The world of high tech is making North Georgia’s favorite fall pastime — getting lost — even better.

Corn mazes may feel old fashioned, but there’s plenty of technology wrapped up in getting those intricate designs carved into local fields.

This year’s theme at Jaemor Farms in Alto is “Hometown Heroes,” a maze depicting a police officer, firefighter and emergency medical technician. Uncle Shuck’s maze in Dawsonville features a stork carrying a baby in a blanket along with the Northside Hospital logo, all within an outline of the state of Georgia.

“For the past 13 years, we have been working with a company out of Pennsylvania that specializes in designing corn mazes,” said Caroline Lewallen, marketing coordinator at Jaemor. “Every January, they send us a lookbook to sort through with random maze theme ideas.”

Last year, Jaemor chose a train design and named it the Jaemor Express. Lewallen said there are all sorts of designs to choose from such as pirate ships, Noah’s Ark or different sports teams.

“There are 40 to 60 to flip through, and we just try to select something that means a lot to us or that we think families will enjoy,” Lewallen said.

Once the staff at Jaemor decides on the design for the year, the choice is sent back to Maize Quest along with the coordinates of the four corners of the 6-acre plot of corn at Jaemor.

In July, the corn is planted. After visitors have had their fun at the farm, the corn is often harvested and fed to livestock.

“Some years we’ll have someone come gather up the corn that’s still out there when it’s over and use it to feed it to animals,” Lewallen said. “Some years we plow it directly back into the soil.”

Unlike conventional fields, Jaemor doesn’t plant straight rows of corn. Lewallen said the corn is cross-planted, meaning seeds are planted in both directions so the maze grows thicker.

“In August, when it’s about knee high, that company comes down here and mows the design out for us using a GPS,” Lewallen said.

From there, Jaemor simply maintains the maze until it opens in mid-September.

At Uncle Shuck’s, owner and operator Mathew Hughes said he uses MazePlay, a family-run operation out of Indiana he’s been working with for 17 years. Hughes has 12 acres of corn that will be harvested in January, and, as with Jaemor, fed to cattle.

It takes MazePlay about six hours in August to complete Uncle Shuck’s corn maze with a GPS. Hughes said MazePlay uses an enclosed-cab John Deere tractor with a 6-foot tiller, which tills the ground so visitors don’t trip over the stalks.

“He has his own form of GPS, so it’s accurate up to three inches,” Hughes said. “So basically, he’ll drive the perimeter of the field and just set the picture in.”

After that’s done, the next bit of work is taking a machete through the maze and cutting anything hanging in the paths, then taking yellow caution tape around to mark the trail and help deter visitors from cutting through the corn.