Mysterious crop circles appear in Washington wheat field 

SIGNS:  Is this a joke or are we being visited? I love that the farmer finds it amusing.

Crop circles in a wheat field owned by Greg and Cindy Geib near Wilbur, Wash., on July 30.

By NBC News staff

A set of crop circles appeared in an eastern Washington wheat field last week, much to the amusement of the field’s owners.

The crop circles were first spotted July 24, when friends of the Geibs noticed the flattened wheat about five miles north of the town of Wilbur, Wash. The field is 10 miles south of the Grand Coulee dam, which the Bureau of Reclamation says is the largest hydropower producer in the U.S.“You can’t do anything other than laugh about it,” Cindy Geib, who owns the field along with her husband, Greg,told the Associated Press. “You just kind of roll with the theory it’s aliens and you’re special because aliens chose your spot.”

Greg, a fifth-generation wheat farmer, is set to begin harvest next week, and he said some of the crop will be lost, but there hasn’t been much harm done. Rather, it’s more of an inconvenience when he comes to that particular section of wheat.The circles resemble a four-leaf clover. Cindy said they remind her of Mickey Mouse ears. The design knocked down about an acre of their wheat.

“You just kind of brush it off, you don’t think too much about it,” Greg told NBC affiliate KHQ in Spokane, Wash. “There’s not really a whole lot that can be done about it.”

These aren’t the first crop circles that have appeared in Lincoln County. Every year or so, a new set has appeared in one of the wheat fields, KHQ reported.

Lynne Brougher, a public affairs officer for the Grand Coulee dam, hadn’t heard about the latest crop circles but said the previous one was no cause for alarm.

“It seemed to be highly unusual,” Brougher told the Associated Press. “As I recall from a couple of years ago, there was no good explanation of how they got there.”

Cindy said those responsible for the crop circles near her home remain a mystery.

“We’re trying to figure out how they got there without breaking any of the wheat," she said. "It’s hard to walk through the crunchy wheat and not knock it down. They had to be fairly young in my estimation because it’s a long ways out, and they had to pack a lot of stuff out there to smash it down.”

Both Cindy and Greg said their family is choosing to remain lighthearted about the crop circles and all of the attention they're bringing.

“I think it would be kind of cool if it really were aliens,” Cindy said. “I think it’d be pretty cool.”

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