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Info-ParaNet Newsletters Volume 1 Number 469
Info-ParaNet Newsletters Volume I Number 469
Sunday, September 1st 1991
Today's Topics:
Blue Grass Crop Circle (part 4)
Blue Grass Crop Circle (part 5)
Re: Ogden Objects
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From: shemtaia.weeg.uiowa.edu!jrblack
Subject: Blue Grass Crop Circle (part 4)
Date: 1 Sep 91 10:12:35 GMT
From: James Roger Black <jrblack@shemtaia.weeg.uiowa.edu>
[Blue Grass Crop Circle: begin part 4 of 5]
EVENT #4: A BIG STING RAY and A LITTLE RED LIGHT
Our fourth witness, S.S., can contribute little to the immediate
events of August 21/22, 1991, but she has much to say about their
background.
S.S. is a divorced factory worker who lives with her parents.
(Her father is a firm skeptic and has never seen anything in spite
of her efforts to show things to him. She says that 'they don't
like him.') She began seeing lights in the sky near Blue Grass
about two years ago, and saw them quite frequently thereafter--
especially in the autumn--until last fall when they abruptly
stopped. Because she works second shift in a nearby community,
she is often on the road late at night, and she says the lights
have frequently 'followed her home' from work. At times she has
seen rows of cars stopped alongside Highway 61 in the early-
morning hours so the passengers could watch the distant lights
maneuver in the sky.
She described the lights as 'like a star' but says she can pick
them out as being somehow different from real stars, and that on
occasion they will suddenly drop down out of the sky and begin
moving across the fields. She has also sometimes noticed that
when following her they seem to be 'in distress'; on these
occasions they display a contrail and seem to have difficulty
catching up with her. They often travel in pairs, one large white
light accompanied by a smaller red light. The larger light, she
says, generally stays north of the highway; but the small red
light has been seen to zip across the highway and travel around by
itself. Sometimes it descends into the fields near her house and
remains there for long periods of time, giving her the impression
it is 'watching' her. Once it sat behind her barn for a long time
and was viewed by her mother as well.
S.S. has apparently had at least two close encounters. One, which
was conveyed to me by MUFON investigator Grey Woodman, happened in
1980 in Davenport, Iowa, when her car was approached by a bright
light and time seemed to slow down. The other experience occurred
about two years ago when her boyfriend called her outside to
witness a huge UFO passing silently over her house. She described
it as 'shaped like a sting ray' and so low that "if they had
dropped a ladder down I could have climbed aboard.'
Wednesday night at about 9:30 pm she saw the distant lights again
for the first time this year while she was on her way to work.
Once again they were on the north side of Highway 61, heading west
toward Muscatine. She did not see anything on her way home
Like M.A., S.S. has received some amount of teasing and abuse from
others who have heard about her experiences; some have told her
that she ought to take up with M.A., because 'she sees that kind
of stuff, too.' She seems less bothered by it all, however, and
is more inclined to challenge scoffers to come out and see for
themselves.
DISCUSSION: CROP CIRCLE FORMATION
Much of our discussion with witnesses and with other researchers
about this case has centered on how this and other crop circles
could have been formed.
The easiest explanation, of course, is a hoax. And, indeed, there
are some elements that might be consistent with a hoax. The
center of the circle fell precisely between two rows of corn,
which is where one would expect a hoaxer to begin; and it was a
bright moonlit night, which would have obviated the need for
artificial illumination.
On the other hand, those who offer this answer will be hard-
pressed to come up with any mechanism consistent with the rest of
the physical evidence:
The circle was perfectly round to within a few inches--about
one percent of the radius.
The individual corn stalks were precisely laid out at right
angles to the radius.
There were no signs of abrasion on the sides of the stalks, no
damage to the leaves, and no detached ears of corn.
Small weeds and grass in the circle were not trampled, broken,
or otherwise damaged.
Stalks which had already been broken by predators were left
standing; only tall-standing, intact stalks were knocked down.
There was no evidence of a central stake, footprints, or other
marks of human intervention.
In general, force applied to the upper part of a mature corn stalk
will cause it to snap near that point; force applied to the lower
stalk will break it off between four and six inches above the
ground. We found no evidence of either kind of damage in the
circle. All but a handful of stalks were partially uprooted; the
rest were snapped off within an inch of the ground. Both are
consistent with a force applied evenly to the entire length of the
stalk rather than at a particular point, which would seem to rule
out any mechanism involving a rope or chain. The only hoaxing
method we can envision would require applying a slowly increasing
pressure at the base of each individual plant--within the first
six inches or so above the ground--until the roots gave way and
the plant toppled over. Such an approach would be incredibly
time-consuming; there are approximately *one thousand* individual
plants in a circle of this size. Several people might be able to
do it in an hour or two if they never stopped to rest and never
made a mistake; one person might do it in half the night. If done
with bare hands it would require a lot of kneeling and crawling
around, which would almost certainly have left marks in the dust;
if done with machinery it should have left some kind of marks on
the stalks. Further complicating the issue is the electric fence
(which would have required travel through the homestead area to
reach the gate) and the fact that dragging or carrying machinery
through the close-standing stalks should have left tell-tale
signs. While a hoax can never be absolutely ruled out (people
can, after all, be extraordinarily clever when they want to be),
it seems extremely unlikely in this instance.
I discussed weather as an explanation for the circle with both
Snowball and J.H., but both firmly dismissed this possibility.
Snowball admitted that the field where the circle appeared is 'one
of the worst for windstorms' and that 'this hill catches it all
the time.' But both he and J.H. insisted that never in their many
years of experience with wind damage had they ever seen corn
knocked over in a single perfect circle and the plants otherwise
left undamaged. Normal storm winds, they said, will uproot the
stalks in a similar fashion, but in a straight line instead of a
circle; furthermore, there is always a considerable amount of
damage to the plants, especially torn or detached leaves, and
there are generally a significant number of plants left standing
in the midst of the damage. A typical whirlwind, on the other
hand--far from forming a single perfect circle--will 'chew up'
crops in a long, jagged scar, leaving them tangled and torn but
still standing. Finally, it should be noted that the weather in
the Blue Grass area during the time in question was dry and clear,
and the wind was less than 10 miles per hour--hardly consistent
with a violent windstorm.
The 'plasma vortex' explanation was initially attractive, since
this little-understood phenomenon allegedly forms near-perfect
spheres within which the kinds of high winds required by this case
can occur. That line of thought fell apart, however, when we
learned that a crop circle formed last year in Milan, Illinois was
also measured at precisely 46.5 feet.[2] It seems extremely
unlikely, to say the least, that 'plasma vortices' or any other
natural phenomenon would create two circles of identical diameter
within ten miles of each other in two successive summers. This
would seem to require some kind of intelligent origin for both
circles, whether human or otherwise. It should also be noted that
this particular circle formed in the middle of the only open
expanse in an area cluttered with trees, fences, roads, buildings,
and farm equipment. One would expect a natural phenomenon to be a
little less discriminating.
[End part 4 of 5]
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From: shemtaia.weeg.uiowa.edu!jrblack
Subject: Blue Grass Crop Circle (part 5)
Date: 1 Sep 91 10:16:41 GMT
From: James Roger Black <jrblack@shemtaia.weeg.uiowa.edu>
[Blue Grass Crop Circle: begin part 5 of 5]
Of course, in the Milan case the circle was swirled clockwise
instead of counterclockwise, and most of the stalks were broken
off at ground level instead of uprooted. However, this is not so
great a discrepancy as it might seem. Whether corn will uproot or
snap off in high wind depends on how deeply it is rooted and
whether or not it is infested with insects which can weaken the
stalk. In the Blue Grass circle, the roots of the corn plants
were only three or four inches deep (somewhat shallow for this
late in the year) which may have made them easier to uproot than
normal. Furthermore, the one place where we found some stalks
broken off instead of uprooted was on the western (i.e., down-
slope) edge, where one would expect greater moisture and deeper
root systems. Finally, the roots of the plants in question were
tangled together more tightly than most, and may have presented
greater opposition to whatever force toppled the other plants.
One other point about the Blue Grass circle needs to be
emphasized. Whatever acted to create it, it did not involve the
kind of broad, crushing force that would be generated by large
planks or sheets of plywood--or, for that matter, by a grounded
flying saucer. Some of the plants (the grass, smaller
buttonweeds, and previously broken corn stalks) remained upright
and undamaged, while everything around them was being flattened;
consequently, if some kind of vehicle descended toward the field
as M.A. claims, it could not have come closer than about thirty
inches to the ground. It would seem that the force which created
the circle, whatever it was, acted on the stalks individually, not
collectively--and that fact must be paramount in any theory that
attempts to explain it.
DISCUSSION: SIMILARITIES TO OTHER CASES
This case has so many similarities to others in the literature
that it's hard to know where to begin. The Milan circle has
already been mentioned, of course, as well as the similarity to
characteristics of English crop circles. But there are others.
Indeed, in many ways Blue Grass looks like a 'classic' case in the
sense that statistically it falls right in the middle on just
about everything.
To begin with, it took place on a Wednesday night, which just
happens to be the day of the week when the plurality of UFO
sightings occur.[4] For another, it happened in a spot which was
bound to draw attention, rather than off in the middle of nowhere
as one might expect. As John Keel put it in his book 'UFOs:
Operation Trojan Horse', UFOs 'prefer to land in the fields of
occupied farms and on major highways close to big cities'.[5]
This case exhibits both characteristics at the same time.
But the case that most often came to mind while investigating this
one was Budd Hopkins' 'Kathie Davis' case.[6] As in the "Davis"
case, we have a mysterious circle forming in someone's back yard,
apparently in connection with a UFO landing; we have a witness who
reports possible missing time and physical complaints (even to the
location of that complaint in the ear); and we have a neighbor
reporting an odd roaring sound at the end of the incident. Most
importantly, though, we have a whole group of people who all know
one another and all seem to be involved with the phenomenon in one
way or another, either as witnesses or as victims. One wonders
what a door-to-door survey of Blue Grass and its environs might
turn up.
AFTERMATH
According to Snowball Meyer, the mayor of Blue Grass went up in a
small plane over the weekend to get a look at the circle from the
air, and immediately spotted a second circle in another one of
Snowball's corn fields. This circle was adjacent to Highway 61
(only about 40 feet into the field) and approximately the same
size as the first; but unlike the first one, the stalks had all
been broken off about four to six inches above the ground--
precisely what one would expect from a hoax. Snowball was of the
opinion that this circle was created by pranksters Saturday night
after news of the first circle got around, and he was not at all
pleased about it. 'If it's a prank and it keeps happening,
somebody's going to get hurt,' he warned.
Because of the near certainty that the second circle was a hoax,
we chose not to investigate it. We do intend, however, to follow
up from time to time with witnesses M.A. and S.S., and to track
down some of the witnesses to other sightings in the Blue Grass
area. The more we dig into this case, the more we are convinced
that we have just scratched the surface.
Meanwhile, what of the investigators themselves? All too often
those who investigate UFO phenomena become its victims themselves.
For example, to quote John Keel again: 'Within a year after I had
launched my full-time UFO investigating effort ... the phenomenon
had zeroed in on me.'[7] I am pleased to report that so far, at
least, nothing like that has happened to us.
Or, rather, almost nothing. Friday night after returning from
Blue Grass, I excitedly called a fellow researcher and related in
some detail what I had seen; and with my permission he recorded
the call for future reference. On Sunday afternoon he called me
back in a state of great agitation. Saturday night his roommate
had returned from an errand to find their housecat inexplicably
traumatized and the room filled with the feeling that 'somebody
else has been here.' Then, about 3 am Sunday morning, they had
been awakened by a series of poltergeist-style poundings on the
outside wall of their apartment building. Finally, to top it all
off, when he played back the tape of our conversation on Sunday
afternoon, it was filled with a background chorus of moaning and
howling that sounded like something right out of 'The Exorcist.'
He still hasn't been able to determine how or why any of this
happened, or whether it is related to our investigation in Blue
Grass. Neither have I.
CONCLUSION
In some respects the Blue Grass case is almost too good. It seems
to have something for everybody: nocturnal lights, strange
noises, crop circles, close encounters with flying saucers and
other exotic craft, the 'red light' which travels sometimes alone
and sometimes with others, possible missing time, and perhaps even
an abduction. All we need is a dead cow--and I wouldn't be
surprised if one of those turned up sooner or later. If I hadn't
visited the circle and talked to the witnesses myself, I might be
inclined to dismiss Blue Grass as a disinformation experiment by
some overzealous debunker to see just how gullible Ufologists can
be.
But I have visited the circle, and I have talked to the witnesses,
and I can't even explain what *I* saw--much less what they tell me
they saw (and heard). Of course, it is always possible to dismiss
the testimony of inconvenient witnesses with the now-infamous
accusation of 'hoaxes, hallucinations, and misidentification of
known phenomena'; but I see no reason to do so in this case, and
many reasons not to. The stories are consistent and mutually
supportive. The witnesses do not exhibit any obvious signs of
deception, or of instability beyond the stress and uncertainty one
would expect from those who have experienced the unknown. At this
point, anyway, and until some evidence to the contrary emerges, I
am inclined to believe them.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My thanks and appreciation go to Robert W. Atwood, my fellow
researcher in this case, for his invaluable assistance and
suggestions; to Michael Corbin, Director of ParaNet Information
Service, for his enthusiasm and encouragement; and to Dr. Grey
Woodman of MUFON for sharing insights and information from his own
investigations of the Blue Grass and Milan cases.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Send email to James R. Black (jrblack@weeg.uiowa.edu)
or call (319) 335-5603 Tuesday through Thursday between 9 am and 6 pm.
---------------
[1] U.S. Weather Service, Moline, Illinois (personal contact,
8/26/91).
[2] Jeff Fischer, 'Crop Circle at Milan, Illinois', MUFON Journal
#279, July 1991.
[3] Incident Report #91-36708, Scott County Sheriff's Department,
Davenport, Iowa.
[4] John Keel, 'UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse' (New York: Putnam,
1970),
[5] Keel, p. 178.
[6] Budd Hopkins, 'Intruders: The Incredible Visitations at Copley
Woods' (New York: Ballantine, 1987).
[7] Keel, p. 173.
[End part 5 of 5]
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From: Peggy.Noonan@p0.f150.n30163.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Peggy Noonan)
Subject: Re: Ogden Objects
Date: 1 Sep 91 15:55:00 GMT
Clark,
Your message REALLY has my curiosity aroused and I will call
your BBS to pursue it further. Thanks very much for the help!
==Peggy==
--
Peggy Noonan - via FidoNet node 1:104/422
UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name
INTERNET: Peggy.Noonan@p0.f150.n30163.z1.FIDONET.ORG
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