- Sometime during the night of August 27-28,
1998, British Columbia got its first verified crop formation in the small
small farming community of Vanderhoof, just west of Prince George in central
B.C. The formation, consisting of 11 circles ranging in size from 18' 6"
to 99' in diameter, was located in a field of oats next to runway #250
at the small Vanderhoof airport.
-
- One of the first people to see them was
pilot Eric Stier. He was returning from aerial fire patrol on Friday, Aug.
28th and was just approaching the runway at 4:15 PM when he spotted the
distinct pattern. He had flown over the same field the day before and says
there was nothing in it then.
-
- Soon after landing, he and friends Neil
Weibe, John McQueen and Bryan Wallace went back into the air for a second
look. They took numerous photos and scrutinised the field very carefully
but said they could see no tracks or points of entry. They had no idea
what to make of these strange circles.
-
- The next morning, Saturday, they walked
into the field. Still suspecting a possible prank, they looked very carefully
for paths and other signs of human involvement but found nothing. At this
point, they told the owner of Vanderhoof Flying Services Brent Miskuski
of their find and he in turn notified farmers Frank and Margaret Smith
who lease the land.
-
- Up to this point, only a handful of people
knew about the formation and so it was relatively undisturbed. However,
by Monday, the press found out and from that moment on interest and visits
to the site began.
-
- My wife Gwen and first learned about
the formation on Tuesday morning and within an hour and a half were on
our way for the 9 1/2 hour drive from Vancouver. We arrived after dark
at about 9 PM. We entered the formation at 10 AM on Wednesday.
-
- Since numerous people had already visited
the site, it was difficult to detect certain features which would indicate
whether or not it was genuine. However, there were still numerous areas
that had not been walked on. In these areas, I found no obvious signs of
damage to the stalks or compaction of the soil. Also, the lay looked quite
good and dowsing the circles indicated a strong energy.
-
- Related Anomalous Reports
-
- During the three days we were at the
site, we spoke to many people who had experiences which may be related
to the arrival of the formations.
-
- a) Many people told us their dogs barked
incessantly or acted strangely the night the formation appeared. One woman,
Rosie Martins, told us her dog was so out of control that the family cat
took fright and jumped into her son's bed to hide, scratching him badly.
Another woman, Mae Frankel, said her son's dogs were in a barking frenzy
all that night. Also, Margaret Smith's mother visited the circles and when
she returned home, her dogs and cats refused to come near her. And a couple
who were visiting the formation with their small dog said the dog was desperate
to get out of the large circle.
-
- b) A woman told us that at 2 AM on Friday,
the night the formations appeared, she saw an eerie glow in the forest
a few miles from her house. She thought it might be a fire and so woke
her husband but after an hour it simply blinked out. She said it was a
fiery orange light which lit up a large area and that there was no smoke.
-
- c) That same Friday, during the day,
two men in a neighbouring town said they saw two silver objects rising
from the lake they were fishing on. At first it seemed they might be looking
at reflections in the water about a half mile away but then whatever it
was rose and took off rapidly. These men say they are not believers in
the paranormal and seemed embarrassed by their sighting. Neither could
explain what they had seen and they did not know of the existence of the
crop circles.
-
- d) Lars Sabbie's wife was pulling a hay
wagon with a pickup truck a few miles away from the circle field at 7:30
PM on Monday, the 31st of August. Suddenly, the hay burst into flames.
She managed to save the truck but the wagon burned to the ground. She is
a non-smoker. Cases of hay wagons catching fire are not unheard of but
are quite rare.
-
- Collecting Samples
-
- Over the next few days, we collected
53 sets of stalk samples from circles and 101 controls. Each sampling contains
about 20 stalks. In addition, we took an equal number of soil samples.
These will be sent to the Burke/Levengood/Talbot team for analysis.
-
- Technical Data
-
- Crop - oats
- Date of formation - night of Aug 27/28
- Size of circles - in a cluster of 5,
one was 51' diameter and clockwise
- one was 23'10" diameter and counterclockwise
- one was 50' 2" diameter and clockwise
- one was 41' 8" diameter and counterclockwise
- one was 46' 6" diameter and clockwise
-
- - in a cluster of 3, one was 19' 8"
diameter and counterclockwise
- one was 19' 6" diameter and clockwise
- one was 18' 6" diameter and counterclockwise
-
- - in a cluster of 3, one was 99' diameter
and counterclockwise
- one was 21' 8" diameter and clockwise
- one was 22' and clockwise
-
- The distances that separated the circles
in each cluster ranged from 1 foot to 2' 8". The distance between
the two circles furthest from each other was 535 feet. The closest distance
to edge of field was 175 feet. The distance of runway to closest circle
is 600 feet
-
- It is noteworthy to mention that after
we had completed our sampling, hundreds of people from the surrounding
area began visiting the field. We talked to a great many of them, always
asking if they knew of any pranksters who might be capable of this or if
they had heard of the slightest rumour suggesting a hoax. Every single
person, regardless of their personal belief as to the circle's origins,
said they had heard nothing. This holds true today, 12 days later.
|
