Entertainment

The 'S-Town' Hedge Maze Looks So Cool

There are a lot of things to be excited about in the new podcast sweeping the nation. But something that's been on my mind from the first episode is where is the hedge maze from S-Town? In Episode 1, as part of our introduction to John McLemore, host Brian Reed describes and tours the unique-sounding area on McLemore's property, where he's carved a hedge maze out of the forest — complete with gates he's designed himself that you can open and close, rearranging to form 64 possible solutions. (And, as listeners discovered in the first episode, one unsolvable combination traps you inside.) One day, McLemore envisions the hedges growing so tall that you can't see over them, making it a true maze, but, for now, they're only hip-high.

Even still, Reed seemed so awed and impressed by the creation that I was eager to see it for myself. And since I won't be flying down to rural Woodstock, Alabama anytime soon — and Reed bleeped out the last few digits of the latitude and longitude coordinates that McLemore rattled off in Episode 1 — I wasn't sure I'd get the opportunity. But, luckily, there are people on the internet who don't let these sorts of obstacles stand in their way, and they've located overhead views of the maze on Google Maps that give some measure of the site's impact.

In the above photo, you can see the maze north and slightly west of what looks to be the main house. Twitter user Stephen Floyd has found the hedge maze's coordinates, which yield this zoomed-in version.

But if spying from above isn't your style, there's an imgur album of John Mclemore's hedge maze with tons of close-up photos of the maze from early in its creation, as evidenced by the height of the hedges. The pictures show how it was laid out and give you an idea of its size.

All in all, it's an impressive feat, and I very much appreciate getting some images to go along with lush, descriptive storytelling on S-Town so far. It only makes me more interested in the mysterious, quirky personality that is John McLemore.