The truth is out there ... near Hubbard

Appearance of crop circles in local field draws the 
curious and the true believers 


By Karen Tate 


Researchers and curious onlookers raced to find an intricate 
pattern of rings and pathways placed in a seemingly otherwise 
undisturbed rural Hubbard wheat field July 23, hoping to find 
some explanation for the mysterious crop circles.

The large, flowing design -- first shown on KOIN TV July 22 -- 
drew people from throughout the Willamette Valley to take a 
look. Glenna Sherwood, administrative assistant for the Hubbard 
Police Department, said people were calling and coming into the 
police station almost nonstop.

"It was like Grand Central Station around here," she said. "You 
couldn't believe this place."

Hubbard Police Chief David Dryden said several people called to 
discuss aliens, and officers reported receiving calls from 
interested people asking that the area be cordoned off until an 
investigation could be conducted.

Crop circles -- made famous by their appearances in England more 
than a decade ago -- are thought by some to be created by alien 
spacecraft, even though many circles have been proven to be made 
by people using ropes and boards. 

Keith Ardinger, a part-time crop circle researcher from 
Portland, said he believed this design was probably created from 
microwave radiation. Ardinger spent nearly half a day looking 
for the site, armed only with the knowledge that the area was 
located in a field with power poles along Whiskey Hill Road. 

"That sucker is really hidden," Ardinger said. "You'd never know 
that (it) was there unless you were really looking." 

Ardinger, along with several other people, carefully walked 
through the field to find the site, looking for clues as to its 
origin. Because of the lay of the land, the circles are not 
visible unless seen from the air.

Ardinger said he was impressed with the design. 

"This is the best formation that I've even heard of in the 
U.S.," he said. "This looks real genuine to me; this is a good 
one." 

"People do fake them, but we can pretty much tell by analysis 
whether people faked them or not," Ardinger said. 

He said wheat samples would be sent to a scientist and tested 
for internal changes that would rule out human involvement. 

Carol Pedersen, coordinator for the Oregon branch of the Centre 
for Crop Circle Studies, said the swirl marks in the wheat and 
the color of the growth nodes located on grain stalks were 
possible indications that internal changes had occurred. 

Doug Aamodt, owner of the field, said he wasn't sure what to 
think about the design. He said he became aware of the circles 
when Ardinger and fellow researcher Pedersen came to ask his 
permission to study the site.

Aamodt said he didn't mind people studying the field. "I'm not 
ticked off at all," he said. "I don't know, what can you think?" 

Aamodt jokingly said that maybe he would start selling T-shirts 
at his field.

"It should be worth something," he said with a laugh. 

Jonah Nail, who visited the field, said he was not convinced 
that the circles were created by some paranormal force.

"I think some of them are real, but I don't think this one is," 
he said. "It doesn't fit the pattern of all the other ones. I 
mean, why would they (the aliens) change the pattern?" 

Sherwood said the circles were a mystery she would like to have 
solved quickly. 

"This is just nuts," she said. "I would just really like to know 
who did this."

These crop circles, located at the intersection of Whiskey Hill 
and Barlow roads east of Hubbard, have drawn people from all 
over the Willamette Valley and beyond to investigate.


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