Update Friday 19th July 1996
Zuid-Limburg, Netherlands. Reported 4/5th July.
The first Dutch crop circle of 1996 was discovered on July 5th, 1996, in the South of the Netherlands, the province of Zuid-Limburg *). Although it was located only ten meters from a main road, it was not easily seen from that point. It was probably created in the night of July 4th/5th, since on the July 4th afternoon the wheat field was still untouched, as witnessed by a local inhabitant. During that night, several UFO sightings were reported. A local UFO research group, STUFON, was notified. One of the members, Ron van Mechelen, contacted the Dutch Crop Circle Foundation, on behalf of which I visited the crop circle on Tuesday July 9th.
Although several persons had apparently entered the crop circle before I did, the largest part seemed to be untouched. The total pattern was 55 meters long, and shaped in the style of the late 1980's patterns in England. It seemed to have all the signs of the genuine phenomenon: smoothly curved wheat plants, undamaged stalks lying flat against the soil, although some of them were lifting themselves up again (the wheat was still green). Crisp boundaries, slight asymmetries, densely spiralled stalks in the centres. No evident traces or footprints, which would have been seen immediately in the muddy clay. All orientations were clockwise, and North-South for the straight lines, except for the little path at the very North part: the left hand side of the 50 cm wide path had the stalks bent southwards, the right hand side however in the opposite direction!
Two days after my first visit I decided to go back so as to make a couple of pole-shots. Back home it appeared that the motor driver of my camera had failed, which resulted in twenty photographs printed onto a single film frame. I used a professional camera worth a month's salary which only failed once before: while photographing an other crop circle in 1994! (That time all photo's taken from inside the circle were heavily overexposed.)
View from a nearby hill. Unfortunately many trees were in the way. That is why I decided to return with a photo camera pole.
Two gentlemen of the Dutch STUFON foundation investigating their first crop circle. The rope around the neck of the person at the left is a mere coincidence, in spite of his words: "I'll hang if I understand this..."
Scaled reconstruction of the pattern. Total length: 55 meters.
Images by Dr Eltjo H. Haselhoff. Copyright 1996.
NOTE: One of the policies of the Dutch Crop Circle Foundation is never to reveal the exact locations to third parties before the corn is cut. In this way we hope to remain friends with the farmers - we need them in the future!
