A football-field-size corn maze shaped like Dolly Parton's face opens to the public Saturday at Stewart Farms in Enoree, part of a continent-wide tribute to the country music icon who died last month. The Laurens County farm, located at 6600 Highway 92, is one of 20 farms across North America honoring Parton and the 31st anniversary of her Imagination Library literacy program this fall.
Stewart Farms will run the maze from Saturday through October 31, according to Greenville News. In a statement, the farm called it “a special honor in a whole new way to pay tribute to Dolly's legacy this fall in our corn maze,” per the same report. The design is part of an annual country music corn maze campaign run by Utah-based agritourism firm The MAiZE Inc., which previously honored Reba McEntire, Luke Bryan, and Lainey Wilson in past years, according to the Associated Press.
The Parton tribute mazes were actually planned back in May, months before her death, to mark the Imagination Library's 31st anniversary — a detail that gives the farm's opening weekend an unplanned poignancy. Before she died of cancer at age 80 on August 25, Parton recorded a statement for The MAiZE encouraging visitors to “get lost in this year's country music corn maze for a little fun, laughter and a real good reason to get lost” in support of her childhood literacy charity, the AP reported. Her family later said Parton was “a farmer at heart, just like her father,” who worked the soil while she cultivated songs.
How Technicians Carve a Face Into a Cornfield
The maze features Parton's likeness and signature smile.
Stewart Farms has hosted its SC Corn MAiZE as a fall tradition since 2000, alongside a 10-acre u-pick pumpkin patch growing more than 110 varieties, daytime wagon rides, and a family-friendly “Big Boo” haunted maze on select October nights, according to the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. The farm's fall hours run Fridays from 4 to 10 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sundays from 1 to 7 p.m., with the farm closed Monday through Thursday, per Greenville News. Admission costs $8 plus tax for visitors ages 6 and up, with children 5 and under entering free and no separate parking fee charged; the last ticket sells one hour before closing.
Where the Money Goes in Laurens County
Stewart Farms will donate a portion of maze proceeds to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, an early childhood book-gifting program that mails free books to children from birth to age five. Locally, that support flows through Laurens County First Steps, which became the county's Imagination Library affiliate in November 2023 and has since served 2,227 children and mailed 29,990 free books directly to homes, with about 1,648 local children receiving a monthly book, according to Who's On The Move.
September 25, 2026, was Give Like Dolly Day. Across the state, South Carolina First Steps estimates roughly 60,000 young children receive free monthly books through the program each year, totaling about 500,000 mailed books statewide annually, according to WLTX.
Nationally, the Imagination Library has gifted more than 300 million free books since its 1995 launch in Sevier County, Tennessee, mailing roughly 3.6 million books per month across five countries, the United States Postal Service reported. Agriculture remains South Carolina's largest industry, contributing $51.8 billion in annual economic impact and supporting nearly 260,000 jobs across more than 22,600 farms statewide, according to the South Carolina Department of Agriculture — underscoring how agritourism stops like Stewart Farms help diversify revenue for working farms while raising money for causes like Parton's.
Part of a Nationwide Wave of Tributes
Stewart Farms joins a growing list of farms turning their fields into memorials this fall. A Texas farm carved a similar tribute as part of the same 20-farm campaign, while a Pennsylvania farmstead opened its own Parton-themed maze just days after her death in August. In Enoree, the maze offers Laurens County families a chance to walk through a living tribute while directly supporting the same cause Parton championed for more than three decades.
