The Mystery of the Strange Kohl’s Parking Lot Corn Field

Shoppers in the Hudson Valley are in for a strange sight the next time they visit a plaza off of Route 300 in Newburgh, NY.

Fall is in full swing in New York State, with pumpkin patches, apple orchards, and hayrides quickly replacing the ice cream stands and beach days of the warmer months. Someone, however, seems to be celebrating the harvest season in one of the most unexpected ways possible.

Mysterious "Corn Field" Found in the Hudson Valley

Last week, my wife and I adopted a new puppy named Milo (above). The first week was spent introducing him to his new home, worrying if he was small enough to be carried away by an eagle (find out the scary answer here), and of course buying him a bed, collar, and more from PetSmart. That's when we found the mysterious corn field... 

Corn Growing Outside Kohl's Store in Newburgh, NY

After leaving the store on Sunday evening, we couldn't help but notice something out of place between PetSmart and Kohl's in the Newburgh Plaza shopping center: a miniature corn field growing on one of the small traffic islands (below).

What's the Story Behind the Miniature Corn Field in the Newburgh Plaza?

Surprisingly, several stalks of corn, as well as what appeared to be sunflowers and sorghum, were growing out of a roughly 50-square-foot patch of soil in the middle of a sprawling asphalt parking lot. But what, or who, had allowed small piece of farmland to sprout in the middle of a shopping plaza?

Luckily, we weren't the only ones to notice the microscopic plot of crops that seemed to have spawned in the middle of a concrete oasis. An employee at one of the nearby stores had also noticed the plants, and had a very enterprising attitude about the unexpected situation:

"I've never seen anything like is in the [more than five] years that I've been working here", they shared. "I wanted to pick some of the corn and take it home, but my wife wouldn't let me." They also had a theory on how the corn got there in the first place. "People like to throw seeds for the birds", they explained. "I think some of those [seeds] might have been for corn, and they just grew".

Get our free mobile app

The hypothesis might also explain the sunflowers growing nearby, as both corn and sunflower seeds are often included in bird seed packs. Either that or there's a new Johnny Appleseed in town, but instead of fruit, they're growing corn in the most random places in the Hudson Valley.