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.
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.
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.
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 circlesin 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, smallercircle 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.
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.
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.
the five circles on the Jim and Chris Stahl farm, Geneseo, Illinois, on Augut 24, 2006.
Photograph by Ted Robertson for 2006 Earthfiles.
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 Roadeast 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.
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.
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
Aerial image on August 21, 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe.
FLYING NORTHEAST
Aerial image on August 21, 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe.
FLYING EAST
Aerial image on August 21, 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe.
CLOSE-UP EASTERN Circle with Visitor Path in Upper Left,
Geneseo, Illinois, August 21, 2006
Aerial image on August 21, 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe.
CLOSE-UP Southern Circle, Freshest Plants of Five Soybean Circles,
Geneseo, Illinois, August 21, 2006
Aerial image on August 21, 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe.
Three days after seeing the helicopter images, I arrived at the Stahl farm with Ted Robertson around 6 p.m. on Thursday, August 24.
Severe thunderstorms in Chicago had delayed my flight and more storms and rain were forecast for Friday.
I worried that heavy rain could go through Geneseo. So, after talking with the Stahls about the history of the week-old soybean circles,
Ted and I set to work to look for anomalies, to sample plants and soils from inside the circles and to gather normal controls from far outside the circles. We worked into the darkness and were very glad we did since booming thunder and heavy rain moved in Friday morning.
Above: Ted Robertson gathered plant and soil samples east to west on August 24, 2006.
Photo 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe.
Below: Linda Moulton Howe gathered plant and soil samples north to south.
Photo by Ted Robertson for 2006 Earthfiles.
Anomalies In Geneseo Soybean Circles
Ted Robertson had worked in soybean crop formations back in 2003 when extraordinary patterns were reported
at the Serpent Mound near Peebles, Adams County, Ohio, on August 24, 2003,
and at the Seip Mound near Bainbridge, Ohio, reported the end of August 2003.
Based on those previous investigations, Ted was looking in the Geneseo soybean circles
for what he and his ICCRA colleagues called "leaf base necrosis."
Jeffrey Wilson, Director of ICCRA, explained to me during their 2003 investigations that
"we normally would look at the growth nodes in cereal crops. But in this case, soybeans are a little bit different.
They don't really have analogous growth nodes like on a wheat plant where
you would see elongation of the growth node or see expulsion cavities.
"In this case in soybeans, what we did find though is where those branches stem off at the side of the plant (that's called a leaf base) we found there was a collapse and what we are calling necrosis setting in of the surface layer of cells called the parenchyma tissue. We've done a couple of cross sections where we've looked at that leaf base versus controls.
There is a clear layer of damage from whatever energies hit the plants and heated up those cells."
Normal soybean leaf base sampled as a control for comparison
to plants gathered from inside the Serpent Mound formation.
Photograph 2003 by Jeffrey Wilson and Charles Lietzau.
Soybean leaf based sampled from within the Serpent Mound formation
which shows deterioration, possibly caused by heating.
Photograph 2003 by Jeffrey Wilson and Charles Lietzau.
Cross section of soybean leaf bases: on left is normal plant.
On right, is a plant sampled from within the formation which
shows deterioration, possibly caused by heating.
Photograph � 2003 by Jeffrey Wilson and Charles Lietzau.
"What typically happens in the field crops is that the vessels that carry the moisture through the plants, those heat up and it creates a pressure that explodes out of the growth nodes of the plants. But in this case, the layer of parenchyma cells is much thicker in soybeans and acts as a kind of cushion and doesn't actually reach the vessels that would carry that moisture. So, it's only that layer of damage that we see in these plants, again suggesting heating."
Leaf Base Necrosis and Anthocyanin Concentration -
North and South Circles
Challenged by time, darkness and impending weather, Ted and I agreed
that I would sample my way across from the edge of the north circle
through the middle larger circle out to the south circle.
Ted worked his way from east to west through the bigger circles.
The Stahls had originally noticed many downed soybean stems that had one side colored reddish-purple.
Ted began picking up the reddish-purple affected plants to look for leaf base necrosis.
As I bent down at the edge of the north circle, I saw a vivid reddish-purple color.
At the leaf base on the stem was a brownish deterioration that I thought looked like the leaf base necrosis from Serpent and Seip Mounds.
I photographed it below and put the stem in one of the sample bags for biophysicist W. C. Levengood.
He received plant and soil samples by Fed Ex on Saturday morning, August 26, from all Geneseo circles.
He examined the discoloration and said it is "anomalous concentrations of anthocyanin,"
a pigment found naturally in many fruits and vegetables. But anthocyanin
is not supposed to saturate the stem surfaces of soybeans.
We also noted that only the sky-facing surfaces of the downed plants in the circles were discolored with anthocyanin,
suggesting that some kind of energetic interaction had come from above downward onto the crop.
North Geneseo circle leaf stem with necrosis
where it joins thicker soybean plant stem.
Both are discolored with anomalous concentrations
of reddish-purple anthocyanin found
throughout the Geneseo circles.
throughout the Geneseo circles.
Photograph 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe.
Ted Robertson holds a south circle plant which also had anthocyanin concentrations
in several leaf stems and the main plant stem. At his index finger is another example of
what he thought might be leaf base necrosis. Videograph 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe.
Above: Ted Robertson is pointing to more suspected leaf base necrosis on soybean leaf stems
that also are discolored by anthocyanin.
Below: Location of this affected plant was on the western
edge of the south circle. Arrow points to the affected soybean plant that was laid down clockwise
beneath the standing soybean plants.
edge of the south circle. Arrow points to the affected soybean plant that was laid down clockwise
beneath the standing soybean plants.
Photographs 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe.
Ted holds another south circle soybean plant with what might be necrosis
at the base of a leaf stem discolored by anthocyanin. Videograph 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe.
Compare Geneseo Anomalous Anthocyanin Concentrations
to July 5, 2004, Corn Formation, Hillsboro, Ohio
Unusual concentrations of anthocyanin were found
in a rectangular pattern laid down in Hillsboro, Ohio, corn and first reported on July 5, 2004, to Jeffrey Wilson and ICCRA.
See 090404Earthfiles and 090504Earthfiles.
Anthocyanin is a pigment that reflects the red to blue range of the visible spectrum. It is often observed in the plant kingdom, where it serves to color anything from fruits to the autumn leaves. It can be used as pH indicator because it changes from red in acids to blue in bases. In the Hillsboro, Ohio, corn rectangle, the anthocyanin discoloration was only on one side of the corn plants - similar to the Geneseo soybeans in which we found the anthocyanin concentrations only on the sky-facing sides of the leaf and plant stems.
Jeffrey Wilson, ICCRA, told me in 2004, "The reason we say it (presumed energy impact) was directed from one side is that the color only appears on one side of the stalks, as if some of the plants shaded other plants and you can see where the exposure of the exposed part of the plant turned red, but the shaded part is still left green. That's essentially what has happened to the corn in this field
- in one section, the plants have turned a brilliant red. But there are shadow marks that leave no doubt that
something shadowed them or protected them from turning red."
Above: Reddish-purple color on one side of corn stalks is anthocyanin whichis a residue when chlorophyll disintegrates.
Below: Jeffrey Wilson wrote on image:"Plant turned 1/4 turn. Red coloration is only on one side of plant and shows 'shadow of leaf' fell on corn from stalk blocking (shading) part of the affected area" (from the energy).
Photographs 2004 by Jeffrey Wilson.
Soybean Stem Pulled from Geneseo Circles
Curved Without Creases or Cracks
Ted Robertson pulled up several soybean plants from the five circles and the roots hung from curved stem bases
that did not have any crease or cracks, similar to the "magical bent stalks"
found in British cereal crop formations since the early 1990s.
Ted Robertson pulled this soybean plant out of the southern circle
because it had anthocyanin on the leaf stems and possible leaf base necrosis.
The stem above the root curved without crease or cracks, similar to the "magical bent stalks" found in British cereal crop
formations since the early 1990s.
formations since the early 1990s.
Videograph 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe.
Some Geneseo Soybean Plants Diverted from
Clockwise Swirl Straight to Center
Ted was studying the lay of the Geneseo soybean circles as he began to sample from east to west. He noticed that not all the plants in the eastern circle were going clockwise. Sections of soybean plants diverted from the clockwise swirl and went straight to the center, as the white arrow indicates in the photograph below taken in the eastern circle. Ted also found the same odd deflection of crop straight to the center of the central circle. But those were the only two of the five circles that had the sudden diversion from clockwise swirl to straight almost 90-degree angles to the centers.
White arrow indicates Ted Robertson's discovery that in both the eastern most circle
and the center circle, sections of soybean plants diverted from the clockwise swirl and went
straight to the center. Photograph 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe.
Geneseo Plant Swirl Centers Not Geometric Centers of Circles
Ted also found in measuring the Geneseo formation that in each of the five circles, the soybean plants had been swirled from a central point that was not the geometric center of the circles. In the eastern circle, Ted said the discrepancy from the plant swirl center to the geometric center was about a three feet difference.
That off-center anomaly throughout the five circles also applied to a mysterious hole Ted found only in the central circle. The hole measured about one-half inch in diameter and was about three inches deep, off center from the geometric center. The hole was there on Thursday evening, August 24, when we first arrived in the formation with farm owners, Jim and Chris Stahl. But the next afternoon after all the morning rain, Ted could not find the hole. When he pushed his finger around in the wet dirt, finally his index finger penetrated again what seemed must be the same hole we photographed the night before. Was the hole a soil sample by someone else who had been in the formation between August 19 and August 24? We don't know. Why was the small hole only in the central circle and none of the other four circles?
Small one-half inch diameter hole about three inches deep at an off-center
point in the central circle only of the Geneseo, Illinois, soybean formation.
Photograph 2006 by Linda Moulton Howe.
Measuring the Geneseo Soybean Circles
On Friday afternoon, August 25, Ted was measuring the standing soybean "wall" between the center circle and the northern, smaller circle. The width was 12 feet. Then he measured the standing soybean "wall" between the center circle and the southern, smaller circle. That measurement was 12 feet 10 inches. None of the five circle pattern measurements were exactly geometric. None of the measurements were diatonic ratios.
Using a GPS, he found the axis of the five circles was 19 degrees east of magnetic north. The total length of the circles from east to west was 154 feet; the total length from north to south was 127 feet 10 inches. The three larger circles averaged 52 feet in diameter; the north circle diameter was 27 feet 2 inches; the south circle diameter was 26 feet 10 inches.
As Ted worked with his professional long measuring tape, I asked him to comment on the measurement discrepancies and plant anomalies.
Interview:
Ted Robertson, Harpsichord-Maker and Investigator, Independent Crop Circle Research Association (ICCRA), Bloomington, Indiana:
The biggest discrepancy so far is that the southern circle is 12 feet 10 inches, while the northern circle is just at 12 feet.
The biggest discrepancy so far is that the southern circle is 12 feet 10 inches, while the northern circle is just at 12 feet.
Ted Robertson's drafting paper scale was 5 feet per square. Using a GPS, he found
the axis of the five circles was 19 degrees east of magnetic north.
Diagram 2006 by Ted Robertson.
Yes, 12 feet exactly from this edge (big circle) to the northern circle edge. That means the 'wall' of plants going to the southern most circle is almost a foot wider (12 feet 10 inches). That's a lot of difference for something that looks like it should be symmetrical.
DOES THAT MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU AS A GEOMETER?
If people were hoaxing sloppily, it might be lopsided. But genuinely odd formations have also been lopsided. If measurements are really off, it tends to mean that people messed up. It appears the center circle is about 52 feet 6 inches. It appears that the two smaller circles are about 27 feet. So 27 x 2 would be about 54 feet. So, these smaller ones are not exactly half of the bigger circles. They are almost half. I don't know what that means. You hope if there were diatonic ratios (as found in other formations since the early 1990s), that it's a clean ratio like 1:2. But in this case, it doesn't seem exact.
SO THE SLOPPINESS COULD BE CAUSED BY?
Like a rope that's been pulled too far, or one of the buddies got out of place. What will be interesting is to see if that suspicious hole (only in center large circle and not in any of the other four circles) that's about one-half inch diameter by about three inches deep into the earth is truly in the center of the circle, which might be a way to make the circle. Or maybe it's offset. I don't know. (He later learned the hole was off center.)
But we didn't find that hole in the center in any of the other four circles; just in the middle circle. It could have come at any time after the circles first appeared, because we don't know who has been in here since then.
In the southern, smaller circle, it appears to have the least amount of damage. It's more pristine. It's really moist back there, too, and there's no mud on the plants. This is the least visited circle. It's the most intact. I see red streaks on the tops of the plants, only in the flattened plants and not in the surrounding normal crop. There also appears to be light brownish discoloration, perhaps leaf base necrosis, in some of the downed soybean plants, but nothing compared to what we saw at the Serpent Mound in Ohio in 2003. We think the leaf-based necrosis is a desiccation of the most rapidly growing part of the plant. It definitely has a lot of soft tissue I can feel in there, like necrosis.
I see minimal damage that we look for if there was damage from (man-made) boards. There are hardly any scrapes and scuffs at the base of the bent stalks. Lots of these plants are smoothly curved over at the base and not broken or cracked. The majority of the soybeans in this southern circle look healthy and growing.
THE SOYBEAN LEAF BASE WAS THE MOST VULNERABLE PLACE IN THE SERPENT AND SEIP MOUNDS IN 2003 WHEN YOU (ICCRA) INVESTIGATED?
Right, this leaf base gets damaged easily by whatever makes the formations. We saw a cross section of the leaf-base necrosis we found in the formation at Serpent Mound. The entire organ, or structure, was shrunken. It was not just a surface irritation that did it on one side. It was right to the core, as if some energy heated the entire thing. I would not say maybe one out of every eight plants (in Serpent Mound, 2003) had leaf base necrosis. Perhaps the energy here in Geneseo, if this is authentic, did not hit quite the same way at the same time. This Illinois pattern (first seen on August 17, 2006) is earlier by a week or two compared to Serpent Mound. This is a more northern latitude, so these plants have a slower start to them, compared to Serpent Mound.
It's important to remember that expulsion cavities found in cereal crop formations indicate an energy heating of the growth node water and they are not found in every cereal crop formation. Sometimes they are found more in a satellite circle, or in certain parts of the formations.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GENESEO AND THE SEIP AND SERPENT MOUNDS OF 2003 MIGHT BE THE AMOUNT OF ENERGY THAT WAS APPLIED TO MAKE THESE FIVE CIRCLES VERSUS THE MORE COMPLEX OHIO PATTERNS?
That could be true, it's a reasonable hypothesis. Soybeans are so new in the history of crop circles, there have been only a handful of them and they are usually in the United States, I think, because we grow the most soybeans. So, this is rather new plant territory to investigate.
IT'S INTERESTING THAT WE'VE FOUND THE REDDISH-PURPLE PIGMENT IN ALL THE FIVE CIRCLES FACING UP TO THE SKY.
Yes, and way over in the shade on this south circle end, deep along this edge where not a lot of sunlight comes in, there are reddish-purple (probably anthocyanin pigmentation) from unknown cause. We find a lot of this in this Geneseo crop formation and we've seen it before in other crop circles that we thought were authentic (example is Hillsboro, Ohio corn). This formation might have been hit with some sort of energy that brings this out. We don't find this in the rest of this soybean field. And in known man-made crop formations, we rarely see this reddish pigmentation on the stems.
It's also interesting that the lay is so peculiar in the eastern and center circles where sections leave the clockwise curve and go straight for the center. But the centers of the soybean swirls are not in the centers of the circles. What appears to be the soybean center in that eastern circle is shifted about three feet.
WE HAVE SEEN THAT ANOMALY IN BRITISH CROP FORMATIONS ALSO. PEOPLE HAVE WONDERED WHY PLANTS ARE SWIRLED OFF CENTER?
Yes. I don't know."
Linda Moulton Howe gathering plant and soil samples in far southern circle
after sunset on August 24, 2006. Foreground is larger middle circle.
Photograph by Ted Robertson for 2006 Earthfiles.
Part 4: Puzzling Soybean Circle Placement
On Thursday, August 24, 2006, Ted Robertson hired a fixed-wing airplane pilot to take him over the Jim and Chris Stahl soybean farm in Geneseo, Illinois. One of his photographs sparked a question in the minds of Roger Sugden and Jeffrey Wilson of the Independent Crop Circle Research Association (ICCRA).
Graphically superimposed blue line goes along sprayer lines;
red line goes along planting rows. Aerial image 2006 by Ted Robertson
and graphic 2006 by Roger Sugden and Jeffrey Wilson, ICCRA.
"Roger Sugden looked at Ted's aerial photos of that site and it appeared at first that the formation was aligned to the planting rows and not to the tramline sprayer lines, but the actual planting rows. Those are at a different angle than the sprayer lines are. Sprayer lines seem to be parallel to the road, but for some reason, we don't know why this is the case, when they planted there, they planted sort of on an angle. So, Roger first looked at it and thought it was aligned to the planting rows, rather than the sprayer lines.September 3,2006 email from Chris and Jim Stahl
"But in a better overhead aerial, I looked at it more carefully and it does not appear to be aligned to either one, which is the photograph I sent you with the two colored lines. One colored line (blue) is aligned with the tramlines. The other colored line (red) is aligned with the planting rows. The formation is not aligned to either one, which is somewhat significant in the sense that generally when we are in a manmade formation, it's aligned to some feature on the ground like the sprayer lines or perhaps the planting rows or telephone poles on the ground or some building feature that the people use as a marker when they are laying out the construction on it.
"In this case, the Geneseo soybean circles are not aligned to any ground feature, including the tramlines, the planting lines, the poles nearby, or even the microwave tower off in the distance."
in answer to my question about the sprayer and planting lines:
Jim Stahl: "The field is actually one big triangle. I planted the rows parallel to the fence row on the north. I sprayed parallel to the fence row on the south."
Aerial showing 5-circle-formation not aligned to Middle Road on left.
Jim Stahl planted soybeans parallel to northern fence row to the right off camera.Ted Robertson found, using GPS, that the formation was rotated 19 degrees east
of magnetic north. Photograph 2006 by Ted Robertson.
Corn Test Farm Across Road
Ted Robertson's aerial photographs also showed a large rectangle of soil with strips of plants growing in it across the road from the soybean circles. I asked Jim and Chris Stahl for more information.September 3,2006 email from Chris and Jim Stahl
Jim Stahl: "Wyffels seed corn company owns it (test farm). They have test plots there every year. I believe they are testing different seed corn varieties."
Photograph above and photograph below of Wyffels seed corn company's test farm
across Middle Road from the Chris and Jim Stahl soybean farm
in Geneseo, Illinois. Photographs 2006 by Ted Robertson.
Only Similar Previous U. S. Pattern
Was in Allen County, Ohio -1999
Above and below: photographs Allan County, Ohio, 1999 landowner
(name withheld for privacy) and provided by ICCRA.
Jeffrey Wilson looked in his ICCRA archives of American crop formations for any pattern similar to the five circles in the Geneseo, Illinois, soybeans. He wrote to me: "Allen County, Ohio in 1999 is the only formation in the USA database which is similar "We've had very few Celtic Cross-type patterns reported in the USA." Jeff found that five circles were "discovered near the center of a field of wheat while the landowner was harvesting the field, and there were no sprayer lines/tramlines in the field.
Jeff Wilson: "In this Allen County, Ohio case, all five circles were tangent/slightly overlapping, but the circle sizes were quite similar. I checked the measurements of the formation, and it was slightly smaller overall than Geneseo, Illinois. There was also a crop formation in Rock Island, Illinois back in the 1990s."
August 22-25, 1991: Circles in Blue Grass, Iowa Corn
About an hour by car west of Geneseo, Illinois, is Blue Grass, Iowa.
The top arrow points at corn circle measured 46 feet, 5 inches in diameter near Coon Hunter Road,
Blue Grass, Iowa. On August 22, 1991, farmers Delmar and Carol Meyer found that circle of corn
swirled counterclockwise. Three days later on August 25, 1991, a local pilot (deceased Blue Grass
mayor) flew over and found the second circle near old Highway 61, now called 140th Avenue.
That counterclockwise circle also measured 46 feet in diameter.
Aerial image courtesy Carol and Delmar Meyer.
Delmar "Snowball" Meyer standing at the center of the counterclockwise corn circle
(46 feet 5 inches in diameter) near Coon Hunter Road, Blue Grass, Iowa.
Photograph 1991 by North Scott Press.
Coon Hunter Road corn circle nearest cattle corral. Carol Meyer said,
"Those cattle would have raised a ruckus if someone had tried to come in
our corn field. But no one ever heard or saw a thing."
Photograph courtesy Carol and Delmar Meyer.
Corn circle nearest cattle corral and Coon Hunter Road, Blue Grass, Iowa,
discovered by farm owners Carol and Delmar Meyer on August 22, 1991. Small circle near
barns is bail feeder. Aerial photograph courtesy Carol and Delmar Meyer.
Interview:
Delmar Meyer, Farmer, Blue Grass, Iowa: "It was fifteen years ago back on August 22, 1991, probably around 6 p.m. I did custom bailing and I was going down the road (Coon Hunter's Road) with a tractor. I looked up there on the hillside and I could see a circle. I went down and finished bailing and came back and got the wife (Carol) and said, "Let's go look at the hole in the ground." A couple of weeks before, there was a (limestone) quarry over about three miles and they had a hole that fell in. So I thought maybe it was another one in my corn. But then, when we got out there, it was no hole. It was just a complete circle in our corn. SO IS YOUR FARM ON A LOT OF LIMESTONE?
I'm not certain; the quarry is at least three miles away, but at the time I didn't know what else it could be. WHAT EXACTLY DID YOU SEE IN THE CORN?
I just went out there and it was all counterclockwise. Jim Stahl's in Geneseo was all clockwise, wasn't it? RIGHT.
Mine was counterclockwise and it was just like something set on top of it and just went down. There were no cornstalks scuffed, no ears of corn knocked off. There wasn't a stalk outside that 46-foot-diameter circle! Everything was inside the circle. You know if you knocked corn down, it would fall into different rows. But this was neatly inside that 48-foot-diameter perfect circle. Actually, it was measured it at 46 feet, five inches.
[ Editor's Note: Carol Meyer sent me an aerial photograph taken by local pilot on August 25, 1991, which showed a second corn circle near old Highway 61 that ran in front of their farm house. She said it also measured 46-feet and was put down as someone's hoaxed copy of the first circle. "We decided not to talk much about the second circle because we were afraid of being called crazy." ]IT WAS LIKE YOU PUT A COOKIE CUTTER DOWN AND EVERYTHING INSIDE WAS SWIRLED COUNTERCLOCKWISE?
Yes. HAD YOU EVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THAT BEFORE?
No, but we had heard about a crop circle over in Illinois around that time. DID YOU HAVE THE SHERIFF COME OUT TO LOOK AT THE CIRCLE?
Yes. I called the Scott County Sheriff's office right away and they came out and said about the same thing that Jim Stahl in Geneseo, Illinois, said now. The deputy called his dispatch and said, "I don't know how we're going to report this. There's a circle."
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