The truth is out there ... near Hubbard
By Karen Tate

Appearance of crop circles in local field draws the
curious and the true believers

Researchers and curious onlookers raced to find an intricate
pattern of rings and pathways placed in a seemingly otherwise
undisturbed rural Hubbard wheat field July 23, hoping to find
some explanation for the mysterious crop circles.

The large, flowing design -- first shown on KOIN TV July 22 --
drew people from throughout the Willamette Valley to take a
look. Glenna Sherwood, administrative assistant for the Hubbard
Police Department, said people were calling and coming into the
police station almost nonstop.

"It was like Grand Central Station around here," she said. "You
couldn't believe this place."

Hubbard Police Chief David Dryden said several people called to
discuss aliens, and officers reported receiving calls from
interested people asking that the area be cordoned off until an
investigation could be conducted.

Crop circles -- made famous by their appearances in England more
than a decade ago -- are thought by some to be created by alien
spacecraft, even though many circles have been proven to be made
by people using ropes and boards.

Keith Ardinger, a part-time crop circle researcher from
Portland, said he believed this design was probably created from
microwave radiation. Ardinger spent nearly half a day looking
for the site, armed only with the knowledge that the area was
located in a field with power poles along Whiskey Hill Road.

"That sucker is really hidden," Ardinger said. "You'd never know
that (it) was there unless you were really looking."

Ardinger, along with several other people, carefully walked
through the field to find the site, looking for clues as to its
origin. Because of the lay of the land, the circles are not
visible unless seen from the air.

Ardinger said he was impressed with the design.

"This is the best formation that I've even heard of in the
U.S.," he said. "This looks real genuine to me; this is a good
one."

"People do fake them, but we can pretty much tell by analysis
whether people faked them or not," Ardinger said.

He said wheat samples would be sent to a scientist and tested
for internal changes that would rule out human involvement.

Carol Pedersen, coordinator for the Oregon branch of the Centre
for Crop Circle Studies, said the swirl marks in the wheat and
the color of the growth nodes located on grain stalks were
possible indications that internal changes had occurred.

Doug Aamodt, owner of the field, said he wasn't sure what to
think about the design. He said he became aware of the circles
when Ardinger and fellow researcher Pedersen came to ask his
permission to study the site.

Aamodt said he didn't mind people studying the field. "I'm not
ticked off at all," he said. "I don't know, what can you think?"

Aamodt jokingly said that maybe he would start selling T-shirts
at his field.

"It should be worth something," he said with a laugh.

Jonah Nail, who visited the field, said he was not convinced
that the circles were created by some paranormal force.

"I think some of them are real, but I don't think this one is,"
he said. "It doesn't fit the pattern of all the other ones. I
mean, why would they (the aliens) change the pattern?"

Sherwood said the circles were a mystery she would like to have
solved quickly.

"This is just nuts," she said. "I would just really like to know
who did this."


HUBBARD.jpg(You;ll have to find it on Google yourself)

These crop circles, located at the intersection of Whiskey Hill
and Barlow roads east of Hubbard, have drawn people from all
over the Willamette Valley and beyond to investigate.