Around 300 varieties of pumpkins, squash and gourds grown on site and four different mazes, at $9 an adult on a weekday, which makes it the best value-per-dollar fall farm in central Illinois if variety rather than rides is what you want.
2026 admission: weekdays adults $9, children 6-12 $6, seniors 60+ $6; weekends adults $13, children $9, seniors $9. Children under 5 free. Season passes available.
Rough cost for a family of four: about $24.00 in admission alone at the posted starting rate, before pumpkins, food, parking or any add-on listed above. Most families end up well north of that once they are through the gate.
Illinois grows more pumpkins than any other state, but the great majority of that crop is processing stock destined for cans rather than porches. The Great Pumpkin Patch is the opposite end of the same industry: roughly 300 varieties of pumpkins, squash and gourds grown on site, most of which you will never see in a supermarket. That is why seed catalogues and food writers cite this place, and why people drive in from neighbouring states for warty, pale, flattened and striped varieties that exist for looks and cooking rather than volume.
If you have been to a fall farm that buys in a pallet of orange field pumpkins and builds a bouncy castle next to it, this is a genuinely different visit.
Nine dollars for an adult on a weekday is cheap by any Illinois standard, and $6 for a child aged 6 to 12 or a senior aged 60 and over is cheaper still. Two adults and two school-age children come to $30 midweek. The same group at a weekend pays $44, still well under half what a big single-ticket activity farm charges in this state.
Under-fives are free, which matters more than the rate itself for families with toddlers. And the senior policy is unusually kind: 60 and over pays the child price, not a token discount off the adult one.
Where the budget actually goes is food and pumpkins. There is a bakery, a candy shop, an eatery and a creamery on site, and with 300 varieties in the fields most visitors leave with more squash than they intended. Plan the food spend deliberately; the gate is not what will surprise you.
Corn, straw bales, sunflowers and soybeans. That is a broader maze offering than almost anywhere, and it is a better fit for mixed-age groups than one big corn maze, because a straw bale maze is navigable by a five-year-old and a soybean maze is a different physical experience again. None of them is a headline forty-acre monster. If you are hunting a maze that takes an hour and defeats you, this is not it; if you want variety and short repeatable challenges, it is close to ideal.
The rest of the roster is wagon rides, farm animals including llamas, goats, chickens and rabbits, the Pumpkin Tree and Noah Ark displays, restored historic schoolhouses, and live music at weekends.
The season runs September 16 to October 31, Wednesday to Sunday, 9am to 6pm, with Mondays closed except for Indigenous Peoples Day on October 12. That is about 35 operating days. The published schedule is slightly ambiguous about Tuesdays, which is the one thing here worth a phone call if a Tuesday is the only day you can go.
Halloween falls on a Saturday in 2026 and is also the last day of the season. Every farm in the state sees a spike that day; a farm that also closes for the year that day will see the biggest crowd it gets. If you want the place at its quietest, the weekdays in the last week of September and the first two weeks of October are the sweet spot, before the school-holiday and Halloween rush and after the fields have filled out.
A 9am opening in October in Douglas County means a cold start, and the fields hold water after autumn rain like everywhere else in Illinois. Boots and layers. The site is out in Amish country outside Arthur, on a county road rather than a highway, so allow more driving time than the map suggests, and be ready to share the road with slower traffic. There is nothing in the record about parking surfaces or accessibility, and we are not going to guess beyond saying that field mazes and straw bales are hard going on wheels.
The 2026 season runs September 16 through October 31, Wednesday to Sunday, 9am to 6pm, closed Mondays with an exception for Indigenous Peoples Day on October 12. That is roughly 35 operating days. Weekdays are both cheaper and quieter, and a Wednesday or Thursday morning is the pick of the season. Weekends add live music but cost around 45 percent more per person. The season closes on Halloween itself, which falls on a Saturday in 2026 and will be the single busiest day.
Two and a half to four hours. The 9am to 6pm day is long enough that you can arrive early, walk the four mazes, work through the variety fields and eat on site without rushing.
Weekends are the busy half and carry the higher price, and live music on Saturdays and Sundays pulls people in. The last weekend of October, ending on Halloween Saturday, is the peak. Weekday mornings at a 9am opening should be comfortable.
Not published. This is rural Douglas County farmland, so assume grass or gravel and soft ground after rain rather than a paved lot.
Not published in the record. Straw bale and field mazes on uneven ground are hard work with a stroller or a wheelchair; the shops and the display areas are likely easier. Call ahead if this matters to your group.
Your children need slides, zip lines and a jumping pillow to be entertained. The activity list here is mazes, wagon rides, farm animals and displays; there is no ride roster and no wristband. Skip it too if Monday or Tuesday is your only free day, since the farm is shut both days apart from October 12.
The farm sits just outside Arthur in Illinois Amish country, and the on-site bakery, candy shop, eatery and creamery mean you do not have to leave to eat. Central Illinois also puts you within reach of Morton, which bills itself the Pumpkin Capital of the World, so a two-stop weekend is realistic if you want the processing side of the state pumpkin story alongside the heirloom side.
On weekdays adults are $9, children 6 to 12 are $6 and seniors 60 and over are $6. At weekends adults are $13 with children and seniors at $9. Children under 5 are free. Season passes are available.
Around 300 kinds of pumpkins, squash and gourds are grown on site. That is the whole point of the farm and the reason it draws visitors from several states for heirloom and display varieties.
Wednesday through Sunday, 9am to 6pm, from September 16 to October 31. Mondays are closed with the exception of Indigenous Peoples Day on October 12. The published information is slightly ambiguous about Tuesdays, so treat Wednesday to Sunday as the reliable window.
Not in the sense of a ticketed ride park. What is listed is four mazes, wagon rides, farm animals including llamas, goats, chickens and rabbits, display features and live music at weekends, plus restored historic schoolhouses on the site.
September 16 – October 31, 2026. Wednesday through Sunday (closed Mondays, except Indigenous Peoples' Day). Hours: 9am-6pm.
Admission starts at $6 per person. 2026 admission: weekdays adults $9, children 6-12 $6, seniors 60+ $6; weekends adults $13, children $9, seniors $9. Children under 5 free. Season passes available.
1749A E County Rd 1900 N, Arthur, IL 61911, in Douglas County. It is one of 5 patches we track in Central Illinois.
We track 5 patches in Central Illinois, 3 of which are free to walk into. At $6 a head this one sits below the regional median of $9.95, undercutting 1 of the 2 paid patches we track here.
Its season runs about 46 days against a regional average of 36, so it is a notably longer window than most of its neighbours, which takes the pressure off picking a weekend.
There are 4 other patches we track in Douglas County. All Central Illinois patches →
the200acres.com
Checked August 2026.