Updated Thursday 23rd July 1998
Latty Township (near Paulding), Ohio, USA. Reported July 6.
Crop circle is discovered in county
By DENISE GEBERS Correspondent
BROUGHTON - Wasn't it just a couple years
ago, Fourth of July weekend, that the infamous Paulding County Crop Circle hit the scene
and put our little corner of the world on the map? Seems like once isn't enough, because
there is another one!
This time, the circle was not found from the air, but by a Grover Hill farmer harvesting
wheat July 6. Brian Ruble was combining an 18-acre field in Latty Township when he first
glimpsed the phenomena.
He said, "I saw it from a distance and didn't know what it was. When I got closer, I
could see it was a crop circle. My 8-year-old daughter has been looking for a crop circle
since she and her mom went to see the one at Arend's. I never thought I'd find one."
He combined around it. Later he told his father and his wife, who called landowner Georgia
Price.
"I don't know what to make of it," said Price. "I don't believe in outer
space stuff. I don't know why anyone would go to this trouble."
She said her family has farmed the land 45 years and it has never before produced such a
crop.
A case of vandalism?
Sheriff Dave Harrow said his office received a report of crop vandalism at 6:14 p.m. July
6.
He denied the existence of a crop circle in the county, although he said the vandalism was
circular in shape. He said his office has no suspects and because the landowner did not
want to press charges, the case is closed.
Ruble said the sheriff came out July 6, compared the formation with those in a book,
declared it a hoax, and recommended they to plough the compression under.
In spite of this, one witness said nearly 150 people were on the scene later that evening.
This circle has not been roped off and had people inside it before experts arrived on the
scene.
Samples taken for study
But, the circle was still intact over the weekend when it was visited July 12 by Roger
Sugden and Jeffrey Wilson. Both researchers made trips to Paulding County when the first
crop circle was reported.
Sugden said he and Wilson each documented the circle and took samples for study. Sugden
took measurements, drew a field diagram and checked electromagnetic readings (which were
higher inside the formation), before taking wheat and soil samples from inside and outside
the circle.
Samples taken by Sugden were sent to the Centre for UFO Studies (CUFOS) in Chicago at the
request of John Timmerman from its Lima office; BLT Research in Grass Lake, Mich., at the
request of biophysicist Dr. William C. Levengood; and the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), a
Texas-based research group for which Sugden is a field investigator. He also took aerial
and ground-level photographs.
Wilson is an independent crop circle researcher from Eastern Michigan University (EMU) in
Ypsilanti, Mich., where he teaches astronomy.
Similarities seen
There are many similarities between this circle and that found two years ago in Jackson
Township. Both occurred in a field of bearded wheat, are about the same size, (this one is
92 feet in diameter while the first was 93), each has an offset centre, and both were
centred between ditches. They're only three miles apart (by air, five by roadway). This
one spins down in the opposite direction, however.
Sugden said nodes on the plants were enlarged and stretched, which is a good indication of
an authentic formation.
He also noted a single thick stemmed dark weed, he thinks perhaps dock, inside the circle.
"It is the only thing left standing. It's about two and a half to three feet tall. If
this was hoaxed, they wouldn't have seen the weed and it wouldn't be standing," said
Sugden.
The formation lies at the back of the field with two north-south ditches running through
it and a lot of clover growing in it.
Because of this growth, Sugden feels the circle was made in late June or very early July.
He also said the landowner told him the house just south of the field had been struck by
lightning June 27. He believes there could be a connection between the two.
Awaiting test results
Sugden doesn't believe this formation is a hoax. Wilson didn't have an initial comment.
Both are awaiting testing results for confirmation. Sugden, who also works with UFO
sightings, said there were no UFO indicators at the site.
Two neighbours in the quiet area two, miles south of Ohio 637 on Road 131 said they
neither saw nor heard anything unusual that weekend.
The first crop circle was not hoaxed, but was caused by a type of natural atmospheric
disturbance, said Dr. Levengood. In May 1997, he released a report on his findings from
crop circle samples, taken from the Arend farm site the previous year.
The report said "the results clearly indicate that this event was not, in fact,
man-made. Instead, the findings support Dr. Levengood's theory that very complex,
turbulent, thermodynamically unstable atmospheric energy systems are the causative agents
... it is clear that both heat and electromagnetic components were present, of the type
that would be expected in association with a highly-charged plasma vortex."
Comment:
This article is courtesy of Mr. Jerry Hamm, researcher from Napoleon, Ohio, regarding a
recent Crop Circle supposedly located in Paulding, Ohio. one may recall the crop circle
found in this vicinity in July of 1996 which made national headlines, and happening during
a spate of UFO sightings through the Ohio/Indiana areas timed conveniently with the hype
surrounding the opening of the Independence Day movie.
