They aren't saying what made hundreds of cornstalks in John Polomcak's field lay over in one direction, in the shape of a circle joined by a square. But it wasn't caused by human pranksters, volunteer researchers have concluded.
Investigators "do not believe, based on their field work, that the Lawton formation was mechanically made by people," said Jeffrey Wilson, director of the Independent Crop Circle Researchers' Association, a group of enthusiasts who study crop circles, which are unexplained patterns in fields.
He said that statistically verified tests showed the flattened plants -- which form a circle 32 feet in diameter and a square about five rows wide and 12 feet long -- had "elongated growth nodes compared to the 'normal' standing plants that were in the same field. That kind of change is unhoaxable."
Wilson, who has a master's degree in general science, said it may be Christmas before the group's tests of the field's soils and seed germination are completed.
The group is stretched thin visiting other crop circles that have been reported this summer, some as far away as Texas.
Wilson said he has collected reports of crop circles in the United States from as far back as the 1800s. Of the 250 or so that have been reported since the 1990s, about one in five clearly have been hoaxes created by pranksters, he said; another fifth, like the Lawton formation, the group believes were not created mechanically by human activity. The rest, he said, are inconclusive.
Last year the team made a similar conclusion about a formation in a Howell-area cornfield. The next day, a local radio station's morning show hosts claimed responsibility; both stories were reported in Detroit papers. The station later retracted its claim, staff there confirmed, and Wilson's group stands by its judgment on that crop circle.
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Investigators "do not believe, based on their field work, that the Lawton formation was mechanically made by people," said Jeffrey Wilson, director of the Independent Crop Circle Researchers' Association, a group of enthusiasts who study crop circles, which are unexplained patterns in fields.
He said that statistically verified tests showed the flattened plants -- which form a circle 32 feet in diameter and a square about five rows wide and 12 feet long -- had "elongated growth nodes compared to the 'normal' standing plants that were in the same field. That kind of change is unhoaxable."
Wilson, who has a master's degree in general science, said it may be Christmas before the group's tests of the field's soils and seed germination are completed.
The group is stretched thin visiting other crop circles that have been reported this summer, some as far away as Texas.
Wilson said he has collected reports of crop circles in the United States from as far back as the 1800s. Of the 250 or so that have been reported since the 1990s, about one in five clearly have been hoaxes created by pranksters, he said; another fifth, like the Lawton formation, the group believes were not created mechanically by human activity. The rest, he said, are inconclusive.
Last year the team made a similar conclusion about a formation in a Howell-area cornfield. The next day, a local radio station's morning show hosts claimed responsibility; both stories were reported in Detroit papers. The station later retracted its claim, staff there confirmed, and Wilson's group stands by its judgment on that crop circle.
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