by
Michel M. Deschamps

In November 1990, I was at my workplace when I heard on the radio that there was going to be a show on crop circles, that same afternoon. I went home for lunch and came back with my cassette recorder because I wanted to record the program, which I did.

While listening to the show, I heard the hostess say that crop circles have been discovered near Sudbury. I soon got in touch with her and she gave me the name of someone who had apparently taken photographs of the circles. I called the person and we arranged to meet at his apartment so that I could view the photographs.

When I got there, I was shown two strips of negatives consisting of four exposures: two were individual shots of each circle and the other two were showing both formations together, with people and a pickup truck in the background.

I couldn't really see any details, but when I had prints made from the negatives, I noticed that the circles had been formed on gravel and limestone. I found this peculiar because crop circles are usually created in crop fields and not on hard surfaces like rock and gravel!

At that moment, I knew that we weren't dealing with the crop circle phenomena, although it had been reported as such.

I was told that the photos had been taken on Manitoulin Island, in mid-September 1990. I asked the photographer if I could borrow the negatives and he told me I could have them.

Seven months went by before I had the chance to go to the Island. In June 1991, when I finally went there, I headed for the small town of Spring Bay, and found the site approximately ¼ mile west of town.

The circles were located about ¼ mile from the main road, in an area consisting of gravel and limestone that is completely surrounded by trees.

There were two indentations, each measuring nine feet in diameter and both were 16 feet apart, from centre to centre.

I interviewed the property owner and his best friend, who had been the first ones to discover the circles. They told me that the people who took the first photographs described the circles as having a sand-blasted effect on the spot where the gravel was blown away, revealing the limestone underneath. This explains why the circles' outlines are irregular and not perfectly round.

As I took a closer look at each doughnut-shaped indentation, I noticed that the gravel and sand in the centre and on the perimeter had hardened because unlike the surface, which could easily be swept with a broom, I had to use a scraper to remove some of the gravel. I left it intact but that's how hard it was, as it had been fused together.

I used a compass to see if there were any magnetic anomalies but nothing happened. There was no evidence of burns or scorching. Except for tiny little scratches, the surface of the rock was absolutely smooth.

Since June 1991, I've gone back to the site on three separate occasions to see if the circles would still be there and I've had to use the photos as reference to locate them because a layer of gravel was covering them. With the use of a brush, I swept away the loose gravel from the hard surface to uncover the indentations. They hadn't changed a bit since September 1990!

It is my personal opinion that if this were a hoax, it would probably have been made in a field to resemble the crop circles found in England.

Because of the prevalent news reports of crop circles on television and in the newspapers at that time, the hoaxers would have tried to do the same, not knowing at all what a physical landing trace would look like if it were done on solid rock and gravel.

The simple fact that the site itself is hidden from view and away from the main road also supports my conclusion that this is no hoax. True cause? Unknown!

As of this writing, the 80-year-old property owner has since passed away and his best friend, who is in his early 80s, has been put in a nursing home. The gate to the property has been locked up and there is no way for me to see if the circles are still there today.