An unexplained phenomena -- dubbed crop circles around the world -- has been discovered in
the forestry and farming community of Vanderhoof, 100 kilometres west of here. Vanderhoof
airport owner Brent Miskuski and pilot Larry Frey discovered 10 precise circles of varying
sizes between 10 to 100 feet wide (three to 30 metres) in a ripe oat field just beyond the
approach to the runway this weekend.
"This is bizarre, I'll tell you," said Miskuski. "It's one out of the
twilight zone."
One of the local farmers said his dogs were barking out of control unexplainably Friday
night, said Miskuski, adding there was no wind that night either. Mifuskuski -- who took
pictures from the air -- describes the oats as being bent over symmetrically and lying
down very flat. There are no signs of trampling or disturbance, and there were no paths to
the circles or between them, he said.
Vanderhoof resident Jay Bangs also viewed the circles from the air when he was flying with
his father Sunday morning. He came back after the flight to get a closer look. He thought
there were maybe a half dozen "perfectly round" circles of varying sizes up to
50 feet (15 metres) wide. Bangs described the oats as being all neatly bent over, with the
oats intact on the stalks. "It was very precise." It's creating quite a bit of
talk in the community, said Bangs, who also took pictures of the circles.
Crop circles first appeared in modern times in England in 1972, according to The Crop
Circular Internet site. Since then, there have been about 9,000 reported and documented
circles -- about 90% in England but also in B.C. About 40% of the documented circles have
been determined to be hoaxes, says Internet author Freddy Silva, where the grass is
broken, trampled, bruised or crushed. In the authentic, unexplained formations the stems
are bent, normally about an inch off the ground, says Silva.
© Jay Bangs
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