Mysterious "Crop Circle" in Barry County, Michigan
September 4-6, 2006
First off, many may ask, "What is sorghum?" Sorghum is a species of grass. The crops are cultivated for many uses. Among those uses are grains for cereal, animal fodder, beer, as a maize substitute, and ethanol. Now that we have established a bit about sorghum, why are we talking about it? It is because of the mysterious crop flattening that is being called a "crop circle" at the beginning of September 2006, in Barry County near Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is a flattening rather than a circle because there are none of the characteristic patterns that are usually found in crop circles throughout the UK, Canada and the US. It is a mystery because no one is really quite sure what happened.
There is some farmland where normally soy and corn has been grown and this year the farmers thought they would try their hand at growing sorghum in its place. Nothing like this has ever happened with the previous crops. Our illustrious founder, Scott Perin, decided to go see this phenomenon for himself and this report brings us his findings.
"Everything was normal (meters/observations) to start out and I was cruising along to the destination. The way I took, routed me through Hickory Corners, which if I remember correctly, had an incident along these lines some time ago. While driving through this very small town, I notice there is 2 sets of high tension (voltage) power lines, running east-west, on the north side of town. That would explain any past events here and possibly leads to the discovery of this current report since it is nearby. UFO's are believed to follow these types of power lines. The theory behind it is because of the magnetic energy they give off.
Anyway, I turn onto Bird Rd.(the site is on this road), and that's where the Geiger meter starts getting a little funny. I drove the entire length of Bird, taking readings and observing things. There are dozens of spots along Bird Rd. where the meter registers spikes of 4-5 r/hr. r/hr means how many roentgens you are exposed to in an hour. 500 is a lethal dose for all humans. Most are heavily affected by as little as 100r, while some it only takes 50r. Radiation is weird that way. The normal reading at any given time is between 0-2 r/hr. Urban areas have higher readings than rural areas....so this is a very significant reading being the site is in a rural area.
Observations on Bird Rd: there were LOTS of swamps; a few dead birds in the road along the way me out); another set of power lines that were not high tension, but they carried a high current; very hilly terrain until I got to the site. The site itself is level, the trees were loaded with tent worms, and there was a big patch of dead mullein along the road.
As I drove nearer to the site, I noticed a shiny new Cadillac driving towards me on the dirt road. It had an older man driving who waved me down. He noticed my equipment in the car next to me, introduced himself as Ted from MUFON and told me the site is a bit further down the road.
So I continue toward the site, and probably about 1/2 mile from the site the meter on the Geiger pegs out. I slammed on the brakes, backed up to that exact spot and sat there. I moved the dial to the next level of sensitivity and it rose to 20. 20 r/hr. is an extremely significant reading! The entire area that this reading encompassed was about 1.5 car lengths. The site is just a little further up the road on the left but I did not stay long because it did not appear there was anyone there. Readings on the meters were above normal, but nothing too out of the ordinary (3-3.5r/hr next to the site on the road). EMF was higher than usual, but not too high registering 5-8 on the scale, using the external that I have. I was using the natural EM meter, so it would filter out any electrical interference.
Two days later, I was able to drive up to Barry County again. I spoke with one of the workers that were there. He wanted to remain anonymous, so I cannot give out his name. However, here is a part of our conversation that was interesting:
Me: I was up here a few days ago, and did a preliminary examination of the area. Some of my readings were not normal. I got a spike of 20 r/hr on the survey meter (I had to explain this) just down the road here, and other smaller spikes elsewhere down Bird. Also, I got slightly higher than normal EMF (I had to explain what EMF was) next to your field by the road. Do you know of anything that might have caused this to happen?
Him: Well, I couldn't tell you what would register on those meters. There isn't anything radioactive around here. We were just inspected earlier this year by the state. I'm sure they would have said something if they found anything. There isn't anything on this farm that should register on those (meters).
Me: One of the theories told by one of the guys that came out here is that the sorghum was planted too close to each other. By looking at this (I was next to some plants that were still standing) I would say he's right. The stalks are right next to each other. It couldn't have been knocked down by the wind because it wasn't windy at all that night. Peak wind was 17mph out of the west and all these plants are laying down from the east. What do you think?
Him: Like I said, this was our first year trying to grow sorghum, so it is definitely possible we didn't do it quite right. It is similar to corn as you can see, but it's still different.
The main things of interest - one of the theories is that the wind caused it to happen. Complete nonsense. All the plants were laying down from east to west....meaning we should have had about a 60-70 mph wind from the east, Monday night...to do this much damage over this large of an area. I called a friend that works at the National Weather Service. He looked back at the data, and the strongest peak wind in the area was 17mph, out of the west-northwest. Wind theory? Blown out of the water. There was a possibility of a wind funnel raised by a member of the group. This is a big area so we do not believe a wind funnel could have done this damage since there does not seem to be any of the normal circumstances in the area to cause a wind funnel.
I guess it boils down to two possibilities. Either we had a visit from another world, or the crops took a tumble on their own. What is my last take on this? Since there is no evidence to substantiate the claim of a "crop circle" other than abnormal readings on the meters (which could possibly be something in the ground that isn't seen on the surface) I would have to dismiss that claim. Since it is proven and backed by a few that are familiar with the plants that if planted too close the plant becomes weak and has a tendency to bend, or fall over... I am leaning more that route. If I had a sighting to work from, there would be more reason to go that way. Nevertheless, to date, there have not been any reports of UFO activity in the area. Unless I get other information to go with, I do not see any reason to conduct further investigation of the farm."
The original news coverage by WOODTV can be found here.
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