Port
Washington 1998 Crop Circle
Location: Port
Washington, Ozaukee County, Wisconsin
Casey Holt reports:
After deciding to take
a look at the Port Washington, WI crop circle I drove
down to the area. I already learned that the wheat
field had been cut by July 19th and BLT Research
thought good control samples would not be possible. I
was still curious though partly because I actually
drove right past that same field about 2 months
earlier. I arrived at the field on July 26th after
staying at nearby relatives the night before.
When I approached the
field I could not see the crop circle since the wheat
was cut and rows of straw blocked any view of what was
left of the formation. I noticed two people near the
South end of the field taking measurements. It turned
out to be Chad Lewis and Jason from Wisconsin
MUFON who had just arrived that morning. They
described the formation as being moderately complex
made of 6 circles, a partial ring and 2 connecting
bars.
Three
medium sized circles about 40 to 75 feet across were
in a line connected by 2 bars each about 20 feet long
by 6 feet wide aligned in an East to West orientation.
The largest circle was in the center with the smaller
2 on each side. The
West end circle was slightly larger than the circle at
the East end of this barbell configuration. About 70
feet South of the center circle of the barbell was
another larger circle about 100 feet across.
Connecting at each side of this larger circle was a
curved pathway which ran down to connect with the
center circle to the North. This pathway was about 5
feet wide and was much like a ring connecting the 2
parts of the formation. Chad and Jason also found 2
small circles about 5 feet across just inside the
diameter of the ring with one on each side of the
largest circle. They were each about 12 feet from
where the ring and large circle intersected and
roughly centered in the space between them like they
were in corners. The wheat stalks were rotated
counterclockwise in all 6 circles and the ring and it
was bent outward away from the center circle in the 2
bars. The wheat was bent like it was just pushed over
by a mechanical process with no obvious sign of
radiation or heating.
Chad Lewis pointed out
a large crack in the East end circle of the barbell.
The crack was about 12 to 15 inches long, 1-1/2 to 2
inches wide and perhaps 6 to 8 inches deep. It stood
out as being unusually large as compared to other
smaller cracks in the dry soil near that area. Chad
and Jason had already taken detailed measurements by
the time I had arrived and were just finishing up.
They helped me with a few compass measure-ments and
stayed for a few pictures. They then left early in the
afternoon to start work on another case. They planned
to write a report of their findings and measurements
of the formation.
I stayed for a while to
look for anything unusual and take some pictures. Of
particular interest was an overlapping of wheat stalks
at the intersection of the West end circle and its
connecting bar. They appeared to be woven together by
a 4 step overlap process. The sequence was: Bar stalks
were laid first followed by circle stalks then more
bar stalks laid over them and also bent to follow the
circle rotation. More wheat from the circle was then
laid over these. It was like these 2 parts could have
been formed simultaneously with the stalks
intermingling as they were laid down at right angles.
I measured the overall
length as 233 feet and width at 210 feet. The largest
circle was situated only 31 feet from a gravel road
along the South end of the wheat field. It was nearly
centered in the field from East to West being 124
paces from the edge along the road to the East and 118
paces to the corn field to the West. Under one of the
rows of straw was another path of bent stalks about 1
foot wide. It formed a straight line con-necting the
largest circle at the South to the center barbell
circle. I assumed it to be a from a walking trail.
I drew some preliminary
diagrams since then and the report from Chad Lewis
should give a good documentation of more exact
dimensions. Whether this formation was man-made or
formed by unexplained methods is not yet known.
Date: July
10, 1998
Jackie
Shanti reports:
On July 10, 1998,
strange markings were found in a wheat field. Three
large circles approximately 90 feet across and
connected by a slightly curved line were discovered.
There was no sign of an entrance or exit to the field.
Date:
January 18, 1999
Thom Reed reports:
I first went up to the
farm of Gene Large on Thursday, August 6, 1998, to
view the crop circle. The weather was fine when I left
McHenry, IL but by the time I got to Port Washington
there was an incredible thunderstorm. I resolved to
just interview Mr. Large and visit the circle at a
later date.
Gene Large is
middle-aged, very down-to-earth, and very open about
the crop formation. He said it must have happened
between 2100 hrs., Friday, July 10, 1998 and 800 hrs.,
Saturday, July 11. Gene had gone to work at his other
job as he does most nights but his wife, Shirley, was
at the house. She usually feels fine staying at home
alone but that night Shirley had the distinct feeling
that something or someone was outside the house.
Shirley didn't see or hear anything but she got a very
uneasy feeling. She had to close the drapes all
around, even going so far as to use a broom handle to
close them so that nobody outside could see her.
The next day, Saturday,
after Gene got home he saw the "damage" to
his field so he called the Ozaukee County Sheriff.
(See Incident Report) Gene said that he noticed right
off that he couldn't see any foot tracks or tire
tracks into the formation which certainly puts to
shame the sheriff department's conclusion that a
"4 wheel ATV" was used for the
"damage". That day, July 11, Officer Richard
Helm and Sheriff Straub came out to the Large farm to
inspect the "damage". Officer Helm did the
ground inspection and Sheriff Straub went up in a
plane with pilot, Peter Didier, and Mrs. Didier who
took the pictures. (See pictures) Gene also said that
one of the officers mentioned that a UFO report had
been made that previous night, July 10, but I wasn't
able to get any other info about that.
I didn't discover the
officer's names or receive the Incident Report until
much later so I called the County Sheriff's Department
approximately 5 times between August and October
trying to get some information about the formation. I
talked to a secretary (possibly a different one) each
time and asked her to ask the officers around her
about the "crop circle", or "crop
formation", or just the "damage" to
Gene Large's field which happened around July 10. Each
time neither the secretary nor any of the officers she
talked to knew anything about Gene Large's farm.
Sometime in October I
was able to talk to Gene again and he told me that
Sheriff Straub had been up in the plane when the
pictures were taken. So I made a couple more calls and
was finally able to talk to Sheriff Straub on Friday,
November 6, 1998. He seemed very tight-lipped about
the formation and wouldn't even refer to it as a
"crop circle". I asked Sheriff Straub if any
government superiors had told him to not call it a
"crop circle" and he said no. I also asked
him if when he was up in the plane looking down at the
formation, did it look like a "circle". He
answered yes. Sheriff Straub seemed like he was in a
hurry to finish the conversation and said that he
would send me a copy of the Incident Report which he
did. (See report)
To return to my on-site
investigation of the formation I visited it on Sunday,
August 9, 1998 with Christine Nye. I must admit that I
was just thrilled and somewhat overwhelmed to be
visiting my first(!) crop circle and so didn't do any
real scientific investigation. It was a beautiful,
sunny day with only a few clouds in the sky. Christine
took a whole roll of film but when we developed it, it
was blank. We had used the camera before going to the
crop circle and it was fine and we had it checked at a
camera store after and it has worked fine ever since.
I had an instant camera and took only two pictures
which both turned out. |
