OTHERKIDS: 2010

When the day comes (and it will come)

and the colors all seem wrong,

it will finally be all right.

Part 1: Five Circles in Soybeans (Geneseo, Illinois)

2006 by Linda Moulton Howe

Five circles in soybeans were first reported on Thursday afternoon, August 17, 2006.

12-feet-deep "walls" of soybeans were standing untouched between larger center circle and
two outer, smaller circles. Pathways to smaller circles and large circles were not there on August 17.

Paths were created by a Henry County Deputy Sheriff and the farm's owner, Jim Stahl,

plus others who first entered field on Saturday, August 19, 2006.
Aerial image on August 21, 2006, by Linda Moulton Howe.

Where Illinois and Iowa run along either side of the big Mississippi River

(outlined in the orange rectangle on the map)

is that region known as "Quad Cities."

That 4-city complex is Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, plus Rock Island and Moline, Illinois.

Twenty miles east of Moline in Henry County is Geneseo, Illinois, a farming community of about 6,500 people.

August 27, 2006 Geneseo, Illinois - On Sunday, August 20, 2006, Quad City Times reporter, Barb Ickes, wrote: "The crop circles at Jim Stahl's farm appeared as they always do - out of nowhere. ... The five circles in his soybean field create a geometric pattern. Three of the circles are the same size - about 50 feet in diameter - and are connected like beans in a pod. The other two circles are half the size of the others and flank them on either side. They appear to be precisely the same distance from the main circle. ...Amid a 90-acre field of soybeans, Stahl discovered the oddity Saturday morning (August 19, 2006). He called the Henry County Sheriff's Department."

I flew from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Moline, Illinois, on Thursday, August 24, to visit Jim and Chris Stahl at their Geneseo home and to investigate the soybean circle pattern. I was joined there by Indiana resident, Ted Robertson, a harpsichord-maker, who also investigates crop formations for the Independent Crop Circle Research Association (ICCRA).

We learned that the Stahls have been farming in Geneseo since 1983, nearly a quarter-century. Jim is the third generation in his family to work the land since earlier Stahls began during the Depression. With Jim and Chris Stahl's invitation, we entered the soybean field early Thursday evening around 6:30 p.m., exactly one week after Thursday, August 17, when one of the neighbors first saw that some of the Stahl soybeans were down along Middle Road. But that neighbor didn't report the problem to Jim Stahl until Saturday morning, August 19, when Jim himself noticed downed soybeans and went to investigate.

Interview:

Jim Stahl, Farmer (since 1983), Geneseo, Henry County, Illinois: "My first impression was that kids had driven out there in cars and did some damage. I continued to drive down the road to the west edge of the field to see where they entered. But there wasn't any entrance tracks. So, I turned around and came back and sitting here at my truck, I thought, "I've got a disease problem and my beans are dying."
So, I got out of my truck and walked out there. The main path (made by people after formation discovered) is where I originally walked out. I was standing there scratching my head not knowing what I'm looking at. Within three minutes, my neighbor pulled up and he hollered out to me, "What's wrong with your beans?" I went out to talk with him and told him, "I don't know." He said he noticed the circles on Thursday evening(August 17, 2006) around 6:30 p.m., and I did not know that. He was going to stop and tell me about it, but I had company. So, he just figured he would catch me later. But he actually caught me out here within five minutes of me discovering it (on Saturday). SO AS FAR AS YOU ARE CONCERNED, THURSDAY, AUGUST 17, 2006, IS THE FIRST EYEWITNESS REPORT FROM ANYONE WHO HAD SEEN THE PATTERN?
That's the first I know about.SINCE YOUR HOUSE IS NOT FAR DOWN THE ROAD FROM HERE - AND YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN DRIVING BACK AND FORTH - WHY DIDN'T YOU SEE IT YOURSELF BEFORE SATURDAY?
Where my other farms are located, I can go out my home driveway in either direction. It's the same distance, same time. I just chose not to go this direction the last few days. It was just by chance that I decided to go this direction on Saturday morning (August 19).ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTS IS THAT YOU WERE NOT LOOKING AT PATHS LEADING INTO THESE FIVE CIRCLES?
Right. I made the initial path myself. Then, not knowing what to do, I decided to call the Sheriff's department. I told them, "It's not an emergency. You don't even have to come out. I just want to make you aware that something has happened here. That's all I'm doing, just reporting." They said, "We're going to send someone out." And within ten minutes, a deputy showed up.
I was in the circle when he showed up. Not knowing any better, I exited on the far circle. I walked out and did not think to come back to the original point where I first walked in. I told the deputy this because he was asking me where I came in. So he walked up and down the field here looking for entry points and he asked me if I went in here (pointing to main path from road where we were sanding). I said, "Yes." We went down a little bit and he asked, "Did you exit here?" (second path entrance) I said, "Yes." So, he said "I've got to go out and look at this."
I started walking down this first path and for some reason, he starts walking down parallel to me (making a third path in). I don't know why. But three-quarters of the way out there, he joined my path.

Henry County Deputy Sheriff on left walks with soybean farmer, Jim Stahl,
through five circles that Jim discovered Saturday morning, August 19, 2006.
Photograph 2006 by Chris Stahl.

Deputy and Jim Stahl walked through the middle three circles, each about 50 feet in diameter.
Even though flattened, the soybean plants (about five weeks from harvest) were green

and crisp throughout the circles. Image 2006 by Jim Stahl.

SO SATURDAY MORNING (AUGUST 19) WAS THE FIRST TIME YOU HAD THREE PATHS PUT IN HERE BY YOU AND THE (HENRY COUNTY) DEPUTY SHERIFF?
Yes. There was absolutely no path when I got there. I didn't even know where to walk in. I just picked the shortest point. When we first got in this big center circle, we went over to look at the outside circle on the north and there was absolutely no opening from one circle to the other. And we did not go across there. We tried to figure out how someone got from here to there without leaving a mark. We could not figure it out.

Geneseo Fire Department Volunteers

Ladder Truck for "Aerial" of Circles

Jim Stahl's son-in-law, Justin Snodgrass, works as a volunteer firefighter and substitute teacher in Geneseo. That Saturday morning, around 11 a.m. CDT, Justin contacted the Geneseo Fire Protection District and asked for a ladder truck so he could climb up high to take photographs of the five circles.

Geneseo Fire Protection District ladder truck parked on Middle Road next to the five circles
in the Stahl soybean field around 11 a.m. CDT on Saturday, August 19, 2006.

"Velvet carpet" around each circle and no pathway going into the far north, smaller
circle at top of formation (camera aimed from southwest.) Image 2006 by Justin Snodgrass.

Twelve-foot-deep "wall" of soybeans between larger center circle and northern,
smaller circle shown in this photograph taken on Saturday morning, August 19, 2006.
Image 2006 by Jim Stahl.

But a day later, a cameraman did go through there. He tried an experiment: could he get from here inside this circle to out there in the smaller circle without leaving a mark? He tiptoed. He did not bend or break or disturb a plant. He went in there and did some video work and then he came back out. He did not step on any plant, but there was a very visible track where he went.
I was very interested to see his (cameraman's) experiment because I wasn't 100% sure. I did not know if he could get through there and back. I thought maybe the track would blend back together (and disappear). But it didn't. A day later, we could still see where he went.
I'm convinced that no one could have gotten from this middle circle to the outside circles without making tracks. There is no way!

All Five Soybean Circles Swirled Clockwise

Southern, smaller circle that Jim Stahl walked into once on Saturday morning,
August 19, 2006, before this photograph was taken from the Geneseo Fire Protection
ladder truck. All five circles swirled clockwise. Image 2006 by Justin Snodgrass.

IN THE 23 YEARS YOU HAVE BEEN FARMING HERE, HAVE YOU EVER SEEN SOYBEAN PLANTS GO DOWN LIKE THIS IN CLOCKWISE CIRCLES?
I've never seen them go down this flat in any condition, let alone circular motion. I've had beans go down, but its the whole field and they are not flat like this. They are just leaned over. If it's some kind of stem disease, the plants start to lean in and we get some weather on them and they tip over. But they don't go flat, not like this. AND WHAT ABOUT SWIRLING AROUND IN CLOCKWISE CIRCLES?
No. When a field of beans go down, it's either they are all leaning north, or leaning west. It's the whole field leaning one direction and it's every bit of the field.YOU MEAN LODGING.
Yes, that's right.THESE CIRCLES DON'T FIT INTO A CATEGORY OF LODGING, DISEASE, OR ANYBODY WALKING IN HERE?
Not to me."

Jim Stahl, Ted Robertson and I walked out into the soybean formation together that evening of Thursday, August 24, 2006.

The distance from Middle Road was about fifty feet to the three larger circles that connected one to the other along an east to west axis.

The two smaller circles were on either side of the center, larger circle on a north to south axis.

The elevation of the field was 519 feet above sea level.

Ted Robertson used a GPS and discovered that the 5-circle-pattern was not laid out to true north,

but was rotated about 19 degrees east of north. None of the five circles were perfectly round.

The longest east to west measurement was 154 feet; the north to south measurement was 127 feet, ten inches.

As we walked to the eastern most circle, I realized that the standing soybean plants around me were up to my shoulders.

Linda Moulton Howe standing in soybeans growing 4.5 feet high around
the five circles on the Jim and Chris Stahl farm, Geneseo, Illinois, on Augut 24, 2006.
Photograph by Ted Robertson for 2006 Earthfiles.

"JIM, WHAT STRIKES ME IS HOW TALL THESE PLANTS ARE. I WOULD EXPECT THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE THINK OF SOYBEANS AS ONLY TWO OR THREE FEET HIGH, WHEN ACTUALLY THESE PLANTS COME UP TO ABOUT 4.5 FEET?
Yes, they are probably 4.5 feet high. These are relatively tall, but this is normal for us.CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT YOU AND THE DEPUTY SAID TO EACH OTHER ABOUT THERE BEING NO CONNECTION TO THOSE TWO SMALLER CIRCLES FROM THE BIGGER CIRCLES?
Right. We noticed these three big circles were just touching, but the outer circles, there was no evidence anyone had walked there, except for the small one back here. I did walk into that one and I showed him my pathway. But the one to the north, nobody had entered there and he was looking at it and shaking his head. He saw that nobody had walked through there (12-feet-thick "wall" of standing soybean plants between the three bigger circles and the two outer, smaller circles).
Everything was clockwise and the soybeans were laid over just so neatly and gently. I don't know. I just can't explain it. Also, we had rain that week and it was muddy here. The deputy had mud on his pants when he left.HOW COULD ANYBODY HAVE COME IN HERE AND MADE THESE CIRCLES WITHOUT LEAVING SIGNS OF MUD AND TRACKS ON THE PLANTS?
I don't know. The deputy was looking for evidence of vandalism and he was looking for tracks, any markings on the soil. He said, "I don't know how I'm going to write up (this report) because I see no evidence that anyone was out here." I did not know either. But when we was out here that Saturday, everything was so green still. It was not trampled. Back here (pointing to far southern smaller circle), not many people have walked over there and that's what the entire circles looked like (greener, crisper). It was just green.WHEN YOU LOOKED AT THE PLANTS WITH HIM, DID YOU NOTICE ANYTHING UNUSUAL ABOUT THEM AS SOYBEAN PLANTS AS COMPARED TO WHAT YOU WOULD BE LOOKING AT IN A NORMAL, HEALTHY PLANT?
They were all laid over, but it was pointed out to me later a red streak on the plants. But I've got color blindness and that's not something I could detect very well. But after it was pointed out to me, I could see the discoloration. But with color blindness, it's nothing I picked up right away.BUT THE DISCOLORATION, EVEN WITH YOUR COLOR BLINDNESS, WOULD IT BE DISCOLORATION THAT YOU HAVE NOT TYPICALLY SEEN ON NORMAL, HEALTHY PLANTS?
No, normal, healthy plants should not have this. They should just be green. They should not have any discoloration on them.IT APPEARS FROM OUR EXAMINATION AS WELL THAT IT WAS ONLY INSIDE OF THE CIRCLES THAT THIS DISCOLORATION WAS GOING ALONG THE STEMS.
Yes. After it was pointed out to me what to look for, I looked outside the crop circles and I didn't see it there (in rest of soybean field). I don't see it on all the plants (inside the pattern). And it appears to be just on the upper side, but I don't know what that means.I'M CURIOUS IF THE SHERIFF HAD ANY REPORTS FROM ANYBODY ABOUT HAVING SEEN OR HEARD ANYTHING UNUSUAL IN THE SKY?
They asked me if I heard or saw anything. I told him we didn't hear or see a thing. We said, "We don't even know what day or night it happened."

Part 2: Military Helicopter Circled Geneseo Formation

August 28, 2006 Geneseo, Illinois - On Friday, August 25, 2006, around 3 p.m. CDT, Jim Stahl heard and saw a large, dark helicopter circling over the soybean formation to the west of his house. He managed to grab a digital camera and and got outside as the helicopter flew over his yard and away to the north.

Above: H-46 or H-47 helicopter flying over the Jim and Chris Stahl home on Middle Road
east of the soybean crop formation in Geneseo, Illinois, around 3 p.m. CDT on Friday,
August 25, 2006. Below: Profile of the helicopter. Images 2006 by Jim Stahl.

A helicopter expert has identified the vehicle in the above photographs as either an H-46 helicopter,

which is used by American Navy Marines for ship-to-shore transport. Or it could be

the larger H-47 model used by the U. S. Army for transport. There are

five major military bases in Illinois: Rock Island Arsenal; Scott AFB; Peoria Air National Guard (ANG);

Springfield ANG; and the Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago.

The closest to Geneseo is Rock Island Arsenal between Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa

in the Quad City region about a half-hour by car from Geneseo.

Rock Island Arsenal is highlighted by yellow on the map.

According to the Illinois Governor's office, the Arsenal "is a center for Department of Defense logistics ... and is the home to four major U. S. Army headquarters organizations that have regional and global responsibilities to soldiers - ranging from Army munitions management to regional installation management."

The Naval Station Great Lakes (NSGL) is north of Chicago and about 150 miles northeast of Geneseo. According to globalsecurity.org, NSGL is "the largest military installation in Illinois and the largest central processing training center of recruits in the Navy."

Scott Air Force Base is in St. Clair County, Illinois, near Belleville about 200 miles south of the Quad City region and not far from downtown St. Louis, Missouri. The USAF base serves as headquarters for the Air Mobility Command, the United States Transportation Command, the Eighteenth Air Force, and the Air Force Communications Agency.

Military Interest in Previous U. S. Crop Formations

There has been a previous connection between crop formations and Scott AFB. Jeff Wilson, Director of the Independent Crop Circle Research Association (ICCRA), described a July 2003 military encounter in a Mayville, Wisconsin, wheat formation. See: 091203Earthfiles.

"A soldier from the US Air Force, (who we had now identified by his uniform), told us that he was part of a Special Crop Circle Investigative Unit in the U.S. Air Force. He said they had been looking into this Mayville formation for the past couple of weeks and were temporarily based out of a hanger in Milwaukee. He also told us that the unit was originally based out of Scott Air Force base located in Belleville, Illinois (southeast of St. Louis, Missouri)."

Military helicopter circling over the Mayville, Wisconsin, wheat formation in July 2003.

Photograph 2003 by Jeffrey Wilson and Roger Sugden, ICCRA.

USAF man who identified himself to ICCRA's Jeffrey Wilson and Roger Sugden

in the July 2003, Mayville, Wisconsin, wheat formation as being a member of

a "Special Crop Circle Investigative Unit in the US Air Force,"

that had been looking into the Mayville formation.

Special unit temporarily based out of a hanger in Milwaukee and

previously based at Scott AFB near St. Louis, Missouri.

Photographs 2003 by Jeffrey Wilson and Roger Sugden.

September 11, 2003: A military helicopter flies over the ridge near the Seip Mound

in Bainbridge, Ohio, while Jeffrey Wilson and his ICCRA colleagues investigate a crop formation.

Photograph 2003 by Jeffrey Wilson.

At the time the helicopter flew over the Stahl farm, Ted Robertson and I were returning from Davenport, where we had gone to Fed Ex soybean and soil samples to biophysicist W. C. Levengood to examine. After we arrived at the Stahl home, Chris Stahl told us that she had received a letter from a nearby family who had photographed translucent spheres in a couple of photographs taken inside the soybean formation. I asked Chris if she could call the mother, Juliet Vanopdorp of Annawan, Illinois (about 15 minutes from the Stahl farm), to see if Juliet could show us her images and talk to me about her family's experience in the soybean circles.

Interview:

Juliet Vanopdorp, Annawan, Illinois: "A week before these actually showed up, my children and I were driving to Geneseo for an appointment. We started discussing crop circles. The children were asking questions about how they were formed? I said some were supposed to be hoaxes, but some are really unknown. Some people think they are aliens. I choose to think they are signs from God and messages for us humans, but I don't know if we can understand what the messages mean. The kids asked if we could see one and I said we might have to go to Europe because we won't see any here.

Less than a week later, the children came screaming out of their bedroom after watching the news, "There are crop circles in Henry County!" They were just thrilled. So, I told them we were going to go see them. And I wrote the farm owners a letter to explain why we wanted to see them.

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU GOT HERE?
I took a few pictures inside the circles as it was getting dark. We didn't stay very long, maybe five minutes or so. Before we got home, I started looking at the pictures on my digital camera and there were little bright lights and circular things in a couple of pictures where I stood in the back of my husband's truck and I was trying to get the circles. The circles didn't turn out in the dark, but there are lots of circles in the picture.NONE OF YOU SAW ANY LIGHTS WHEN YOU WERE TAKING FLASH PHOTOGRAPHS?
No, we did not."

Above: Translucent spheres on one of Juliet Vanopdorp's digital images

in the Geneseo soybean circles on August 22, 2006.

Below: Close-up on one of the spheres that has an oval on it.

Translucent spheres have been increasingly common on digital photographs in recent years.
One theory, unproved, is that electrostatic charges build up in electronic cameras
and release sporadically.

Images 2006 by Juliet Vanopdorp.

While Ted Robertson and I were looking at the Saturday, August 19, 2006, images that Jim Stahl and his family had taken

when the Henry County Deputy Sheriff had visited the soybean circles, Juliet Vanopdorp and her children

went to see the crop circles again. Then a cell phone call came from Juliet, who said she and her kids

had found strange, red-colored "things" coming from the ground.

We all took off for the soybean circles to have a look.

Phallus rubicundus

Were the Delicate Fungi Scorched?

Above: One of Juliet Vanopdorp's children holding one of many fungi found

in the soybean circles that appeared to have carbon black scorching on them.

Below: Dozens of the fungi were stuck, or melted, onto surrounding soybean plants.
Fungi photographs 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe.

I e-mailed a photo of the fungi we found in the soybean circles to Kathie Hodge at Mushroomexpert.com for identification. Kathie wrote back: "Your photo appears to be of a stinkhorn called Phallus rubicundus. I don't think this one has a common name beyond Stinkhorn, which applies to many species in a family of mushrooms called the Phallaceae. The family (and genus) take their name from the similarity of the fruiting bodies to phallic organs. They have caps that are covered in green slimy spores and they stink horribly, smelling something like rotting meat. This attracts flies, which disperse the spores. Stinkhorns are not poisonous and are common in composted soils around the world. This particular species is not too common in North America, but not too surprising to find it here, either."

Biophysicist W. C. Levengood has hypothesized in his investigations of crop formations that the plants and soils show evidence of interaction with microwave and spinning ion energies. Were the delicate fungi "scorched" by microwave energy in spinning plasma vortices during the creation of the five soybean circles? Or is the scorched blackness a natural drying process of the Stinkhorn's dark slime that contains spores?

Phallus rubicundus growing out of ground inside one of soybean circles
on the Jim and Chris Stahl farm in Geneseo, Illinois.

August 25, 2006, photograph by Linda Moulton Howe.

Phallas rubicundus found by Jim Stahl growing outside
the soybean circles in another part of his soybean field.
Image 2006 by Jim Stahl.

[ Editor's Note: Michael Kuo of MushroomExpert.Com reports that Stinkhorn Fungi, Phallus rubicundus, is a species known from Africa and other tropical and subtropical locations, including Australia, the Gulf Coast and New Mexico.
"I thought my Illinois collection represented a unique, north-temperate find of Phallus rubicundus - until I started going through stinkhorn photos sent to me in "What's This Mushroom?" e-mails. I found several other pictures of Phallus rubicundus, all sent to me from the central Midwest.
"Description of Mature Fruiting Body: Spike-like, to about 20 cm; with a 3 to 4.5 cm cap which is attached to the top of the stem and is smooth (or slightly roughened, but not pitted and ridged), and covered with olive brown to dark brown slime; with a reddish to orangish or pinkish hollow stem, about 1.5 cm thick and coarsely pocked with potholes; with a whitish to pale brown volva clinging to the stem and around the base; with one or more whitish rhizomorphs at the base." ]

Part 3: Anomalies and Measurements in Soybean Circles

August 31, 2006 Geneseo, Illinois - When I first learned about the Geneseo, Illinois, soybean formations on Monday, August 21, I immediately wanted to get aerials before the field deteriorated from visitor traffic and weather. So, I talked with the farm's owner, Jim Stahl, who recommended Steve's Nursery in Geneseo, which hires out for landscape photography. Later that afternoon, Mike Belovicks at Steve's Nursery photographed for me the soybean circles from north, south, east and west. He also got a clear close-up of the southern circle which showed the downed soybeans there were still pretty fresh and green, without much feet damage from visitors. That contrasted with a close-up Mike was able to get of the far eastern circle where most visitors had entered on the original path made by farm owner, Jim Stahl on Saturday morning, August 19. In all five circles, the soybean plants were circling clockwise, with the exception of anomalies in the eastern and center circles discussed below.

FLYING SOUTH Over Soybean Circles along Middle Road,

Geneseo, Illinois, August 21, 2006

Five circles in soybeans first reported Thursday afternoon, August 17, 2006. Pathways to
were not there on August 17. Paths were created by a Henry County Deputy Sheriff and farm owner,
Jim Stahl, plus others who first entered the field on Saturday morning, August 19, 2006, when
12-feet-deep "walls" of soybeans were standing untouched between larger center circle and
two outer, smaller circles. Aerial image on August 21, 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe.

FLYING WEST