Mysterious Suburban Chicago Crop Circles

NBC 5 Chicago ^ | 7/26/02 | NBC 5 Chicago

[Dengar01]

Timing Suspicious On Mysterious Suburban Crop Circles
Could Eerie Mystery Have To Do With Movie Release?

Is it a case of mysterious crop circles -- or an elaborate movie hoax?

A soybean farmer in Naperville said the broken, concentric rings that appeared in a field off Diehl Road left him scratching his head.

"Have you ever heard of something so crazy?" Steve Berning said. "Unbelievable."

Berning said the circles appeared last weekend and damaged more than 10 percent of his 8-acre field.

The circles do resemble similar ones seen in England, but in this case, the timing of their appearance in the western suburb is a bit suspicious.

Two weeks from now, "Signs" hits the big screen. The movie starring Mel Gibson involves -- you guessed it -- mysterious crop circles.

William Leone, an investigator with the Mutual UFO Network, said soil analysis could determine whether the circles have human or extraterrestrial origins.

But Illinois Farm Bureau spokesman Dennis Vercler scoffed at that idea.

"Since I don't believe in UFOs -- at least not soybean-destroying UFOs -- I have to assume whoever did this did it intentionally as a malicious prank," Vercler said.

Meanwhile, Berning doesn't seem overly upset about the circles.

"There's some damage, which upsets me," Berning said. "But I'm more curious than anything. I"ll always be asking questions."

[My back yard]

I get those in my backyard all the time. It happens when my son can't get the mower to start.

[discostu]

Ooh you've got the witty repartee down pat. Instead of acting like a jerk on FR you should be out there getting some useful evidence.

[balrog666]

It is widely reported as such, and is generally accepted as fact.

That doesn't make it one. I recall seeing headlines about a batboy, a wolfman, a face on Mars, and sightings of Atlantis. I guess it all depends on your source.

...that person would have come forward and spilt the beans by now?

Yes, like those Nessie pranksters who waited 60 years to spill the beans. Have you forgotten them already?

Use a little common sense...

BWAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA.

[FormerLurker]

Instead of acting like a jerk on FR you should be out there getting some useful evidence.

So trying to present facts is acting like a jerk now? Sorry to burst your bubble, but what do you call a person who whines and calls other people names when they lose an argument? One who can never concede a fact, no matter how obvious it is, if it is contrary to their belief system?

I myself enjoy discussing various topics on FR, and find that the time I spend researching topics on the Internet and posting those items here on FR is MORE than sufficient to satisfy my desire for such a hobby.

[jumpstartme]

Hey, I got home today and found some carpet circles! No lie.

Never mind, that's just doggie poo.

[FormerLurker]

Posting evidence isn't spamming.

So you admit that I haven't spammed, but you have, as you haven't posted any evidence whatsoever?

IT IS NOT IN PLAIN VIEW OF THE HIGHWAY THERE IS A HILL IF YOU'RE TOO DAMN BLIND TO SEE IT THEN YOU BETTER SEE A DOCTOR.

You need to see a doctor if you think that slight incline can be considered to be a "hill" by any stretch of the imagination. It appears that if anything, the incline is from right to left in the image, whereas the grade between the road and the formation is essentially FLAT.

[jumpstartme]

I just love those John Deere tracks in that picture in post 555. Too kewl!

Man, if only I'd thought of this prank. I could've built a stadium just like Costner. $5 each x 10,000 people per night. RIGHT!

[discostu]

You can't tell what the degree of the incline is from that picture. All we know is that there is an incline. The angle is all wrong for judging the angle or the final altitude change. Though I did propose a simple test that any circle fans in the area could do very quickly that would clear up an and all doubt. I won't post it again because that's a waste of bandwidth, you can find it yourself.

[discostu]

You can't tell what the degree of the incline is from that picture. All we know is that there is an incline. The angle is all wrong for judging the angle or the final altitude change. Though I did propose a simple test that any circle fans in the area could do very quickly that would clear up an and all doubt. I won't post it again because that's a waste of bandwidth, you can find it yourself.

[discostu]

Calling me a loser was presenting facts?! Try again.

[discostu]

Relook at the picture (PLEASE DON'T POST IT AGAIN, I'M BEGGING YOU). You can clearly see the peak of the slope is on the camera side of the road and is a consistent distance from the road all the way across the picture. What that distance is it's impossible to make any but the most wild of guesses. What the change in altitude from the road to the crest is even a wild gueeses are out of the picture. All we know is that there is a clear and definitive upwards slope that COULD obstruct the view of the crop circle area. Unless somebody gets down there and does some measurement, or you have other pictures showing that slope from roughly ground level on the road side that's all we know. That it COULD obstruct the view. If it does obstruct the view then the mystery of how to make that set of crop circles "next" to the without being seen by traffic is solved (be far enough from the crest that you can't be seen, not particularly difficult).

[jumpstartme]

I recall back in the 80's that cows were disappearing without any footprints from muddy fields out west.

These are probably the same "people" that just get pissed off at finding wheat from vegheads instead of sirloin from real men.

I wonder at what altitude the John Deere must be at to go from rocket engines to cultivator? Does Al Gore drive one? Oh, it must be electrically charged.

[FormerLurker]

Calling me a loser was presenting facts?! Try again.

You sure about that?

PS: You didn't score any points by calling ME that and more...

[Dengar01]

Yeah, I can't believe the soybean police didn't jump right on two guys in a field. I mean, I know the police can't be everywhere, but this is soybeans, in Illinois, in an open field ... incredible the police weren't watching for this ....

The site is adjacent to a 5 story apartment complex. Right next to a very busy road. I went to the site to check it out and the site is an area constantly full of traffic no matter what time a day. There are hundreds of people in the large apartment complex who would see something by going outside on their balcony, looking out the window, or simply going out to their car. So it isn't a soybean field in the middle of nowhere. It is a soybean field smack dab in the middle of the 4th largest city in Illinois.

[Jedi Master Yoda]

Here is another nice looking recent crop circle from the 2002 season that I believe has not been posted yet.

Any opinions on this one?

[FormerLurker]

From Stonehenge Revisited

Circumstances of Arrival

The Stonehenge formation was additionally remarkable in that it arrived in daylight. The Stonehenge monument is a short distance away on the other side of the A 34 highway, one of the main routes to the West Country. Stonehenge is guarded throughout the day by uniformed guards with radios and the monument is on a noticably higher elevation than the crop circle field. The guards, who look down on the field, noticed nothing until the afternoon. Pilots using the airfield at Boscombe Down use Stonehenge as a prominent marker. Though the field in question had been overflown throughout the day, there was no report of a formation. The farmer who had people in the area had nothing reported until the afternoon. He was at first intractable in his belief that it must have been man-made and later, when aerial photos were available, he refused to look at them. He was eventually persuaded to open the formation to the public and put his son in charge of the enterprise. Something in the order of 15,000 people eventually visited it.

[VadeRetro]

I have decoded the message. It says we have until July 31, 2002 to broadcast the surrender of Earth or the Vogons will obliterate us on 1 September to build an intergalactic overpass.

[Lx]

I might understand what you're talking about if I saw the picture again.

Traffic might also be looking at something else, I don't know maybe Stonehenge? Then again, maybe the time travelers created Stonehenge for the express purpose of diverting attention from the crop circle and now we know why it was created. I knew it wasn't Druids.

It all comes down to the sacred algebra hidden in this year's Farmer's almanac.

[Jedi Master Yoda]

LOL!

:-)

[discostu]

The circle's gotta be at least a mile from the circle. Do you have any pictures showing how well the field can be seen from Stonehenge? With or without the circle. Proof man, backup your claims. You've got all these pictures of the thing, well cough some up that show how "easily observed" it was, stuff we can use to actually judge the distances and altitudes in question. Scaleless pictures from odd arial angles prove nothing more than the existence of the circle. You'd think SOMEBODY would have performed something similar to the test I proposed earlier, it would take about 5 minutes and would provide a ton of useful information.