Mystery crop circles found at Vanderhoof

by GORDON HOEKSTRA, Citizen staff

This article appeared in the September 1st edition of the  Prince George Citizen newspaper. The crop circles were discovered this past weekend, apparently forming Friday night (August 28, 1998). Our associate, Chad Deetken of Pacific Research, has travelled to Vanderhoof to investigate. We will keep this site updated as we obtain new information.Check out the CCCRN Website for the latest crop circle information across Canada.


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.

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© Jay Bangs

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