This news story appeared in a four-state ag newspaper
Crop circle leaves experts, farmer scratching their heads
FOREST GROVE, Ore. — The origin of a crop circle in Lyle Spiesschaert’s wheat field remains unknown. But, the Forest Grove farmer isn’t ready to dismiss it as a hoax, yet.
“I like to remain open,” he said, regarding the mysterious formation — a 140-foot design comprised of a large center circle flanked by two smaller ones — that appeared in his field sometime on or near July 4.
Spiesschaert said he first heard about the crop circle while watching footage of it on the evening news. The area filmed, he said, looked familiar.
“I thought it might be my field,” he said. His suspicions were confirmed later when he discovered researchers, reporters, and the curious inspecting the phenomenon.
Spiesschaert said he was ill-prepared for the crowds of people swarming his field and, initially, struggled with how to handle it. He eventually decided he did not want to keep anyone away, he said.
“People should have the opportunity to witness this, “ he said.
What, exactly, it is, Speisschaert does not know. “There are many things humans cannot explain.”
This particular crop circle may or may not be an example of that, he said.
Spiesschaert is still awaiting test results of wheat and soil samples collected by Carol Pedersen, a researcher for the Oregon chapter of The Centre for Crop Circle Research.
The samples have been sent to Dr. W.C. Levengood, a Michigan biophysicist. Levengood will be analyzing both the wheat shafts and soil samples looking for, among other criteria, elongated nodes, seed changes and evidence of magnetism in the soil, Pedersen said.
How significant would positive results be? “People cannot make these changes by themselves,” Pedersen said.
Although groups such as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal and The Society for Rational Thinkers have debunked crop circles for years, Pedersen says science is on her side. Only science, she said, will prove that the oddities we find are not caused by man.
She admits that some crop circles are fakes. They can be rather easily formed by pressing down the crop using boards and ropes. In fact, a Forest Grove teen has come forward claiming to know who created this circle. His statement has not yet been substantiated.
Pedersen said even the empirical evidence invalidates the teen’s claim. She saw “with my own eyes” enlarged nodes and the tell-tale swirl pattern, which would signify a genuine, unexplained crop circle, she said.
Plus, her gut feeling, she said, tells her this is the real thing.
“Whatever mysterious source it comes from, I don’t think it came from human beings.” She said she’ll know for sure when Levengood finishes his work.
In the meantime, Spiesschaert has harvested the wheat. He said that the crop circle is still somewhat visible, but there’s really not much to see.
Even so, people continue to visit.
And Spiesschaert continues to let them.
“It’s better than so many things that go on in America. At least this gave us time to pause and consider other things.”
Jill Hohnstein 