1994 Crop Circle Formations
[ This article appeared in the January 1995 Minnesota MUFON Newsletter, Issue #51, page 3. ]
Rural Milaca, MN Crop Circle Formation discovered 10/1/94
On Thursday, October 6th, Minneapolis stations WCCO-TV and KARE-TV broadcast the Milaca crop circle story on their 5, 6 and 10pm newscasts. It was the lead story on KARE. Both stations sent their helicopters some 60 miles north of Minneapolis to video tape the crop circle. The October 5th edition of the Mille Lacs County Times also published a front page article describing this crop circle.
The crop circle was discovered on Harold Smith's farm from the air on October 1st by his son, Perry, who is a private pilot. Approximately 370 feet from the rural gravel road into Harold's corn crop, were three round circles in an east-west line. The corn stalks had been flattened to the ground. The largest circle is 65 feet in diameter and the smaller circles on either side are 29 feet in diameter. The corn stalks in the largest circle are laid down in a counter clockwise direction. The smaller circles are laid down in a clockwise direction.
Harold and Perry were the first to walk into the crop circles. Harold said, "There weren't any footprints or impressions in the area where the corn once stood. In addition, there is a bare spot in the middle of each circle were clumps of dirt lie undisturbed." Harold is convinced the circles were not created by kids nor animals. He is really stumped as to how they were created and hopes he can some day find the answer.
I drove up to investigate the crop circles on Friday. Harold and Betty were not home. I walked into the formation from the gravel road and took some pictures. The next day, another pilot and I flew up and took aerial pictures. I also informed operators on the Saturday morning MUFON HAM radio network. Another HAM operator, Jim Cormia, (reference May, 1994 MUFON journal page 16 article) told me to contact Dr. Levengood who runs a biophysical laboratory at Grass Lake, MI.
I called Dr. Levengood, whose hobby is crop circle formation analysis, He told me how to collect corn samples to be sent to him. So I drove back up to Milaca on Sunday. Harold and Betty were home this time. We talked for hours and I collected corn samples from within each circle and control samples 100 feet away from the circles. Harold also said neighbors who lived 3 miles north had phoned him to say they had seen a strange light in the sky several days before the circles were discovered.
I interviewed Shirley Anderson on Monday. She and her husband had seen a large bright blue-white globe descending to the ground in the direction of Harold's farm several nights before the crop circle formation was discovered. Harold had previously told me he thought the formation was made several days before but definitely not as much as a week before it was discovered. Several months later I talked to George Wingfield, a crop circle investigator from England. He told me many English farmers had seen bright balls of light come down into their fields only to discover the next day a crop circle formation had appeared.
Dr. Levengood is very busy analyzing crop circle material from all over the world. He told me it would be many months before his report would be complete. But, he does have some preliminary results. The circle is definitely not a hoax. The cell wall pit diameter size inside corn cobs collected within the circles is quite different from that of the control samples collected outside the circle. This indicates some energy was absorbed by the corn cob. A similar result could be obtained if one were to radiate a corn cob using a microwave oven.
I heard about this crop circle on Thursday, October 27th. I went to see the crop circle and interview the owners, Mrs. X and Mr. X, ( names withheld by request] on Friday. Mrs. X did not want the media writing about her crop circle. So, no newspaper or TV reports exist. This formation is a perfect 47 foot circle in corn. Where the stalks in the Milaca circles had been laid down with precision, these stalks were laid down in a generally somewhat erratic clockwise direction.
Overhead view of Blaine Crop Circle.
If I were to jump to an immediate conclusion, I would say this crop circle looked as if a flying saucer had actually landed. This farm is the only one left in the center of urban development. If we had the resources, we should interview the many neighbors to see if they had seen anything. However, no sighting reports have been made.
When Mrs. X first investigated this circle, no evidence of anyone being inside the circle existed. Only a few people had been in the circle before we arrived. We took ground and aerial pictures. We discovered some physical evidence. There were three 6 inch diameter holes near the center of the circle spaced about 6 feet apart. The stalks in the center were smashed to the ground. Many of the stalks near the edge of the circle were bent at an approximate 20 degree angle with the ground.
There were maybe 10 velvet leaf cockle burr weeds standing within the circle. The stalks of these weeds had been physically scrapped. Near the circle center, a strange white layer of material lay on the ground. The material smelled like pine tree sap although there are no pines in the area. Corn, dirt, white material and weed samples were sent to Dr. Levengood. We also dragged a magnet though the dirt and collected magnetic material for analysis.
When I talked to George Wingfield about this circle. He remembered another similar crop circle. He gave me an article that appeared in a Milan, IL 1990 newspaper. This circle was also 47 feet clockwise in corn. We will attempt to find out more information about this circle.
To view an analysis of Crop Circle data, click here.
Note: These articles (c) Copyright 1996, Robert Schultz, All rights reserved.
