POSTED: 2:50 p.m. EDT
October 1, 2003
WLWT Channel 5 News, Cincinnati - NBC Affiliate

 BAINBRIDGE, Ohio -- Farmer Dale Mark doesn'tbuy theories that aliens from outer space left the geometric designs etchedinto his Ross County soybean field.

 Mark thinks it was the work of pranksters, andhe wants them to pay him $1,200 for the damaged beans he can't harvest.He said he has no insurance to cover the loss.

Passengers in a private airplane discovered last weekthat the two acres of crops had been flattened into a series of circulardesigns. One surrounds a triangle, another resembles a peace sign, anda third looks like a bull's-eye.

 Some folks in town blame teenagers hoping todraw attention to their rural community 55 miles south of Columbus. Otherswelcome the mystery -- and
 theories that extraterrestrials or supernaturalbeings are responsible.

 "I think it's people who've done it, myself,"Mark said. "I really don't believe in aliens."

 He says he's waiting to see whether anyone comesforward before filing a report with the sheriff's office. "I'd just liketo find out who it is. I don't want them to do it again."

 Mark's wife, Mary Ellen, suspects the culpritsknew the area well because the design is on land that's difficult to reachfrom the road.

 That's curious, she admits. "It does make youwonder, because there's no in or out."

 Even the so-called experts on farm circles don'tagree on what caused them.

 Jeffrey Wilson of Dexter, Mich., and a team ofindependent researchers studied the formations this week and ruled outa hoax.

 "The plants were all swirled down counter-clockwise,and several places were woven together," Wilson said. "Along the stemsof soybean plants where the branches bend off, the leaf bases had beenshriveled up and browned as if they had been subjected to some sort ofheat damage."

 "I think we're going to say that this one wasauthentic," he said.

 But Miami University professor and physicistChristopher Church, who has studied such phenomenon in England, has a differentexplanation for many crop circles.

 "When the patterns include words written in Englishand, in some cases, you have very complex geometric patterns, it seemspretty clear to me that people are doing it," Church said.

Crop Circles Appear In Ross County
 Farmer Wants To Find Those Responsible

 POSTED: 6:04 p.m. EDT October 1, 2003
NBC4 Columbus, OH

 BAINBRIDGE, Ohio -- A series of crop circleshave appeared in a Ross County soybean field, causing some to search thesky for extraterrestrials and a  farmer to search for a vandal, NewsChannel4's Larry Roberts reported.

 "Somebody knew what they were doing," farmerDale Mark said. "If you ask my wife and daughter, they say it's terrestrial.

 Someone, or something, left the 2-acre geometricalsign in Mark's soybean field near Bainbridge in western Ross County.

 "We had no reports of anything suspicious inits nature or in the area," Ross County Sheriff Ron Nichols said. "Andno  spaceships at this point."

 Mark said scientists and sightseers have arrivedat his field from all across the country.

 "They're looking at the bean pods ... where itopened at," Mark said. "But I know they had a Geiger counter thing goingaround,  or whatever they use."

"One kid from the University of Michigan had a brandnew GPS," farm owner Keith Johnson said. "He turned it on, it glowed andwent out. They're real -- whatever real means. It messes up electronicequipment."

Mark said the crop circles did $12,000 worth of damageto his soy crop. The sheriff said it is no laughing matter.

"One may find it humorous when doing it," Nichols said."On the other hand, they'll find out how humorous it is when they do timein the county jail."

Bainbridge Crop Circles Costly To Farmer
ONN - Ohio News Network
October 1, 2003

Some people believe that geometric designs etched ina Ross County soybean field was the work of extraterrestrials. Others thinkpranksters are responsible.

Farmer Dale Mark believes it was humans, and he wantsthem to pay for the damage. Mark estimates his loss at $1,200, for whichhe has no insurance.

Passengers in a private airplane discovered last weekthat the two acres of crops had been flattened into a series of circulardesigns. One surrounds a triangle, another resembles a peace sign, anda third looks like a bull's-eye.

Mark's wife, Mary Ellen, suspects the culprits knewthe area well because the design in the field 55 miles south of Columbusis situated on land that's difficult to reach from the road.

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