SUBJECT: FARM RING MYSTIFIES                                 FILE: UFO1153


SUN, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada-Aug. 21, 1990
CR: T. Sillivan


                  FOREIGN NEWS

     NOTHING UNUSUAL...EXCEPT DOG'S BARKING

By JAMES O'CONNOR
SUN Staff Writer

     ST. FRANCOIS XAVIER-It's large, round and flat.
     Called a crop circle, it mysteriously appeared near the corner of a wheat field late last week-and it's had a strange effect on local residents in this agricultural area west of Winnipeg.
     It's making them scratch their heads.
     "I'm trying to figure out what the heck it is," George Friesen said, as he stared in disbelief at the 18-metre diameter circle of flattened grain.
     "I never saw anything like this before in my life-it looks like something's been rolled around and around."
     Friesen-now 78 and a veteran grain grower-lives across the road from the field owned by Joe Thomaschewski.
     It was Thomaschewski who discovered the cleanly-cut ring Saturday at 5 p.m. on his land at the corner of the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 241.
     He had been by the area a few days earlier, but noticed nothing unusual-nothing like his metre-high wheat being bent at the root and flattened in a counter-clockwise circle.
     This has left an investigator in unusual phenomenon to conclude the circle was "created" between Thursday and Saturday afternoon.

                  POSSIBLE HOAX

     "We're still not ruling out that it could be a hoax-but we're still investigating," said Chris Rutkowski of Ufology Research of Manitoba.
     The circle is quite similar to those found in England, where 1,000 have been located throughout the years, Rutkowski said.
     However, the phenomenon is quite rare here, he said, noting the last discovery here was 12 years ago near Rossburn.
     "We're not advocating that it's a UFO, that's just one possibility," Rutkowski said, adding there were no tracks or marks leading up to the circle, located some 20 metres from the road.
     Farmer Friesen's wife, Katherene, said the phone lines are buzzing with talk of the strange circle.
     "We're never experienced anything like that...it's very odd," she said, adding her family can't recall hearing anything strange the past few nights-except their dog barking at unusual hours.
     "And I looked out the window then and couldn't see anything," Feorge Friesen said, noting he and his son have been working quite late thrashing their crop.
     Another puzzled person walking in circles around the ring last night was Dan Sommerfeld.
     The 24-year-old area resident said it looked as if the wheat had been throttled by Nother Nature, not by human hands.
     'It looks like it was blown down-I dont't think anyone around here would do anything like his," he said.
     Astronomer Rutkowski said in addition to an alien visitor, other causes are being studied, including a weather phenomenon and new seismic or electrical activity.

              
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