Two almost-perfect circles of flattened crops in a wheat field near Rocanville [Saskatchewan] have left local people wondering what could have caused them.
The crop circles were first seen Wednesday morning, Sept. 4 in a field used by the Rocanville Rink Board as a fundraiser this summer.
The field is located southwest of the PCS Rocanville mine. The two circles are about 45 feet in diameter.
The circles have attracted a stream of onlookers from throughout the area.
Bob Langley was the first person to see the circles. He saw one of the crop circles early Wednesday morning, and said he didn't know what to think. "I've never seen anything like it," he said. "There was no wheat trampled down -- no sign that anyone had been in there."
He walked through the field to take a closer look at the crop circle, and spotted a second one nearby. He says there was no trampled wheat and no other sign that anyone had been in the field.
The first person he told about the find was Wayne Kingdon, who was just as surprised. "It's hard to imagine what could do this," he said. "If somebody was in there, you should have been able to tell."
"I don't know what could have done that, and I'm not sure I want to find out," said Langley.
There was nothing unusual spotted in the field as of dusk on Tuesday. A crew had been working on the road allowance next to the field and no one saw the circles or anything else in the field on Tuesday.
Wheat stalks in the circles are bent close to the ground, but the stalks are not broken. The ground is not compressed within the circles. All the stalks are neatly laid down and appear to be woven together in a spiral pattern. The edges of the circles are clean, with stalks standing straight up next to stalks laid flat.
Rick Holm, a professor of crop science and plant ecology, says he has heard about six reports of crop circles in Saskatchewan in his 12 years at the University of Saskatchewan, but he doesn't have any explanations. "It's a bit of a mystery," he said.
He said there are three theories about the origin of crop circles. "One is pranksters, one is some sort of local whirlwind, and the other you hear is UFOs and that sort of stuff."
Holm doesn't put much stock in the UFO theory, and while many crop circles have proven to be hoaxes, he believes some are caused by wind or some other natural phenomenon. "A lot of them have turned out to be the work of pranksters, and people have admitted to it afterwards, but I don't think all of them can be explained that way. Some remain mysteries."
One person who has made a point of studying crop circles is Daniel Clairmont, an IMC Esterhazy employee who spends much of his spare time investigating unusual phenomena.
Clairmont said in an interview that there are more crop circles than people know about in southeastern Saskatchewan. "They're happening all over the place, but most people don't want to report them," he said. He took measurements and samples at the site of the Rocanville crop circles on Thursday [Sept 5].
Clairmont found that the circles are not perfectly round. One, on a slight incline, has a diameter that ranges from 44.5 to 46.5 feet. The longer diameter runs along the incline, as would be expected if a circle was impressed from above. The other circle, on more level ground, has a diameter that varies from 45.5 to 46 feet.
Clairmont says he doesn't draw any conclusions from his investigations, but the results raise a lot of questions. "Why are the stalks not broken? I looked at the soil in the circles at Rocanville, and the ground isn't compacted at all. The stones aren't pushed into the ground. Some people think it's just a whirlwind. But what kind of wind can do something like that -- take the wheat and lay it down and weave it together?"
The crop circles have attracted a lot of media and public attention, and will be left as is. The area including the circles will not be harvested along with the rest of the field.
Original file name: .CNI - Canadian Crop Circles
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