Original headline:
Mysterious crop circles drawing hundreds to southern Ontario farm
HENSALL, Ont. (CP) -- Hundreds of people are flocking to a southern Ontario farm to inspect something they've only seen in the movies -- crop circles.
Erv Willert says the elaborate geometric signs appeared in his 16-hectare wheat field on Wednesday evening, and he doesn't think anybody in the area is responsible.
"There's nobody with enough energy to do this," he said. "They'd get one circle done and lay down and have a beer."
When told by a farm worker about the strange shapes in the field, Willert said he replied, "What's a crop circle?"
Willert said he isn't entirely amused by the strange shapes, which include two circles with a 15-metre radius, but he's having fun with his visitors.
"It was pretty unexplainable, I guess," said Mike Klaassen, a local resident who took in the spectacle on Friday. "It's all mathematically proportional, so it's pretty crazy."
According to those who study crop circles, the ones in Hensall are as legitimate as they come.
As the Ontario field co-ordinator for the Canadian Crop Circle Research Network, Joanna Emery travels around the province checking out crop-circle sightings. Having seen the shapes at Willert's farm, Emery said they have all the earmarks of a natural design.
"This is something that's virtually impossible to hoax because the plant has been changed at a cellular level," said Emery, noting the plant is bent at the base but not broken.
"This is quite possibly a genuine one. It definitely deserves more investigation."
Willert has no theories about the origin of the circles.
"I really haven't had time to think about it, (but) you couldn't do this at night and I don't know how someone would have enough nerve to do it during the day."
