How can you tell a fake crop circle from a real one? With
the movie "Signs" coming out in August, we can expect to see
more faked circles than ever before. Lucy Pringle, who has
been researching crop circles for many years, will be on
Dreamland August 3 and she'll give us some good advice about
this. On our July 27 Dreamland show, Charles Mallet pointed
out that many of the manmade circles are large and
intricate, but when experienced circle researchers see them
up close, they can spot them every time.
Most of the crop circles?both real and fake?have been seen
in England, but now they're turning up in the U.S. as well.
In Illinois, crop consultant Ed Corrigan noticed wide paths
of broken plants circling out across a soybean field. He
quickly called the farmer, Steve Berning, to come look at
it. They found no tracks going into or out of the field.
When looked at from the air, you can see a series of broken,
concentric rings cut into the field.
William Leone, a local Mufon investigator, says only soil
analysis can determine whether the circle was created by
humans or some other phenomenon. When he investigated a
series of 11 circles in a field of cattails in 1994, Leone
says he found genetic differences in the plants inside and
outside the circles, which all measured 84 feet in diameter.
Illinois Farm Bureau spokesman Dennis Vercler says he hasn't
heard any reports about crop circles from farmers elsewhere
in the state. "This is the first I've heard of it in
Illinois," he says. "I hope it's not a trend. Farming is
tough enough these days."
More than 10% of the 8 acre field is damaged and will not
recover before the harvest in September. "It's probably
mischievous people in the area, but beyond that I don't
know," Corrigan says. "We scout 50,000 acres every year and
we've never run into anything like this before."
Berning hasn't reported the crop circle to police because he
figures there's nothing to be done. "There's some damage,
which upsets me," he says. "But I'm more curious than
anything. I'll always be asking questions."
You can see beautiful, real circles on Lucy Pringle?s
calendars and post cards,
click here.
To see an elaborate fake circle,
click
here.
To learn how to spot a real circle,
click
here.
For more information, click here.
