Origin of crop circles still under question

Prankster says they're hoaxes; others say nope

By Zack Van Eyck
Deseret News staff writer

A Nibley man says he and a buddy created seven crop formations 
in the Cache Valley in 1996 and 1997, then earlier this year 
taught a class of Utah State University students how to use 
boards and string to make them.

(Image text: Doug and Barbara Hendricks were not pleased about 
this crop formation that appeared in their barley field in Cove, 
Utah, July 22. - Photograph by Con Olsen.)

Mike Norton, 30, says he and Joe Parker had nothing to do with 
two new formations that appeared in College Ward and Cove two 
weeks ago.

But some of those students, Norton suggests, could have become 
restless on summer vacation. He believes mischievous Aggies 
could be responsible for so-called crop circles found in Utah, 
Idaho, Oregon and Washington this summer.

"When you teach 150 physics students how to make a crop circle, 
at least one is going to be curious" and give it a try, said 
Norton, a United Parcel Service employee and a bail bondsman.

"It doesn't take too long with two people doing one."

The theory sounds logical. Case closed, right? Not so fast, say 
other Utahns and crop circle researchers.

The large and sometimes complex field designs have appeared 
stealthily in fields of wheat, barley and other crops across the 
world for years now. To some people, the confessions of British 
hoaxers "Doug and Dave," Norton and others are proof that crop 
circles are a product only of creative humans with a lot of time 
on their hands. But to the intrigued individuals who track them 
— and farmers whose fields have been violated — the mystery 
remains just that.

"I don't believe for a minute that he did that," Sandra Alder 
said of Norton's claim that he and Parker, his former LDS Church 
mission companion, made a 270-foot design in her family's 
Providence barley field two years ago.

"Where that crop circle was, the next year (husband) Gerry 
planted and nothing grew there. . . . I do know this, there was 
no tracks in and no tracks out and how could they do that? If he 
did do that, why don't he prove it?"

Dixie and Glen Hansen also doubt pranksters are to blame for a 
crop formation discovered in their barley field last Tuesday, 
although they don't have any other explanation. The Hansens 
looked for, but couldn't find, tracks leading to the formation 
from a nearby irrigation ditch or U.S. 89.

"I can't understand how someone could go in there and make that 
perfect of a circle, no prints, in the dark and not stumble and 
fall," Dixie Hansen said. "If they were college-age, they 
usually have a pretty good time before they attempt something 
like that. It's just very interesting."

If Norton made the Providence circle, the Alders want payment 
for damages. And while Gary Hansen won't press the issue, he did 
lose $500 in wheat from the formation Norton says he and Parker 
created on his Smithfield land last July.

The Cache County Sheriff's Department did suspect pranksters 
were to blame for the Providence formation, but prosecutors have 
not brought charges against Norton or Parker for trespassing or 
causing damage in any of the fields.

"Quite frankly, anything I say, even if in the newspaper, it's 
still hearsay," Norton said. "They would have such a hard time 
proving we did it in a court."

Alder said Norton denied creating the Providence design when she 
confronted him last week. And Gary Hansen said his son, Dustin, 
also was told by Norton he did not make the Smithfield circle 
but knew who was responsible.

Norton, however, said the farmers he's talked to don't care that 
someone may have entered their fields and made curious patterns 
by flattening plants.

"Wheat and barley and hay, frankly, is not a real profitable 
crop," Norton said. "Even a large crop circle in the middle of a 
field financially does very little damage."

Nancy Talbott, part of an international crop-circle research 
team led by former University of Michigan professor W.C. 
Levengood, said the '96 Providence formation was "authentic." 
Laboratory work revealed internal, physical changes to the 
plants inside and immediately outside the formation, she said.

According to Talbott, Levengood has discovered that "part of 
what was involved was electromagnetic radiation" in the 
Providence pattern and most others he has tested. Levengood 
believes there may be a natural explanation for most crop 
circles — perhaps a spontaneous energy vortex of some kind.

Jill Marshall, the Utah State professor who invited Norton into 
her class, doesn't buy that theory. She believes all crop 
circles are the work of humans.

"It's embarrassing that a number of scientists, some of whom are 
not what I would really call scientists, were fooled," she said.

About 10 percent of the 300 crop formations Levengood has 
analyzed since '89 have been classified as non-authentic, 
probably made by humans, Talbott said.

Richard and Anne Nielsen of Spanish Fork took samples from the 
College Ward formation last Sunday and will send them to 
Levengood. Anne is convinced the circle is authentic, partly 
because she became ill while inside it.

"There were absolutely no tracks" leading to the formation, 
Richard said.

Levengood's team has yet to process samples taken from last 
year's Smithfield and Richmond crop formations. Norton says 
those designs clearly spell out the names "Mike" and "Joe."

Meanwhile, two crop formations also have turned up near Boise, 
in Star and Nampa. They were first seen July 21 — the same day 
the new Utah formations are believed to have been created. An 
elaborate crop circle was found the following day in Hubbard, 
Ore., and two others have been reported near Pasco, Wash.

A Boise TV station reported the Star formation was probably a 
hoax. But Ike Bishop, the Mutual UFO Network investigator who 
took samples from the field, said MUFON researchers always tell 
that to the media to protect property owners from further damage 
curious spectators might cause.

If incorrigible Aggies are responsible, perhaps some have 
traveled overseas. Several crop circles were discovered in 
Belgium on July 21.

Talbott and Boise native Linda Moulton Howe, a journalist who 
has investigated the unexplained for two decades, says the 
phenomenon is worldwide and should not be dismissed even though 
some formations clearly have been faked.