- The myths surrounding crop circles finally
will be laid to rest this week when the man responsible for one of the
world's greatest hoaxes demonstrates for the first time on film how he
created the phenomenon.
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- Briton Doug Bower, 74, who has confessed
that he was the original crop circle creator, will reveal today how his
patterns -- which spawned international followers and millions of dollars
of scientific investigation --were made with planks of wood, lengths of
rope and a ball of string.
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- The film, for the BBC's CountryFile program,
was shot under cover of darkness in a Wiltshire cornfield. Bower, joined
by a new generation of hoaxers, shows how a huge and intricate geometric
impression can be created in just a few hours.
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- Reports of crop circles around the world
-- including Alberta -- are now routine. They include an apparent UFO landing
site near Granum, about 130 kilometres south of Calgary, in 1991 that was
part of a boom that year of some 34 markings. Reports in recent years have
tailed off, but circles have also been spotted around Lethbridge and Okotoks.
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- "It seems incredible," says
Bower, a former picture framer. "But despite us demonstrating how
it is done, the followers still don't believe crop circles are a hoax."
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- In 1978, Bower and a friend left his
local pub one night and created the first crop circle. By 1981, news of
the discoveries had spread worldwide. An army of scientists tried to solve
the mystery. Theories abounded, with many "experts" claiming
the phenomenon was caused by static electricity, microwaves and even a
"spinning plasma vortex."
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- The more the circles began to appear,
the more frenzied speculation about their cause became. Scientists began
round-the-clock supervision of various areas, and farmers whose land had
been targeted charged entry fees to the tens of thousands who came from
around the world to see them.
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- National hysteria became so intense,
however, that after 14 years the hoax began to unnerve Bower. He came clean,
but a huge band of mystics and devotees refused to believe him. For them,
crop circles -- which still appear at least 50 times each summer -- are
an unexplained cosmic mystery.
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- Interest from members of the Royal Family,
including the Queen and Prince Charles, has only added to the controversy.
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- But the farmers whose fields are targeted,
often now by copycat crop circlers, are less impressed.
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- "It's sad that someone has to do
this graffiti on the landscape," said Philip Fiddler, whose farm has
been hit on several occasions. "Why they have to pick on me in particular
I'm not sure. The people who make them are one thing. But it's the people
who go and have a look afterwards who do the most damage."
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- http://www.calgaryherald.com:80/news/stories/990103/2151439.html
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