The Great UFO Wave:
October, 1973

Two Physical Trace Cases In Northwest Ohio Unexplained

CUFOS Associate Newsletter, June-July, 1985
John P. Timmerman, Editor (pages 4-5)

Roy Hiltner finished plowing a field near his home in northwestern Putnam County, Ohio, late in November of 1973 and his son Dave began preparing the ground for soybeans the following April the 29th. This story, written by Jerry Rohrs for the FARMLAND NEWS of Archbold, Ohio, in July 1974 describes what was found.

Between November and April, Roy reports that neither he nor any members of his family were in that field. But from all indications, someone (or something) was indeed in that field during the winter or early spring and left behind a mysterious imprint that puzzled many experts and which remains unexplained. Many people believe it was caused by an unidentified flying object, which indeed it was, but the mystery remains regarding the identity of the object.

"It's a cock-eyed looking thing," said Roy Hiltner, "and I don't have any idea what caused it."

The imprint consists of a central area eight feet in diameter and approximately 12 inches deep, with seven grooves radiating from it. The grooves are each four feet long and the soil between them is heaved up nearly 12 inches.

In the very center of the depression are two holes, each 12 inches in diameter and approximately 12 inches apart. "When we found it, the dirt on top was sort of glazed over," Roy reported, "but that's been weathered away by now." There is no visible evidence of the event now, after eleven years of farming the land.

During the months following the discovery of the imprint, numerous local, state and federal officials visited the farm, taking photographs and soil samples. One such agency, the Putnam County Engineer's Office, was called in to check the area for the presence of a drainage system that might have broken down and left the depression.

Bob Knepper, who visited the site with County Engineer Duane Kohli and Russell Sharrits, reported that they were unable to locate any tile after extensive probing. But they did make an interesting discovery.

"When we used the probe to check the two holes in the center of the depression, it dropped gently through the soil the entire length of the probe," Knepper said. "But when we checked the other parts of the depression, it took two of us to even get the probe in the ground!"

"It had to be a weight of some kind that caused it, and from there I quess it's anybody's guess," he added. "We don't know what it was, but it had nothing to do with drainage."

Other possible explanations for the imprint were offered, such as a tornado, lightning or meteorite, but all have been pretty well discounted.

Walter Andrus, director of the Mutual UFO Network headquartered in Sequin, Texas, reported that the depression was probably not caused by a meteorite.

"While a meteorite could leave a crater, it does not seem probable that it would create the two central holes or the seven grooves," he reported. "It should seem to be most unlikely that such a complex pattern could be caused by a meteorite."

Sheriff Robert Beutler reported that tests for radioactivity were performed on the site soon after its discovery. But, instead of a high reading, a reading of zero was made and investigators had to move nearly 30 feet away from the depression to get as much as a normal reading.

The site is also located within ten miles of five microwave towers and a television transmitting tower and four of the towers can be seen from the site. This had led to considerable speculation about what caused the physical trace.

Now let's move ahead in time from 1974 to March 11, 1983. That's the date on which Richard Mull found a big hole in his bean stubble field west of Wauseon in northwest Ohio, about 35 miles north and 10 miles east of Roy Hiltner's farm. Again, FARMLAND NEWS of Archbold, Ohio reports the event, written this time by Cathie Shaffer, to whom we are indebted for both cases.

Richard Mull was not sure exactly how long the hole had been there. He first noticed it on the morning of Friday, March 11, 1983, when he was driving past the field as he does several times each day.

He noticed that about 40 rods from the road, the dirt was all humped up. He wondered if ground hogs had been at work, but discounted that because the ground was too hard in that field. So he parked his truck and walked back to investigate.

As he got closer, he realized just why the dirt was mounded. It was the outer ring of a foot-deep crater. This was a star-shaped design having nearly equal distance from the center to the tip of each point. In the center of this pattern was a depression, approximately 8 feet in diameter and 8 inches deep. Directly in the center of this depression was a small hole 2 inches in diameter, going straight down to depth of 6 feet. He said there was no evidence of any compaction to cause this. Rather, the soil seemed to have been lifted from below.

The accompanying photograph, taken by Robert Barnes, Chief of Wauseon's fire department in cooperation with Fulton County Sheriffs Deputy Melvin Stickley, does not clearly show the formation of the "star-shaped" design which featured 6 long points and 4 shorter points. The long points, nearly equal in length, were approximately 19 feet from the center to the extreme tip of each point. The shorter points, also equal, were perhaps one-half the length of the longer grooves.

Dr. Lawrence Anderson, Associate Professor of Astronomy at the University of Toledo, not far from Wauseon, scanned the area with a metal detector. He traveled to the site expecting to find evidence of a meteor strike or a lightning strike. He found neither and concluded that neither a meteor nor lightning was the cause of the phenomenon.

Mr. James Spieles, science teacher at the Wauseon High School, tested the area with a geiger counter and found nothing unusual in the readings. A gas check was made by Joe Roth, Supervisor for the Ohio Gas Company office in Wauseon, with negative results. There are several natural gas wells in the area (most of them now abandoned) and an area gas pipeline within 600 feet of the site. The pressure of a nearby active gas well dropped to near zero P.S.I. at the time of this occurrence, then returned to normal within a couple of days.

Soil samples were taken and no significant differences were noted from samples taken from other parts of the same field.

Richard Mull reports "I do not recall the exact day of discovery. However, approximately one week prior to that time I spread fertilizer on the entire field in preparation for spring planting. There was a thunder storm a day or two before producing much lightning with very little rain, and the storm was not severe.

Mull continues: "Two neighbor children, ages 4 and 5 at the time, claim to have seen a bright flash of light in that area just prior to the discovery. They reportedly were frightened by it. I do not know if this was at the time of the storm and never really considered them to be valid witnesses of this event."

Thus we have two more strange markings without objects having been seen. Until more high-quality sighting reports associated with physical traces are reported, these intriguing reports help keep our curiosity well-occupied.