Award Winning Crop Circles

The small town of Wilbur which is so small there are no traffic lights has claim to a large number of visitors because of numerous crop circles appearing in the area.Most recenyly at the Haden farm

A Chamber of Commerce Award in Wilbur Oklahoma reads"

"Thanks to the Aliens who made Wilbur their Vacation Destination!" award of appreciation.

"Wilbur, a no-stoplight wheat town (population 960) 65 miles west of Spokane, is on the way to becoming the Northwest's hub for the extraterrestrial-obsessed. For the second time in three years, crop circles have mysteriously appeared in wheat fields, generating curiosity, jokes and coffee-shop debates of the "Big Question."

The most recent appeared in late July on a remote hillside of the Haden family wheat farm just south of Wilbur. Five rings of declining size, plus one circle, were crushed into ripe wheat. "This is the one where they put the spaceship landing pad down," said Keith Haden, pointing to the circle, and struggling to keep a straight face.

His friendly skepticism is the prevailing local mood. Depending on your belief in the supernatural, crop circles are either a mysterious sign of extraterrestrial contact or a clever hoax that has risen in popularity since the mid-1970s. Southern England has been ground zero, but at least three formations have been reported in Eastern Washington farmland since 1993.

Before Haden's formation, the most recent and celebrated was an elaborate set of nine circles found in June 2007, amid 120 acres of green wheat northwest of Wilbur. That sighting was widely reported, and the Llewellyn farm was soon inundated with out-of-state tourists in saris and tinfoil-covered helmets, scientific researchers from the University of Washington and — in at least one case — a group of naked dancers. Billy Burger, a local institution, put an Alien Burger and Invasion Fries on the menu.

"I thought the less you said, the more it would go away," said Jim Llewellyn, owner of the farm. "But the next thing, there were planes flying overhead and people all over the place. It spread like wildfire."...



Craig Haden, owner of the land where the most recent crop circle was found, hoped to avoid such a scene. After seeing the circles while inspecting his land on a motorcycle, he told his son, Braidy. They found no sign of tracks through the ripe wheat or footprints between the rows.

"It makes you think," said Braidy Haden, a 23-year-old wearing striped overalls and sporting a soul patch...."

Full article:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009651729_cropcircle13m.html