If seeing is believing, then you can’t dispute that something has happened in the soybean field of Mark Harper of Oakville.

Imagine driving by your crops one day and seeing a lush spread of healthy green soybeans growing up from the earth, in which you planted, and then just a few days later driving by that same field, only this time noticing that a large circle of your beans is missing, like it was punched out by a giant cookie cutter... or something else... unexplained.

“I’m telling you, I’ve farmed all my life and I have never seen anything like this. I don’t know how it happened,” said a stumped Harper, who most know as “the Diesel Doctor.”

Now technically, this can be described as a crop circle, rather you believe in this sort of thing or not.

The field is located on Oakville Lane off of Hwy. 431 south around a bend on the left. The area that has disappeared is approximately 20-feet in circumference and is about 50 feet from the roadway. It can be seen from the road, but in order to get the full effect of the circle you must be standing close to it. A better view would be from the air in a helicopter or airplane.

A crop circle is a sizable pattern created by the flattening of a crop. Crop circles are also referred to as crop formations, because they are not always circular in shape. While the exact date crop circles began to appear is unknown, the documented cases have substantially increased from the 1970s to current times. Twenty-six countries ended up reporting approximately ten-thousand crop circles.

The beans in the circle in Harper’s field are not bent over or mashed down, but gone altogether. It’s like one day they were there, and the next they were gone.

“I don’t know what to think about it, or what could of happened to them, I just know they are not there now,” said Harper, who does plan to plant them back.

One of Harper’s neighbors suggested that maybe lightning struck in that area causing the beans to disintegrate; however, there is not sign of burn marks and Harper feels if it were lightning it would have formed a streak in the crops not a perfectly round circle.

Harper also said he knows it can’t be flooding because he has been watching the beans a great deal, and although there is some flooding in that area, the beans have been flourishing and have kept up with the size of the others in the field.

“I wish someone could explain it,” said Harper who isn’t saying it was aliens but admits he isn't sure what caused it.

Some of the theories behind the origin of these remaining crop circles include:

Aliens

A popular theory is that crop circles are made by alien visitors. Sometimes the circle is thought to be caused by the alien ship landing. Some of the more complicated crop circle formations could, it has been suggested, be aliens trying to communicate with us.

Weapons

A technological explanation proposed for the circle phenomenon is that it is the side effect of some weapon being tested. One suggestion is that it could be some form of satellite mounted weapon, possibly a microwave beam. Such ideas lead naturally into the realms of conspiracy theory

Natural Phenomena

Some form of rare natural occurrence could possibly be the cause of some circles. One suggestion is that the flattened fields could be the result of ball lightning.

Hoax

There are many possible explanations for crop circles. Many are, without doubt, man-made hoaxes. A number of people have come forward over the years and "confessed" to making circles. Often their methods for doing so without disturbing the surrounding crops are highly ingenious.