S-Town Podcast Wiki
Register
Advertisement

The hedge maze is a botanical maze planted by John B. McLemore, one of the real-life characters in S-Town.

History[]

In Chapter I, we learn that John's maze has 64 possible solutions and one null set, which you can reach by opening or closing the maze's handmade wooden gates in different orders. It is the only known planted maze in the state of Alabama. McLemore planted the maze in a forest on his property. He told Reed:

I love my home. I don't know why. You [know] — I've lived here all my life. My mom's lived here all her life. My dad's lived here most of his life, and Grandpa Miller's lived here all his life. Places like that should be important. I'm lookin' out over a yard — we['ve] got a rose garden here that's 300-f*cking-feet long. I plant[ed] a hedge maze out here. It's the only one in the state. You can go to Google maps and enter 33.202465,_87...

At that point, Reed cuts McLemore off to enter the coordinates himself. As he does, he tells listeners that he's going to hide some of the coordinates as McLemore continued, more to himself than anything, that what he should really do is bring Reed to the center of the maze. When Reed pulls up the maze on his computer, you can hear the awe in his voice. "That's your yard? Oh my god." Then the voice over begins. Reed described the maze as hidden "there in the middle of the woods," a "huge labyrinth made of concentric circles of hedges with a path weaving through."

Media[]

Advertisement