ROUGHTON - Wasn't it just a couple year ago, Fourth of July weekend, that the infamous Paulding County Crop Circle hit the scene and put our little corner of the world on the map? Seems like once isn't enough, because there is another one!
This time, the circle was not found from the air, but by a Grover Hill farmer harvesting wheat July 6. Brian Ruble was combining an 18-acre field in Latty Township when he first glimpsed the phenomena.
He said, "I saw it from a distance and didn't know what it was. When I got closer, I could see it was a crop circle. My 8-year-old daughter has been looking for a crop circle since she and her mom went to see the one at Arend's. I never thought I'd find one."
He combined around it. Later he told his father and his wife, who called landowner Georgia Price.
"I don't know what to make of it," said Price. "I don't believe in outer space stuff. I don't know why anyone would go to this trouble."
She said her family has farmed the land 45 years and it has never before produced such a crop.
A CASE OF VANDALISM?
Sheriff Dave Harrow said his office received a report of crop vandalism at 6:14 p.m. July 6.
He denied the existence of a crop circle in the county, although he said the vandalism was circular in shape. He said his office has no suspects and because the landowner did not want to press charges, the case is closed.
Ruble said the sheriff came out July 6, compared the formation with those in a book, declared it a hoax, and recommended they to plow the compression under.
In spite of this, one witness said nearly 150 people were on the scene later that evening. This circle has not been roped off and had people inside it before experts arrived on the scene.
SAMPLES TAKEN FOR STUDY
But, the circle was still intact over the weekend when it was visited July 12 by Roger Sugden and Jeffrey Wilson. Both researchers made trips to Paulding County when the first crop circle was reported.
Sugden said he and Wilson each documented the circle and took samples for study. Sugden took measurements, drew a field diagram and checked electromagnetic readings (which were higher inside the formation), before taking wheat and soil samples from inside and outside the circle.
Samples taken by Sugden were sent to the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) in Chicago at the request of John Timmerman from its Lima office; BLT Research in Grass Lake, Mich., at the request of biophysicist Dr. William C. Levengood; and the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), a Texas-based research group for which Sugden ,is a field investigator. He also took aerial and ground-level photographs.
Wilson is an independent crop circle researcher from Eastern Michigan University (EMU) in Ypsilanti, Mich., where he teaches astronomy.
SIMILARITIES SEEN
There are many similarities between this circle and that found two years ago in Jackson Township. Both occurred in a field of bearded wheat, are about the same size, (this one is 92 feet in diameter while the first was 93), each has an offset center, and both were centered between ditches. They're only three miles apart (by air, five by roadway). This one spins down in the opposite direction, however.
Sugden said nodes on the plants were enlarged and stretched, which is a good indication of an authentic formation.
He also noted a single thick stemmed dark weed, he thinks perhaps dock, inside the circle. "It is the only thing left standing. It's about two and a half to three feet tall. If this was hoaxed, they wouldn't have seen the weed and it wouldn't be standing," said Sugden.
The formation lies at the back of the field with two north-south ditches running through it and a lot of clover growing in it.
Because of this growth, Sugden feels the circle was made in late June or very early July. He also said the landowner told him the house just south of the field had been struck by lightning June 27. He believes there could be a connection between the two.
AWAITING TEST RESULTS
Sugden doesn't believe this formation is a hoax. Wilson didn't have an initial comment. Both are awaiting testing results for confirmation. Sugden, who also works with UFO sightings, said there were no UFO indicators at the site.
Two neighbors in the quiet area two, miles south of Ohio 637 on Road 131 said they neither saw nor heard anything unusual that weekend.
The first crop circle was not hoaxed, but was caused by a type of natural atmospheric disturbance, said Dr. Levengood. In May 1997, he released a report on his findings from crop circle samples, taken from the Arend farm site the previous year.
The report said "the results clearly indicate that this event was not, in fact, man-made. Instead, the findings support Dr. Levengood's theory that very complex, turbulent, thermodynamically unstable atmospheric energy systems are the causative agents ... it is clear that both heat and electromagnetic components were present, of the type that would be expected in association with a highly-charged plasma vortex."
This field south of Broughton yielded more than wheat for farmer Brian Ruble. Hidden in the amber waves of grain was a crop circle -- the second such formation to be found recently. The first was southeast of Paulding in 1996. The site, which may have been formed a few weeks ago, has been relatively undisturbed. Two researchers initially called the circle "authentic," but the sheriff is calling it vandalism. (Denise Gebers / Paulding County Progress)
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SAMPLES TAKEN FOR STUDY