SEATTLE (AP) — Mysterious crop circles have appeared in an eastern Washington wheat field — not far from the nation’s largest hydropower producer — but area farmers preparing for the summer’s harvest find the distraction more amusing than alarming.
“You can’t do anything other than laugh about it,” said Cindy Geib, who owns the field along with her husband, Greg. “You just kind of roll with the theory it’s aliens and you’re special because aliens chose your spot.”
Friends called the Geibs on July 24 when the pattern of flattened wheat was spotted off Highway 174, about five miles north of the town of Wilbur. The field is about 10 miles south of the Grand Coulee dam, which the Bureau of Reclamation says is the largest hydropower producer in the United States.
The circles resemble a four-leaf clover and remind Cindy Geib of Mickey Mouse ears. The design knocked down about an acre of their wheat. Some of it could be salvaged by combines when the harvest starts in a week or two, she said, but some will be lost.
“Of course, we don’t have alien insurance,” she said.