],” Ellis said. “[Some of them were here] the first time when they were dating and now, they’ve got three kids.”

Ellis, who was born on the Ellis farm, said Ellis Harvest Home originally started as a small hobby pumpkin patch back in 1980. They grew two hills of pumpkins to give away to the nieces. However, the patch seemed to grow each year. It wasn’t long before they were growing enough pumpkins that students from the Lingle school would come out to pick them, too. 

“Eventually, it got big enough that we needed to either quit it or turn it into a business,” Ellis said. “So, we turned it into a business. It’s a way to supplement the farm.”

In 2008, they added the corn maze and officially began to grow into the Ellis Harvest Home they are now. The harvest home has grown to 10 acres. 

Ellis said running the harvest home and the farm is a family affair. Each year he along with his wife, son and a few other members of his family work alongside their employees to operate the business. 

Each year in preparation for the corn maze, Ellis said they plant the corn in two directions in a grid. Then they work with a company out of Utah, called Maze Incorporated, to come up with an idea for the maze. The company plans the other pathways of the maze around the idea.

In the first week of June, the company travels to the farm, marks out the maze and then sprays to kill the corn. Then for the rest of the summer, the corn grows around the pathways.

“Generally, there is about 25-30% less yield that we lose to the pathways, but the rest pretty much stays the same,” Ellis explained. “Of course, there is some other damage with that many people running around it, but then we just combine [the field] when the season is done.”

Overall, the harvest home still supplements the farm. 

“We’ve had really good support from the community,” Ellis said. “When we started it, it was pretty unique for this area. It’s been a learning process, but we’ve had some assistance through Goshen Economic Development.”

The harvest home attracts many people, including those from Cheyenne and Fort Collins. It is also a common field trip for many of the surrounding schools. Ellis said that they even have a special needs group from Casper that visited for the fifth time this year. 

This year they held adult night at the beginning of the season. The event included a band, local bar that catered beer and dinner specials. They plan on making the event an annual occurrence. 

Even though the harvest home is open around Halloween, Ellis said they do not incorporate any spooky themes into their layout. Instead, they focus completely on harvest and fall. However, with that said, the harvest home is still a wonderful place to get pumpkins to make jack-o-lanterns.

Ellis Harvest Home is located at 2927 US HWY 26, just two miles west of Lingle or eight miles east of Fort Laramie on Highway 26. On both sides of the highway, there are bright orange signs pointing in the right direction. After crossing the railroad tracks, the road will lead straight to the parking area for the harvest home. 

The harvest home is open to the public on Fridays from 2-6 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The price is $12 for ages four-years-old and up. Children three and under are free. Groups of 10 plus people may get a discount of $10 each if it’s a single payment. 

For more information, go to www.ellisharvesthome.com, follow “Ellis’ Harvest Home” on Facebook or call Dan at 307-532-1686 or Zack at 307-575-3059.

Sunday, Oct. 29 will be the last day of the 2023 season.