ICCRA - WI - Trevor, Kenosha County (June 21, 2005)

Reported Crop Circles for the State of Wisconsin -

Trevor, Kenosha County (June 21, 2005)

This formation was reported to the ICCRA by Mary Sutherland of the Burlington UFO and Paranormal Center. Sutherland had been notified of its existence by an anonymous tip via email on June 21, 2005. The formation was in wheat, and appeared to be several days old by the time Sutherland arrived at the field on June 23. ICCRA members Roger Sugden, Ted Robertson, Delsey Knoechelman, Dr. Charles Lietzau, and Jeffrey Wilson arrived on June 25 prepared for a comprehensive investigation. Written permission was obtained from the farmer Rob Hawkins of R&C Hawkins Farms, who also helped arrange a photo flight from another local farmer Jeff Thompson, who owns and pilots a plane. Immediately upon seeing the formation from the air, there were suspicions of the crop circle's authenticity.

Wausau, WI Formation

The "formation" showed many of the tell-tale signs of being mechanically flattened in strips, leaving a raised strip of not-quite-flattened wheat between each consecutive turn around the circle. While this detail is not conclusive evidence that the formation was mechanically-made by people, this type of lay pattern has been shown to be evident in most hoaxed formations to one degree or another.

Within seconds upon entering the formation, the ICCRA noticed that the exterior edges of the formation exhibited a 'serrated' effect. One typical and notable effect of many hoaxed formations is that they have a 'serrated' edge which is often produced when someone is flattening the plants with a board or a garden roller. As they push the plants over, the plants fall more or less straight ahead - the plants on the edges of the circles then push out straight into the standing crop; as the hoaxer continues around the circle, this flatten-straight, reposition-for-the-curve, flatten-straight, reposition-for-the-curve pattern of motion leaves a serrated edge to the formation because the hoaxer cannot get the plants to fall in a curve as they are being flattened forward. This effect is apparent at the Trevor, WI "formation".

Wausau, WI Formation

In the above photo, the red arrow points out a good example of not being able to make the plants curve - instead they jut out into the standing crop helping to create a 'serrated' edge. The two red lines identify the regular spacing of the flattening.

Wausau, WI Formation

Additional evidence of mechanical hoaxing was evident, including the regular spacing (by measurement) between each strip laid down, broken stalks, crease marks on the stalks, footprints of crushed wheat on the interior edge of the 'ring' and exterior edges of the circles, and then the "smoking gun" of the post holes (discovered by Delsey Knoechelman) which were located in the exact center points needed to 'fix' the circle and ring centers.

Wausau, WI Formation

Beyond the 'forensic'-investigative evidence which was readily apparent, the ICCRA team took the additional step of running our usual battery of diagnostic tests to compare formation results to controls:

L-NEAT - Dr. Charles Lietzau did node elongation measurements to samples collected from both the formation and from 'controls' (from wheat left standing in the field). For the combined samples, the L-NEAT values were negative for both the second and third nodes (no node elongation). No mechanically-made crop circle formation has ever demonstrated any statistical node elongation. Many non-mechanically made crop circles exhibit node elongation of 30% or greater. Also, there were no differences in measurements taken of radioactivity, electric fields, magnetic fields, or radio/microwave emission from either the "formation" or outside of it (controls).

The ICCRA also measured the "formation" which had been erroneously reported as being approximately 55 feet in diameter but was actually about twice that size - the inner edge of the outside ring was measured at exactly 100 feet in diameter (the outer edge at 112 feet); the standing center of the larger circle had a radius of approximately 10 feet in all directions; the largest circle had an East-West diameter of 60 feet and a North-South diameter of approximately 58 feet; the smaller circle was ~44' E-W and ~42' N-S. The circles aligned due West (magnetic) - to a telephone pole across the street and due South (magnetic) - to a basketball hoop.

Someone took some time in planning out the design and executing the formation with more than one person being involved. The only question left to answer is 'whodunit' - who is responsible for vandalism and property damage?

Crop type: wheat

Source: ICCRA investigation, Mary Sutherland, Burlington UFO and Paranormal Center

Photos: Jeffrey Wilson

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Page last updated on August 18, 2011