The bat symbol on the field

The owners of Dalponte Farms have carved Bacardi bat-shaped crop circles on six acres of their mint fields in Buena Vista. Bacardi, which buys mint for its signature Mojito drink from the Dalponte family, paid for the work, which took more than 300 man-hours.

Laura Baddish, a New York-based advertising executive representing Bacardi, was looking for a new way to draw attention to Richland's mojito roots this year.

"So we had bat—shaped crop circles made at the Dalponte farm," she said.

The bat has been Bacardi's logo since the company, now based in Miami, began operations in Cuba in 1862.

"It symbolizes prosperity and good luck,— Baddish explained.

Crop circles are not the work of aliens, although visitors were called in to create a 180—foot-wide circle in which a 1.5-acre bat is carved on the 300-acre Dalponte family farm.

It took Harrison Jenkins, an environmental design artist from Bloomfield, Connecticut, and two assistants three days to design it.

"It's amazing how they did it," said Dennis "Danny" Dalponte Jr., 31, a fourth—generation member of a mint-growing family. "They had lawn mowers, weed removal machines, wooden stakes and ropes as tools. First, they used mowers to cut down some mint plants about 3 feet high to root level so they could make a circle, and then the wings, ears, eyes, nose and body of the bat. Everything was perfectly round and linear."

Dalponte said Bacardi paid the family an undisclosed amount to use a 6-acre plot of land on the outskirts of the property. According to him, crop circles should remain visible from the plane for at least a month before the vegetation grows back.

Dalponte said the crop circles are the first of their kind carved into a mint field, and Bacardi plans to receive a Guinness Book of World Records certificate as the largest mint crop circles in existence.

"Last year, 207 crop circles appeared in this country, and 195 of them just suddenly appeared without any explanation," said Dalponte. "However, I can't say that I saw some drunken aliens with a couple of mojitos under their belts working on our crop circles. We were helped by an Earth alien — an alien, because he came from another state."