The 1996 Paulding County Crop Circle

In July 1996, a crop circle was discovered a few miles outside Paulding, becoming the talk of the county and drawing regional and multi-state attention amid the broader 1990s wave of public fascination with crop circles, UFOs, and paranormal phenomena.

The event was covered in a series of articles in The Crescent-News. The original clipping of the first article is reproduced above; its full text follows, with the rest of the series linked below.

“Was It Work of Aliens or a Hoax?”

By Jim Langham, Staff Writer — July 1996

PAULDING — Usually, very few cars can be seen traveling on Paulding County Road 126 as it meanders through the prairie-like farmland between Paulding and Ohio 637. It is a stretch of vacant highway utilized mainly by farm machinery, pickup trucks and occasional visitors to the area.

That all changed this past weekend, however, when word got out that a crop circle had been spotted in a wheat field located just west of Ohio 637, approximately seven miles southeast of Paulding. The ground is farmed by the Arend brothers.

By Monday evening, lines of cars were bringing curious onlookers to the 93-foot circle; directional signs were being placed for visitors, and media hype was beginning to mount nationwide.

According to John Timmerman, vice president of public relations for the Center for UFO Studies, Chicago, the formation is consistent with other such appearances around the world. It is a perfect circle that measures 93 feet across at any given point. The wheat inside its circumference takes on the appearance of having been woven in counter-clockwise fashion, without any breakage to the stalks.

In addition, the circle is located between two drainage ditches located 350 feet apart. A measurement taken from the center of the circle to the ditches indicates that the distance to each drainage area is 175 feet from the center of the formation.

“I don’t think it’s a hoax,” said Timmerman, who has studied numerous phenomenon of a similar nature over the years. “It wasn’t formed by an aircraft or a wind vortex, such as would be created by a helicopter.

“Because of the counter-clockwise nature in which the wheat is laid out, it appears that whatever caused it was turning as it landed, whatever it was,” added Timmerman. “Something caused that wheat to all fall in the same direction. What was it? I don’t know what it was.”

The story began late in the day on July 4 when Oakwood residents Mike and Sandy Dobbelaere were giving some friends an aerial tour of the area in their Piper Cub. As the plane flew over the area, Sandy pointed to some barns in the distance that impressed her because of their architecture.

“Just then I looked down and said, ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s one of those crop circles,’” said Sandy. “At first we joked about it, but then we decided to call (landowners) Don and Sue (Arend).”

On Friday, Sandy went to the site to take pictures. At that time she was accompanied by Don Arend, who got his first glimpse of the circle.

“I was amazed at what I saw,” said Arend. “There were no other tracks around it. I called Sheriff (Dave) Harrow and told him that we have something a little strange out here.”

Harrow visited the scene to determine whether or not the formation was a case of vandalism. After determining that it wasn’t, the Arends contacted Timmerman, who was on the scene within a few hours.

Don’s brother, Dan Arend, admitted that he was a little skeptical when he was first informed of the phenomenon. However, a visit to the site quickly changed all of that.

“I was in awe immediately,” said Don. “I realized then that we had better contact someone who had a little expertise in the area. I was convinced that there was no way that this could be man-made.”

Arend said that it was impossible to determine when the formation occurred, but a close friend who flew over the farm on July 1 hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. Also, members of the family who planted a bean field close to the site on June 23 didn’t notice anything.

Timmerman said that professional agronomists will visit the site later this week to take samples of the grain and soil for analysis. He noted that when results are made available, they will be released to the press.

One local resident who visited relatives in the area and saw the circle over the weekend referred to it as a “phenomenon that couldn’t have been made by a person.”

“I’ve been hearing about such things happening in England, but I never realized one would happen right under our nose,” said Georgiana Wagner, of Defiance. “There must be something higher than us that knows how to do something so perfect.”

Among those visiting the site on Monday evening were Michelle Blatnik and Melanie Myers from Toledo. Both individuals had observed a similar phenomenon near Adrian, Mich., last summer. Blatnik noted that there were some striking similarities between the two.

“They were very similar, especially inside the circle,” explained Blatnik. “In both circles the grain appears to be woven like a basket. Personally, I believe that there’s something going on out there that we’re not being told about.”

“I don’t know what did it, but one of the neatest things is the way these things bring people together,” said Myers. “People who didn’t know each other or whose paths wouldn’t have crossed are meeting and talking. That’s a pretty neat thing in itself.”

“Paulding Family Deals with ‘Circle-Mania’”

By Jim Langham, Staff Writer — The Crescent-News, Sunday, July 14, 1996 (Lifestyle, C5)

PAULDING — Eight-year-old Jennifer Arend finds life “sort of weird” these days. Since last weekend, her family has been under siege from an invasion of onlookers curious about a crop circle that showed up in one of their wheat fields on July 4.

“I’ve never seen so many people come down my street (Paulding County Road 126) before,” says Jennifer. “I keep thinking, ‘what’s the big deal about this circle anyway?’”

While they have enjoyed meeting people and the excitement of having a crop circle on their property, members of the Arend family are looking forward these days to seeing their lives regain a sense of normalcy.

Life for the Paulding county farm family had been tough enough this spring — all of the rain, the hard time getting crops out — and now the extended dry spell. None of that, however, could touch the interruptions and changes that have taken place since a crop circle was discovered on property farmed by their family late in the day on July 4.

That’s when Mike and Sandy Dobbelaere of Oakwood were giving some friends an aerial tour of their Piper Cub. While they were flying over the Arend property they noted a crop circle in a wheat field just off of County Road 126 west of Ohio 613.

It didn’t take long for news of the discovery to spread. By Tuesday of this past week, calls were arriving from media personnel from as far away as Oklahoma City, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other points in between, including the Associated Press.

Family members could hardly take a bite of food without the telephone ringing. To try to visit or get anything done was unthinkable. Lines of cars lined the road and people were trekking up to see the phenomenon all hours of the day.

Family members have been forced to guard their property and set up signs to help control and direct the flow of traffic — all of this at a time when wheat harvest is impending.

“At first it was exciting. Now I think it’s a little tiring,” comments Joanna Arend, whose husband, David, helps farm the land. “Somebody has to be here all of the time. We never expected all of these people. We never thought that everything would turn out like this.”

“I can’t believe how big this has gotten. It’s weird,” says Joanna’s daughter, Jackie. “We’ve had to put signs up. People are coming here from all over asking how to find the circle.”

“It’s amazing what people are doing and saying here,” adds Jackie. “People were in the center of the circle with their dogs to see if they could pick up any kind of scent. One man told me I was the first person he met from Paulding. He was from Arizona.”

Jackie’s cousin, Laura, notes that, at last count, more than 3,000 people walked along the field path to observe the circle — and they’re still coming, almost like the movie, Field of Dreams. Although to Laura’s mother, Sue, it is becoming more like the movie, Independence Day.

“I really want to know what caused it,” says Sue. “I don’t particularly care at this point whether it was manmade or not. I just want to know. I don’t think I’ll ever be quite as excited about seeing news cameras. As far as I’m concerned: been there, done that. I don’t need that anymore. I can hardly wait for the day for life to get back to normal.”

“Our phone never stops ringing. It starts at 7:30 a.m. and doesn’t stop,” said Darcy, Don and Sue’s other daughter. “I can’t believe it happened to us. Why would this happen to us?”

“Interruptions, that doesn’t phase me,” emphasizes Jennifer’s mother, Natalie Arend. “With five kids I’m busy. I think we function well with interruptions. Everybody should enjoy the circle. There’s something in the circle itself — like reaching for things, or friendships. In other shapes, you have to stop and make turns. But circles go on forever.”

“Family Attempts to Be Fair and Generous to the Public”

By Jim Langham, Staff Writer — The Crescent-News, July 1996

Subhead: “Arends try to answer questions and satisfy any liability concerns.”

PAULDING — Nicholas Arend admits he has been surprised by some of the things he’s seen around a crop circle on the family farm the past few days.

One morning he discovered that someone had thrown a beer can in the center of the circle. On another occasion, family members were forced to chase out some late night intruders who had gone back to the circle.

And these are just a few of the incidents that have taken place on the Arend farm since the circle was discovered late on July 4.

“My responsibility in all of this has been to try to keep things cleaned up,” said Nicholas, the son of Dan and Natalie Arend. “I pick up trash and try to keep things in shape around here as much as I can.”

During the time that the Arend family has allowed public viewing of the circle, family members have patrolled the site to answer questions, and also to satisfy possible liability questions.

“We’ve felt all along that this is something the public should be able to see. Besides, it gets me away from home,” he quipped. “I like to just sit here and try to figure out what they think about it.”

“We’ve felt that someone needs to be there because of our fear of liability,” explained Sue Arend, Don’s wife. “We know what lawsuits can be like these days.”

Sue said that family members made the initial decision to make the formation available to the public when experts originally informed them that they felt that the phenomenon was authentic.

“We thought, ‘Oh, gosh, if that’s the case, yes, people, you can see it,’” said Sue. “We thought that if we had some type of phenomenon like that, people should be able to see it.”

Since those initial assessments, appraisals of the site have brought mixed opinions. Last Wednesday, Ohio State agronomist Jim Beurlein said that he felt the circle was definitely a hoax.

The same day, Jeffrey Wilson, from the Center for Crop Circle Studies at Eastern Michigan University, said that he felt it was not a hoax. Wilson based much of his conclusion on the fact that he found elevated radiation counts inside the circle.

All of this has left family members confused, sometimes frustrated, but wanting to be generous and fair to an interested public.

“It’s a frustrating feeling having people come in as experts, but not one of them having ever seen a crop circle before,” noted Sue. “If they had said from the beginning that they had doubts about it, we would have just cut the wheat and that would have been it.”

Paulding County Sheriff David Harrow had nothing but praise for the Arends and their attitude through all of this.

“Nobody would trade 15 minutes of notoriety for all they’ve been through this past week,” said Harrow. “People bringing pets out there, driving through their field — and they haven’t made any profit off of this.

“I’ve known the Arend family for over 20 years,” said Harrow. “If this does turn out to be a hoax, it has nothing to do with them. In fact, I would be very surprised if anyone in Paulding County would have anything to do with this.”

“This is a normal, reputable, hard-working Paulding County farm family where this phenomenon just happened to occur,” said Paulding County Commissioner Tony Langham, who visited the circle. “This has cost them a lot of time and the loss of crops.

“Not only have they given of their time and effort to make this possible, they’ve developed t-shirts to help raise money for Shriner’s Hospital. They’ve more than gone out of their way to turn this into something for public good,” added Langham.

One individual who has worked closely with the Arend family throughout the study has been John Timmerman of the Center for UFO Studies, Chicago. His office continues to investigate recent tidbits of interest concerning the circle.

“From the standpoint of investigation, if it had to happen, it couldn’t have happened to a better situation,” said Timmerman. “They are very solid people. It’s because I recognize that solidness that I continue to give this situation all of the time that I can.”

Having 4,000 unexpected visitors in the middle of harvest hasn’t always been the easiest thing, noted Joanna Arend, wife of David Arend.

“It’s been quite a year, the wet spring, the dry summer, and now this,” she said. “It has helped strengthen my faith,” added Sue. “Not that I think that some big miracle happened out here, but because everything that has happened surrounding this has made me reach deep inside to find peace through my faith in Jesus. I feel that we’ve taken some needless ridicule, but God doesn’t give us more than we can handle.”

“Crop Circle a Multi-State Draw”

By Jim Langham, Staff Writer — The Crescent-News, July 1996

Photo caption: “Visitors have come to rural Paulding from as far away as Arizona.” (Jim Langham/C-N Photo)

PAULDING — Lines of cars along Paulding County Road 126 this past week beside a wheat field farmed by the Arend Brothers have displayed license plates from Iowa, Oklahoma, Michigan, Indiana and other states in between.

Visitors have also come to the rural Paulding farm from as far away as Arizona, Florida and New York — all in search of an answer to the question — “What caused a crop circle to appear in the middle of a wheat field?”

“It’s hard for me to believe that it would be a hoax,” said Deb Keller of Clarion, Iowa, who is visiting in the home of her mother in Monroeville, Ind. “If somebody stood in there and held something to do that, it seems like they would have broken some wheat.

“I was amazed,” she added. “It’s so uniform. I definitely plan to come back.”

“I believe it. There’s no trace of footsteps,” said Ayersville’s Kevin Ross. “I can’t believe all of the people that are out here.”

Ross’ friend, Josh Rethmel, Defiance, didn’t know what to believe about the circle which mysteriously appeared in the field late last week.

“I do and I don’t believe it,” said Rethmel. “It looks real. There’s a good circle there. I don’t see how anyone could do that. It is all woven together so neat. I don’t think it’s a hoax, but I don’t think it’s aliens.”

Gary Roughton, an employee with Motion Industries Inc., Defiance, was passing through the area on business and decided to stop and take a look. Roughton said that viewing the formation has made him a believer.

“I’m a believer. I don’t think it was done by humans. When I look at it I say, ‘How could they do that,’” Roughton said. “It’s hard to say. It’s just such an amazing perfect circle.”

The crop circle, located approximately seven miles east of Paulding, has drawn national attention since it was first discovered by Mike and Sandy Dobbelaere of Oakwood during a plane ride. Since that time, more than 4,000 people have walked up the quarter-mile path to view the phenomenon.

Penny and Shannon Johnson, Van Wert, first visited the circle last Sunday and were so impressed that they decided to return later in the week. It’s the unseen aspects of the experience that drew both women back the second time.

“I think it’s cool,” said Shannon, “because you don’t see what made it and you don’t see how it happened.”

“It’s unbelievable,” noted Penny. “You look at it and you go back and tell your friends. We’ve read about these a lot, but we’ve never been to one.”

Jesse Giutierrez of Custer made the 35-mile trek after he heard about it on the news.

“I don’t know what to say, but this whole thing sure is weird,” he said.

Paulding’s Becky Carr was still skeptical about it all, but couldn’t provide any explanation about the origin of the formation.

“I can’t say whether or not it was actually man made, but it’s such a perfect circle,” she said. “It’s pretty amazing.”

On Wednesday, John Timmerman of the Center for UFO studies, Chicago, and Jim Beurlein, an Ohio State University agronomist, inspected the circle and indicated that they believed that it could be a hoax.

But Jeffrey Wilson, representing the Center for Crop Circle Studies, Washington, said that he didn’t believe that it was.

Wilson reported that radiation levels inside the circle Wednesday measured three times higher than outside the circle. On Friday, Wilson returned for another reading. This time he discovered that readings inside and outside the circle were compatible.

“This leads me to believe that it might have been much higher before Wednesday,” he said. “It appears to be dropping.”

“We’ve been trying to make contact with other forms of life for a long time. We have satellites out in space and on the moon,” said Larry Finseth, Paulding. “If there are other forms of life, there’s no reason why they wouldn’t be just as curious. This could be their attempt to reach out to us.

“Or it just could be God’s way of trying to get our attention,” he added. “Whatever it is, it has people thinking and talking about things they wouldn’t have if this hadn’t been here.”

“Timmerman Asks Possible Hoaxers for Explanation”

By Jim Langham, Staff Writer — The Crescent-News, July 1996

PAULDING — John Timmerman of the Center for UFO Studies, Chicago, requested this morning that the individual or individuals responsible for constructing the Paulding County crop circle send an unsigned letter to The Crescent-News explaining their action.

“There are still a lot of unanswered questions in this situation and we are continuing our investigation,” said Timmerman. “But there’s still a possibility that this is a hoax.”

Timmerman asked that the individual sending the letter explain in detail how his actions were carried out, including how and when. This information, he said, could assist with analysis of the situation. And he emphasized that it would be a waste of time to send a hoax letter.

“We have enough information to verify whether or not the letter is a hoax,” said Timmerman. “We can identify false information. But there is a lot of time, money and study going into this. This is not a joke. If there is a perpetrator out there, it would save everyone a lot of time and energy for that individual to come forth.”

“We need to be sure that we have the right analysis of this thing,” he said. “We need to get this thing taken care of as soon as possible, in respect to the Arend family. They are very kind people and have been most cooperative. We need to do all that we can to speed up this study so that they can go on with their lives as farmers.”

Timmerman has also asked that individuals in the area who might have any additional information concerning the crop incident report that information.

“Anyone who noticed anything out of the ordinary could have helpful information,” he said. “It’s hard to say what piece of information out there could be something helpful to us.”

Timmerman had said on Wednesday, after studying the situation with Jim Beurlein, an Ohio State University agronomist, that there was a possibility that the crop circle could be man-made.

“That’s still a possibility,” Timmerman emphasized this morning, “but we need to get all of the facts together in this. There are still a lot of questions we need to answer before we can give a conclusive analysis.”

The crop circle, located approximately seven miles east of Paulding on the Arend farm, has drawn national attention since it was first discovered by Mike and Sandy Dobbelaere on the afternoon of July 4 during a plane ride.

By Thursday afternoon, an estimated 4,000 people had visited the site to view the phenomenon.

Those having additional information are asked to send it to: John Timmerman, Box 1621, Lima, Ohio, 45802. He noted that he would accept letters or tapes. Information may also be faxed to 513-843-3834.

The address for The Crescent-News is 624 W. Second St., Defiance, Ohio 43512.

“Jury Is Still Out”

From staff and wire reports — The Crescent-News, July 1996

Subhead: “Evidence leans toward local crop circle being the work of pranksters.”

PAULDING — The jury’s still out on what caused Paulding County’s crop circle, but evidence is leaning toward the work of pranksters.

Sheriff Dave Harrow says it’s a hoax.

John Timmerman of the Center for UFO studies, Chicago, said earlier there was a possibility that the circle was not man-made. He has since changed his mind.

An Ohio State University agronomist says he can tell for sure that the circle was man-made.

But an astronomy instructor from Eastern Michigan University continued to breathe life into the popular supernatural theory Wednesday by reporting that radiation in the circle mysteriously registered three times that of its surroundings.

Jeffrey Wilson from EMU’s Center for Crop Circle Studies, said that he and another EMU representative established a radiation background reading of 20 clicks per minute outside the circle.

“We did that to establish what would be considered the normal reading for that area,” said Wilson. “We got exactly the same reading on the edge of the circle and in the center. But in between the six- and 20-foot mark in the circle, it increased to 48 to 60 clicks.”

Wilson wouldn’t speculate what that increased reading meant, but he did note that it indicated some type of radiation abnormality.

“I would say that there is strong supporting evidence that this is not a hoax,” stated Wilson.

Wilson based his assertion on several points, including the fact that there were a number of standing stalks left inside the circle.

“If someone had been walking around inside of there with a board they wouldn’t have left one single standing stalk,” he said.

“If you pull up the crop and examine it, it is bent right at the ground,” he said. “If a board or some other object would have flattened it, it would have been bent slightly above the ground.”

Other factors that convinced Wilson of the circle’s authenticity include the way the crop is woven together in the middle, the radiation readings and undamaged grainheads.

“Due to the dry weather in this area we found the stalks in the field to be very dry and brittle at this time,” said Wilson. “We feel that they would have broken very easily if they had been stepped on. We were impressed with the way the stalks weren’t broken.”

In spite of Wilson’s belief, he refused to associate the phenomenon with an unidentified flying object.

“I will go out of my way to say that I don’t think a UFO landed here,” said Wilson, “but some type of directional energy happened here to make the grain lie down like it is.”

“It was a prank,” Sheriff David Harrow said Wednesday. “It is a man-made circle out there. There was no extraterrestrial landing.”

A local pilot last week spotted the circle measuring 93 feet in diameter in a field farmed by Dan Arend and his two brothers.

Hundreds of people who have been flocking to Arend’s farm every day to gaze at the circle. They had been debating whether the circle was left by a UFO or was a hoax.

Harrow said an Ohio State University agronomist examined the circle on Wednesday and said he could tell the circle was man-made.

“Someone went through an extreme amount of effort to do this. I really don’t have an answer as to why anybody would do this,” he said.

Crop circles have been found around the world. Some people claim they are formed by supernatural forces, but doubters think they are more likely the work of pranksters.

Those responsible for the Paulding circle could be charged with criminal trespassing, Harrow said.

The circle was found on July 3. Pilot Mike Dobbelacre, his wife, Sandy, and two relatives spotted the circle during a plane ride. They told Arend, who contacted Timmerman, who examined the circle and then called in Jim Beurlein, an OSU horticulture and plant specialist.

They both examined the circle Wednesday.

“We could tell it was a hoax by the way the grain was laying in the field,” Timmerman said. He declined to elaborate.

“If I tell you too much, it would make it easier for someone to do something like this again,” he said.

At first, Harrow said he didn’t think the circle was the work of vandals. Neither did Timmerman.

“When I was out there Saturday, I didn’t see any tracks leading in or leading out of the circle,” Harrow said.

Earlier in the day, Timmerman indicated that he felt the circle could possibly be a hoax.

“I find some evidence that it could have been made by people moving their feet,” said Timmerman. “It could have been made by something about three feet long trailing along toward the center.

“Toward the center there are changes in the grain. It’s hard to believe that an object coming down didn’t compress this more than it did,” he added.

Wednesday’s visit represented the second time that Timmerman had checked the site, located just off of County Road 126 and west of Ohio 637, approximately seven miles west of Paulding. During his first visit, when he found the circle to be less disturbed, he had indicated that he felt that it was not a hoax.

“It wasn’t formed by an aircraft or a wind vortex, such as would be created by a helicopter.

“Because of the counter-clockwise nature in which the wheat is laid out, it appears that it was turning as it landed, whatever it was,” Timmerman had said. “Something caused the wheat to all fall in the same direction. What was it? I don’t know what it was.”

Whatever they believed about the formation, people continued to trek up the lane leading to the circle Wednesday evening like extras in the film “Field of Dreams.” By noon, an estimated 3,000 people had visited the site — and each one had their own opinion about what they saw.

“I saw it in the paper and decided that I wanted to see it firsthand,” said Forrest Rayle, of Leipsic. “I’ve always been interested in UFOs. I think something made this and I don’t think it was pranksters.”

“It’s amazing,” said Chester Ziolkowski of Buffalo, N.Y. “We were here yesterday and we wanted to come back again today to see it. I can’t believe it. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”

Note: this article gives the circle’s discovery date as July 3, while other articles in this series (and the Arend family’s own account) say July 4. Reproduced as printed.

“Crop Circle T-Shirts on Sale, Proceeds Will Go to Hospital”

By Jim Langham, Staff Writer — The Crescent-News, July 1996

Subhead: “Arend partially finds way to repay Shriners for their past assistance.”

PAULDING — Since the time that Jackie Arend spent 11 days in Shriner’s Hospital in Chicago earlier this year, she has been looking for a way to show her appreciation for the special care she received at the medical facility.

During the time she was hospitalized, the daughter of David and Joanna Arend, rural Paulding, experienced surgery to correct medical problems caused by scoliosis in her back. Following surgery she spent five days in the hospital’s intensive care unit. While that type of hospitalization would have normally been very expensive, Arend and her family came home debt free, due to the generous provisions of Shriner organizations nationwide.

Finally, Arend has found a way to partially repay medical staff personnel for their assistance at that time — and in a way that she would have never imagined. She and members of her family are selling t-shirts commemorating the crop circle in Paulding County. Shirts sell for $15 a piece and all proceeds are being directed back to Shriner’s Hospital.

“I have felt all along that we should do something for them,” observed Arend, who assisted other family members in selling shirts from the back of a pickup truck near the entrance of a lane leading to the circle which is located on land they farm along Paulding County Road 126.

“They (Shriner’s) did so much for me and for our family. They were so nice about it,” continued Arend. “We were going to go to the Shriner’s Circus, but then this came up.”

Members of the Arend family take turns tending the small makeshift sales booth. Shirts can also be purchased by visiting or telephoning Kohart Surplus and Salvage in Broughton (399-4144).

Although incidents of scoliosis have occurred before in the Arend family, Jackie’s medical problem wasn’t uncovered until she submitted to a physical prior to becoming involved with the junior high volleyball program. At that time, the attending physician pointed her in a totally different direction than the front row of an athletic team.

Paulding physician, Dr. William Miller, picked up possible indications of a progressing form of scoliosis. A visit to a specialist in Fort Wayne confirmed Miller’s suspicions and Arend was placed in a cast.

For over a year, the aspiring young athlete observed competition from the sidelines, but her back condition didn’t improve. Finally she was sent to Shriner’s Hospital where attending physicians advocated surgery.

“At first I wore the brace all of the time, but then I just wore it at night because it wasn’t doing any good anyway,” recalls Arend. “When I got to Chicago the doctors there told me that it wasn’t going to help any.”

Arend underwent surgery this past Jan. 11. Although she returned home late in the month, she wasn’t able to go back to school until March. During that time, she continued her schooling through the help of a tutor. She also found the task of starting to walk and rehabilitating to be quite a challenge.

Although she has made a strong recovery, doctors informed her at the time of the surgery that she wouldn’t be able to participate in her favorite sports of volleyball and softball for at least a year.

“Hopefully that means I’ll be able to start participating in sports again by the second semester,” says Arend.

Arend attributed much of her rapid recovery to the fact that her mother was home encouraging her.

“Everyone was really good to me. I got a lot of help at the hospital,” observes Arend. “It helped to have mom at home all the time. She really helped in keeping me thinking positive. I kept looking forward to going back to school.

“A lot of people have told us that they appreciate that we’re doing this,” says Arend. “I think it’s a good idea but I also think it’s weird. I never thought that we would be paying back Shriner’s Hospital because of a crop circle in one of our wheat fields.”

“‘Significant Change’ Seen in Wheat at Circle Site”

By Jim Langham, Staff Writer — The Crescent-News, July 1996

PAULDING — Even as a production crew from FOX Network’s television program, “Sightings,” was filming an upcoming broadcast at the Paulding crop circle Friday, a biophysicist indicated that lab results showed a “significant change” in wheat samples taken at the site.

Dr. William C. Levengood, a biophysicist from Grass Lake, Mich., associated with BLT Research Team, Cambridge, Mass., said that wheat taken from inside the circle had swollen nodes and significantly enlarged cell wall pit diameters in bract tissue.

Levengood said that nodal enlargement in the wheat from the Don Arend farm was about 20 percent, but such factors as age of the crop, weather conditions and moisture content all effect the amount of enlargement that takes place.

Nancy Talbot, field research director with BTL, noted that swelling tends to be larger in younger plants because they contain more moisture.

“Twenty percent swelling in mature wheat could be as significant as 60 percent in a younger crop,” said Talbot. “The important thing is that there are changes here, minimal, but statistically significant.”

“What he (Levengood) is saying here is that this is the ‘real McCoy,’ based on lab results,” stressed Talbot. “This is not something that was made by people. People don’t make changes like this.”

Both Levengood and Talbot were present at the circle on Friday to present their findings, based on plant analysis.

“Soil analysis hasn’t been completed yet, but it very possibly could add some very interesting information,” said Talbot.

Last week John Timmerman of the Center for UFO studies, Chicago, and Jim Beurlein, an Ohio State University agronomist, visited the circle. Based on their observations, Timmerman said that the formation could be man-made. Beurlein said that he could tell that it was manmade.

“If I hadn’t looked at a crop formation before, and this was the first time I saw it, I would have agreed with Beurlein,” observed Levengood. “But when taken into a lab and measured by many different things, there are differences in the crop. This one is marginal but the differences are significant.”

BTL Research Team has looked at thousands of individual samples from crop circles worldwide including England, Israel and the United States. But the genuineness of a crop circle does not necessarily imply the presence of UFO’s, stressed Talbot.

“Most crop circles are not associated with UFO sightings,” she emphasized. “The ones that are, however, seem to be more prevalent in the midwestern United States.”

Talbot said that the research team is studying the possible connection of ozone depletion, certain pollution buildup, magnetic potential in the soil and meteor explosions in connection with the formations.

Last weekend, another formation, more elaborate than Paulding County’s, appeared in a wheat field just outside of Columbia City, Ind. A research team led by Jeffrey Wilson, an instructor in the astronomy department at Eastern Michigan University, determined that there was a radiation anomaly present in that circle similar to the one in Paulding County.

Roger Sugden, Field Investigator for Mutual UFO Network, Inc., (Mufon) has investigated both sites and has noted some interesting similarities between the two.

“Both have an angled swirl in the northwest section and they both have radiation readings triple what the readings are outside the circle,” said Sugden. “In both situations the lay of the wheat is a little puffier in the southwest section of the circle. Both had some standing wheat in the eastern portion of the circle.”

Even though Sugden recognized the significance of the similarities, he refused to make any correlation between the two sites without the presence of crop and soil testing.

Don Arend, who farms the land on which the Paulding circle is located, responded to Friday’s lab results with a sense of relief.

“We’re just glad they (BTL Research Team) were willing to take the time to do an analysis to see if there was something that occurred there,” said Arend. “We felt that the conclusions reached by Beurlein and Timmerman were a little hasty.

“It wasn’t what they (Timmerman and Beurlein) concluded that bothered us,” added Arend. “It’s just that they didn’t have the lab testing to back it up at that time. Dr. Levengood and Nancy Talbot spent a lot of time, at their own expense, studying this. They didn’t charge one penny in any of this. As it turned out, something apparently did occur here.”

“Teen Receives Some Reassurance”

By Jim Langham, Staff Writer — The Crescent-News, July 1996

Subhead: “Girl who reportedly saw UFO visits circle.”

PAULDING — It was a unique merging, a girl who had reportedly seen an unidentified flying object in Indiana, standing by a crop circle in Paulding County.

Dawn Sprunger, 19, Berne, Ind., reported last Saturday morning that a UFO had hovered over her car as she traveled a seven-mile-stretch of highway west of Berne. Local law enforcement officials, including Berne Mayor Blaine Fulton, also observed the phenomenon, which Fulton captured briefly on a camcorder.

Berne police chief Merlin Bixler, along with three others officers, headed east out of town and verified the object.

Sprunger said that the object eventually drifted to the east and northeast and finally disappeared. Berne is located in Adams County, approximately 40 miles southwest of Paulding.

At the time, Sprunger hadn’t heard of the crop circle discovered in a Paulding County field later on July 4, but once she did, she knew she wanted to visit it.

Tuesday afternoon, Sprunger and a cousin, Shane Dailey, walked up the field path off of Paulding County Road 126 to observe the formation.

“I was overwhelmed by what I saw,” said Sprunger, describing her first impression of the circle. “It was unreal to think that the same thing that I had seen might have something to do with that crop circle.”

Sprunger’s description of what she had seen was that of a triangular-shaped object, in vertical position, with red and blue lights blinking. When she realized that it seemed to be hovering over her car, she became frightened and telephoned local law enforcement officials.

The Indiana woman’s report came on the wings of UFO sightings in the Middletown and Carlisle areas in southwest Ohio on July 4 and 5. Tri-State Advocates for Scientific Knowledge, based in the Cincinnati suburb of Norwood, had said that it received numerous reports of sightings.

“It (visiting the crop circle) reassured me that I wasn’t crazy,” said Sprunger. “I didn’t feel that it was something that was man-made. I sensed within myself that it was something that was related to what I had seen.”

On Wednesday, Sprunger was back on the scene again with a close friend. This time as she approached the site, she was more relaxed.

“I didn’t feel nearly as nervous as I had earlier,” she said. “I told my friend all about it and she wanted to see it. She was in complete awe about the whole thing.”

One of the things that Sprunger found interesting were the remarks of individuals at the circle. One person was certain that it was a hoax.

“I wanted so bad to tell him what I thought, but I decided to keep quiet because I knew that he wouldn’t understand,” said Sprunger. “People need to give these things a chance. It really bugs me when people judge the situation when they don’t even have any facts or know how it feels.”

One conversation that particularly grabbed Sprunger’s attention was that of a couple discussing how they had heard on television that “some girl from Berne” had seen a UFO.

“I wanted to tell them so bad that I was the one who had seen it, but I didn’t know how they would react,” said Sprunger. “It was strange because they were all wondering, but I knew. It was so neat to know that, but nobody knew who I was.

“I feel so privileged. The thing I really like about it is the way that it’s all bringing people together who wouldn’t have met otherwise,” she said.

This was the last article in the series — nine in all, spanning from the circle’s discovery on the Fourth of July through the following weeks of investigation, tourism, and fundraising it set off.

A small, quirky moment of county history, but a genuine one — it’s the kind of local-news episode that rarely survives outside personal scrapbooks and clippings like these.