Fall Family Fun on the Farm

It’s the glint in his eyes and the mischievous delight in his voice that draws one in to Steve Enger. As he spins tales and visions of abandoned farm equipment turned into marketing props and catapults—an old grainery meticulously renovated into a haunted house, and farmland magically transformed each fall into an intricate maze carved out of acres and acres of corn or other crops—tempting even the most reluctant of travelers. 

Steve Enger, along with his wife Dorothy and daughter Jennie, are the creative minds behind Fall Family Fun on the Farm, located on their family farm one mile east of Hatton, in east central North Dakota. Now in its seventh year, this ambitious agri-tourism venture brings community to the countryside in a hands-on, educational and entertaining way, drawing people of all ages from a 100-mile radius. “What we do is a quality type of activity. It’s educational, and it’s usually decorated up quite nicely here in the fall,” Steve explains. 

Fall Family Fun on the Farm began as a fundraising idea for a church project that quickly got out of hand, Steve confesses. “The first year we had the haunted house and a small straw maze, and even before that we were selling pumpkins. Then my wife and daughter said ‘This grainery out here would make a perfect haunted house.’ So we…actually...I went overboard and started doing work in there.” Steve continues, “Then we said, ‘Well, we put a lot of work into this, so lets open it up to the public and not only for this fundraiser.’ That’s how this whole thing got started.” 

The Engers strive to make each maze an educational experience to enhance the adventure, especially for the busloads of students who visit the farm each season. “Dorothy does a lot of research on the signage. In 2002, for example, we had 130 signs throughout the maze. When we did the United States, we included trivia questions like ‘When was the first car race and what were the top speeds?’ We do this because when people come to the farm, whether vacationing or for entertainment, they want to go home and be able to talk about it.” 

Fall Family Fun on the Farm grows with each passing season. Since its inception, the Engers have added the Tunnel of Doom, Enterprise Golf, Tess the Milking Holstein, along with face painting, Rat Races, and other family favorites. “The thing that we do here is educating people in one fashion or the other, and we try to work with all ages, from the infants all the way up to senior citizens. We try to educate, entertain, and the people get their exercise all at the same time.”

Fall Family Fun on the Farm is best known for its elaborate maze which spans approximately nine acres, depending on layout design each season. The maze is planted in field corn and/or other field. The 2003 theme focused on North Dakota’s Lewis and Clark expedition celebration. Steve explains, “We are going to put in the United States like we did a couple of years ago. We will actually have about eight-and-a half acres with the outline of the United States. The Lewis and Clark trail will begin in St. Louis and go all the way to the west coast. In the eastern part of the United States we are going to put a silhouette of Sacagawea into the maze.” An outlook tower affords visitors a bird’s eye view of the finished maze. 

Steve uses Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to accurately plant and cut out each year’s maze. “We’ll take a rectangle like we did when we did North Dakota, and we will just plant an area about 400 feet by 800 feet and cut out the design later. For the sake of the maze, we have to do it different every year, and that is what we try to do.”

Visitors also love any hands-on activities, Enger states. “People love being involved in it—not just to watch it, but also to do something. One of the things we did in 2002 was to add the corn cob sling shot. Everyone, no matter what their age, whether male or female, young or old, liked that! We had distances out there that were marked off because we needed to have some sort of target area. That worked out well.”

It is this hands-on perception that fueled Steve’s latest contraption, affectionately dubbed Ralph the Pumpkin Thrower after Steve’s Uncle Ralph. “Ralph is my uncle, and we farm his land. He quit farming probably in the early 80’s, and he decided last year that he was going to get rid of his machinery so we had an auction. The rest of the stuff we’ve been cleaning out of the trees, and this is what we dreamt up. This one is an original, I guarantee you. I don’t think there’s any one around that has done something like this.”

So what is a Ralph the Pumpkin Thrower? “I took one of those Farmhand brand front end loaders that fit on the outside of the tractor and go really high in the air and split it apart. I’m making each individual cylinder go up by itself. Then, I took a couple of old cultivators and welded them together, and I attached six bicycles to each side of the cultivators. The six bicycles are going to propel the hydraulic pump that’ll raise the Farmhand front end loader up in the air and we’ll have a catapult on top. One guy will be running the controls that will discharge a pumpkin 20 feet in the air.” “I mean,” Steve continues with a chuckle, “You’ll have to try it to believe it. It’ll be a competition, so it’ll take many people pedaling to run the hydraulic pump that does all the work.” 

Fall Family Fun on the Farm continues to be an annual must-attend event for many families and school districts throughout the region. “We generally run between 2500 and 3000 kids from about a 100-mile radius,” comments Enger. “We get from as far west as Devils Lake and Jamestown, and up to the Canadian line. We try to keep the maze generic so we can also pull from Minnesota schools, as well.” 

“Families come out here as a get-together destination and use our farm as a meeting point for family gatherings in the fall. It’s a place for the entire family. People come and bring their sons and daughters, their grandkids or grandma and grandpa, and just have a good time together,” Steve concludes. 

The Engers know that one of their greatest assets is hospitality. They strive to make every visitor feel at home. “You have to be very creative in your thinking and in your design in what you are trying to do. It takes a lot of time on everybody’s part and it’s got to be a family effort. To do something like this, you can’t afford to hire it done; you have to do most of it yourself.” 

At a time when many urban dwellers are losing contact with the land, the Enger farm uses the latest technology to give visitors a farm experience they will always carry with them.