A flashlight corn maze, a Saturday market and an herb fair filled a Thumb Coast weekend

PORT AUSTIN, Mich. — The tip of the Thumb had one of its fuller fall weekends on Oct. 9-10, with a corn maze open after dark Friday, a Saturday market that is nearly done for the year and an herb fair on the Sanilac County shore.

Autumn Acres Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch, at 8558 Rapson Road near Harbor Beach, held a Friday Night Flashlight Maze from 7 to 10 p.m. Oct. 9. Visitors brought a flashlight or bought one there, then hunted for candy hidden along the paths. There was also a haunted shed. Admission was $12, cash only, according to the farm’s event listing.

The farm is otherwise open on Saturdays and Sundays through Oct. 31, according to the Thumbcoast tourism website, which lists haunted corn maze nights there on Oct. 24 and 31.

In Port Austin, the farmers market ran from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10, rain or shine. The market has been held every Saturday since May 16 and wraps up Oct. 24, according to the Greater Port Austin Area Chamber of Commerce. Szymanski’s Creekside Acres, also in Port Austin, is open through the same date, the tourism site says.

About an hour’s drive down M-25, the Blue Water Shore Herb Guild presented the Bluewater Herb Fair from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10, at the Bark Shanty, 135 Church St., in Port Sanilac. The listing promised fresh and dried herbs, artisan crafts, food, workshops and demonstrations.

Port Austin turns to Halloween the following Saturday. The chamber lists a Fairy Tale Trail from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Port Austin History Center and a Zombie Crawl starting at 3 p.m. that day at Lake Street Local. A costume parade on the Village Green is set for Oct. 31, according to the Thumbcoast site.

Updated Oct. 13, 2026: The Oct. 9 flashlight maze, Oct. 10 Port Austin market and Bluewater Herb Fair are now past tense. This guide was published before them, and its schedule language has been changed to the past tense. Autumn Acres weekends through Oct. 31, the Oct. 17 Fairy Tale Trail and Zombie Crawl, and the Oct. 31 costume parade remain ahead.

Updated Oct. 13, 2026: The headline and summary were changed to the past tense for events that have already taken place.

Sources:
AllEvents, Autumn Acres Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch, Friday Night Flashlight Maze with Candy Scavenger Hunt, Oct. 9, 2026, https://allevents.in/harbor-beach/friday-night-flashlight-maze-with-candy-scavenger-hunt/200030436403628
Greater Port Austin Area Chamber of Commerce, events list, https://www.portaustinarea.com/events-list
HappeningNext, Bluewater Herb Fair, Oct. 10, 2026, https://happeningnext.com/event/bluewater-herb-fair-eid3a0e0ct7l7
Thumbcoast.org, “Fall in Love with Michigan’s Thumbcoast,” Sept. 10, 2026, https://thumbcoast.org/fallonmichigansthumbcoast/
Photo: Notorious4life, “Port Austin, MI along M-25,” Aug. 5, 2019, Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/), cropped and color-corrected, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Port_Austin,_MI_along_M-25.jpg

Thumb Coast

Tags: Thumb Coast · Michigan Travel · Farmers Markets · Festivals · Pumpkins and Corn Mazes · Things To Do