Six-year-old Wayne Sell is having the time of his life running through the paths of a corn field maze.

At each intersection, he tells his mother, Linda, which way to turn as they and their friends try to make their way through the stalks of corn on a warm Sunday afternoon.

For the past five years, the Beacon Hotel in the Renfrew section of Butler County has used its cornfield to create a maze. The design forms a picture that can be seen only from the air. This year's theme is Pirates of the CaribBeacon, and the maze takes the form of a pirate ship cut through 10 acres of tall corn.

In previous years, the field was designed as a lighthouse, a farmer on a tractor, a dragon and a spider web.

Sundays are family day for the maze, but on the weekends, the maze opens at dusk and is filled with actors ready to jump from the dark for a scare. A haunted house is on the tour, too.

Greg Krelow runs the Beacon Hotel and the farm, which straddles Forward and Penn and has been in his family for 70 years. He started the maze as a way to help his son and other Cub Scouts earn their compass pin. He expanded it and now sees hundreds of people come through the maze each day, but it's the children that he likes watching the most.

"Just the kids, the laughter, seeing the kids out in the field, seeing other people enjoy being outside," he said.

Last season, a few visitors used technology to cheat the maze. "Cell phones were a big culprit last year," Mr. Krelow said, smiling. "The kids would take the picture from the Internet, download it on their phone and they would have a map in their hand."

Now, he makes sure that the pictures are not exact to prevent anyone from finding an easy way through.

In daylight, it takes about 45 minutes to navigate the maze. At night, it takes about an hour.

As Wayne, his mother and their friends continue to walk the paths through the maze, the kids yell, "This way!" and each points in a different direction. After a while, mom takes the lead in one of the most complicated parts of the maze, but she doesn't fare much better.

"We're going in circles," Wayne announces, which doesn't make his mother any happier.

The group doesn't know that the maze was actually more difficult when it opened this year.

Each spring, Mr. Krelow teams with Peter Crist, an electrical engineer from Saxonburg, to draw the maze. In the past, both had heard complaints that it was too easy.

So, Mr. Crist made a more difficult design. But only 16 of 116 made it through the first night. So, the next morning, both men used machetes to open a few more paths to make it easier, especially for night-time visitors.

Mr. Crist would love to make a truly difficult maze that would befuddle even the most ardent fan, but he knows that's not practical here.

"We also have to keep in mind that we have to make it fun for people," he said. "There's always that trade-off."

He spends the day walking through the maze, trying to help people like Linda Sell and her son, Wayne. When they cross paths, Mr. Crist encourages them. "You're two thirds of the way through," he yells. Twenty minutes later and the group is still wandering, laughing as they see the same landmarks.

Mr. Crist enjoys seeing the results of his handiwork as families crisscross the paths searching for a way out.

Finally, the Sells and their friends stumble onto the exit, and the children and adults breathe a sigh of relief.

The Beacon Hotel is at 230 Beacon Road, and the farm straddles Forward and Penn. Admission is $12 Fridays and Saturdays; $10 Wednesdays and Thursdays; $7 on Sundays. For more information, go to themaze.gotothebeacon.com/.