From the Columbus Dispatch - October 1, 2003
By Dana Wilson
Photo that appeared in the Columbus Dispatch
BAINBRIDGE, Ohio - Farmer Dale Mark is more agitated than alarmed by the unexplained geometric design etched across roughly 2 acres of his soybean field.
Passengers in a private airplane discovered last week that the crops had been flattened into a series of circular designs with one surrounding a triangle, another resembling a peace sign, and a third akin to a bull’s-eye.
Many in town wonder how they were created.
Some blame teenagers hoping to draw attention to their rural Ross County community 55 miles south of Columbus. Others welcome the mystery and theories that extraterrestrials or supernatural beings are responsible.
"I think it’s people who’ve done it, myself," Mark said. "I really don’t believe in aliens."
Unable to harvest the damaged soybeans, Mark estimates the loss at about $1,200, for which he has no insurance.
He’s waiting to see whether anyone comes forward before filing a report with the sheriff’s office. "I’d just like to find out who it is. I don’t want them to do it again."
His wife, Mary Ellen, suspects the culprits knew the area well because the design is situated in an island of land between Rt. 50 and Tong Hollow Road - an area difficult to reach from the road.
That’s curious, she admits. "It does make you wonder, because there’s no in or out."
Jeffrey Wilson of Dexter, Mich., and a team of independent researchers invaded the Marks’ fields earlier this week to study the formations. The group recently examined two other crop circles in southern Ohio, one near Seip Mound in southwestern Ross County and another near Serpent Mound in northern Adams County.
Wilson’s team determined the Bainbridge design was about a month old and that the flattened crops were noteworthy.
"The plants were all swirled down counter-clockwise, and several places were woven together," Wilson said. "Along the stems of soybean plants where the branches bend off, the leaf bases had been shriveled up and browned as if they had been subjected to some sort of heat damage."
The damage didn’t appear to be from farming machinery or wooden boards, which typically leave telltale markings, he said.
Wilson ruled out a hoax. "I think we’re going to say that this one was authentic."
But Miami University professor and physicist Christopher Church, who has studied such phenomenon in England, has a different explanation for many crop circles.
"When the patterns include words written in English and, in some cases, you have very complex geometric patterns, it seems pretty clear to me that people are doing it," Church said. "I wouldn’t call it a practical joke or a hoax. I would just call it a form of expression."
Those who believe the formations aren’t man-made typically want to believe in something mystical, he said.
About a mile down the road from the field, Roscoe and Beth Swartz recalled circles found in their wheat fields in 2000.
After calls and visits from scientists, a local teen confessed that he and his friends were the pranksters.
At the time, Mrs. Swartz was disappointed.
"I’m willing to believe about the new ones," she said. "When I looked at the photos, I was amazed. You have to be a little skeptical."
Mr. Swartz believes otherwise: "It’s always been a hoax."
Resident Dave Brown doesn’t buy the supernatural speculations but said he’s impressed by the intricate pattern.
"I don’t know how they are so neat about it," he said. "You have to have a plan to keep it symmetrical. I think they worked awfully hard."
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