An ‘unexplained phenomenon’ left a family scratching their heads after they allegedly spotted a UFO that seemingly caused a white ring formation in the mud of their farm.
The incident took place in the small town of Delphos, Kansas, on 2 November 1971, though it's been revisited by the History Channel’s show The Proof is Out There, which took a deep dive into the story in one of its episodes.
Ron Johnson, 16, was on his family’s farm when he said he saw a bright mushroom shaped aircraft hovering nearby. He then ran inside to tell his parents who came out on to the farm only to see the craft take off into the sky.
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The family then examined the ground where the UFO had been and found an 8-foot wide white ring with a white-colored crust. The family also alleged that the crust appeared to be glowing and when Johnson’s mother touched the white ring, her fingers went numb.
The sheriff at the time, Harlan Enlow, retold the story on the show and said: “It was an eye-opening surprise. Here is this white dry ring, it looks like a big donut sitting in the middle of a mud field,”
“We took statements, we photographed it and we took actual soil samples. I am 100 percent convinced that an incident happened and what the family told us was credible.”
The Proof Is Out There’s own team of analysts took another look at the soil samples from the incident and were able to confirm that some of the chemicals found were hydrophobic in nature, meaning it is water repellent.
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Physicist Matthew SzyDagis also confirmed to the show, despite the time that has passed, the soil is still displaying glowing properties.
While some have been convinced this incident is a clear indication of alien intervention in America, some experts have offered alternative theories.
NASA geologist Dr. Bob Anderson suggested the incident could be a natural phenomenon and explained the reasons for the surprising soil properties.
“I realize that this area is pretty conducive to this kind of thing. I don’t believe it has anything to do with the UFO, I think it is a natural phenomenon of ground water interaction in biology,” Anderson said on the episode.
He concluded the white ring could form due to a mix of an unknown organism and water found in the soil. He also went on to explain the mother’s injury after touching the white crust.
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“The mother got her hand burnt a little bit by touching the ring. That usually happens if you have an acid. It wouldn’t surprise me if something got into the ground water,” Anderson added.
“My gut feeling is that there was something buried in that area that was a man-made chemical which would not show up on those 1970s soil surveys.”
While weighing up both the possibility of UFOs scorching the earth as well as the natural phenomena theory, the show concluded that the incident is simply an unexplained phenomenon.
The show added that the family on the farm buried the ring in order to detract trespassers from doing their own investigations.
Topics: UFO, US News, Conspiracy Theories