History of Crop Circle Appearances
While flattened areas in crops have been reported for centuries, with the earliest often-cited account being the 1678 pamphlet describing a "mowing devil" in Hertfordshire, England, the modern crop circle phenomenon began in the late 1970s in the fields of southern England. Simple circles appeared in cereal crops near Warminster and Winchester, gradually increasing in complexity through the 1980s.
By the early 1990s, formations had evolved from basic circles into elaborate pictograms incorporating geometric patterns, fractals, and mathematical relationships. The area around Wiltshire, particularly near ancient sites such as Stonehenge and Avebury, became a global hotspot, with hundreds of formations appearing each summer growing season, attracting researchers, tourists, and media attention from around the world.
The Doug and Dave Confession
In September 1991, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley came forward to the British newspaper Today, claiming they had been creating crop circles since 1978 using simple tools including planks of wood, rope, and a wire sighting device attached to a baseball cap. They demonstrated their technique for journalists and successfully reproduced formations that had previously been declared unexplainable by crop circle researchers.
Their confession did not end the phenomenon, however. Other circle-making groups, including Team Satan and the Circlemakers collective led by John Lundberg, subsequently emerged, openly creating elaborate formations as a form of land art. Despite these admissions, some researchers continued to argue that certain formations displayed characteristics, such as node elongation in plant stems and the absence of mechanical damage, that they believed could not be produced by simple mechanical flattening.
Unexplained Features of Some Formations
Biophysicist William Levengood published research in the 1990s claiming that crop samples from inside certain formations showed anomalous changes, including elongated stem nodes, expulsion cavities where internal moisture had apparently been rapidly heated, and alterations to seed germination rates. His work was published in the journal Physiologia Plantarum, lending it a degree of scientific credibility.
Critics, including physicist Joe Nickell, have noted that many of these effects can be explained by natural processes such as phototropism, in which flattened plants bend toward sunlight, causing node elongation over time. The absence of controlled studies comparing formations of known human origin with allegedly genuine ones has made it difficult to draw firm conclusions about whether any crop circles exhibit truly anomalous physical characteristics.
Crop Circles in Popular Culture
Crop circles have become a significant element of popular culture, featured prominently in films such as M. Night Shyamalan's 2002 movie Signs, starring Mel Gibson, and numerous television documentaries. They have also influenced music, visual art, and advertising, becoming a widely recognized symbol associated with extraterrestrial visitation in the public imagination.
The phenomenon has generated a dedicated subculture of researchers who call themselves cereologists, annual tourism to formation sites in England, and a complex relationship between artists who create circles and believers who study them. Regardless of their origin, crop circles represent a fascinating intersection of art, science, folklore, and the human desire to find meaning in mysterious patterns appearing in the landscape.
The Famous Formations
A few formations define the genre. The Julia Set of July 7, 1996, a 151-circle fractal spiral that appeared in a field opposite Stonehenge, reportedly within a window of under an hour by day, is the case circle enthusiasts cite most. The Milk Hill formation of August 2001, 409 circles in a six-armed spiral some 800 feet across, is the largest. That same month a formation beside the Chilbolton radio telescope in Hampshire mimicked the 1974 Arecibo message with a "reply," and in August 2002 the Crabwood formation near Winchester showed an alien face beside a disc encoding a text message in binary.
Each has a human explanation on offer: the Chilbolton and Crabwood designs were rendered as pixel grids exactly as a team with a plan and a plank would make them, and the Julia Set has been claimed by circle-making teams. What none of them has is proof of a maker, which is the space the mystery lives in.
Frequently asked questions
Who makes crop circles?
People. Doug Bower and Dave Chorley admitted in 1991 to making around 200 formations in southern England with planks and rope since 1978, and organized teams such as the Circlemakers have produced elaborate commissioned designs since. No formation has ever been shown to have a non-human origin.
When did crop circles start?
Modern crop circles appeared in southern England in the late 1970s and grew in number and complexity through the 1980s and 1990s. A 1678 pamphlet, "The Mowing-Devil," is often cited as a precedent, and the 1966 Tully "saucer nest" in Australia is an early flattened-reed case.
Are any crop circles unexplained?
Some formations have no identified maker, which is not the same as being unexplainable: makers work at night and rarely claim their work. Claims of anomalous node changes in the stalks, made by the BLT research team, have not been reproduced by independent labs.
Where and when do crop circles appear?
Mostly in Wiltshire and Hampshire, England, near sites such as Avebury and Silbury Hill, between late May and August when the wheat and barley are tall enough to hold a pattern. Sites publish locations within days, and farmers increasingly charge for access.