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Welcome

This site exists to document as carefully as possible, evidence of crop circles from before 1978.
The case studies included here are but a selection from the hundreds now on record prior to that date.
We want to hear from anyone who knows of old crop circles not included here.
Please get in touch if you can help, using the contact form at the bottom of this page.

About this site

This website was designed and built by Terry Wilson, author of The Secret History of Crop Circles. Although the book detailed literally hundreds of old crop circle cases, hoax-claimants still deny the phenomenon existed before 1978.

This site is intended to redress this by making available some of the evidence of an old phenomenon. We have only included here a sprinkling of cases, but they cover the most noteworthy examples of circles prior to 1978. (Buy the book for more!)

Why is 1978 relevant?

Doug and Dave made sweeping claims in 1991 that they had invented the phenomenon in 1978. This is clearly untrue, as this site proves, but has become widely accepted even by those purporting to represent scientific or rational analyses of the subject. We have a sister site just focusing on Doug & Dave, which dissects their version of events and proves it to be false. (Click here)

What evidence is there?

Evidence of crop circles prior to 1978 comes mainly though eye-witness accounts from those who saw them first-hand. Some of these are supported by precise details about the anatomy of the circles, others by diagrams, location maps and similar. In some cases, we also have photographic evidence.

Quality of evidence

Some of the formations have only general information, and some cases are therefore stronger than others. A few have truly excellent documentation, consisting of notes, locations and photographs which show beyond doubt that markings we recognise as crop circles existed. Moreover, accounts of several were published in their day – long before the crop circle phenomenon was widely known.

A case in point is the Charlton event from 1963 (see the UK page). Well-known astronomer Patrick Moore saw these circles and wrote a detailed report describing them as, “Circular or elliptical areas in which the wheat had been flattened. There was evidence of 'spiral flattening', and in one case there was a circular area in the centre in which the wheat had not been flattened." This was published at the time, in the respected journal New Scientist.
There are other cases which are just as robust. The accounts listed under Related cases for example, include documentation of a circle in grass in the USA in 1952. This was described in classified US government papers which, thanks to a Freedom of Information request are now in the public domain. They exactly describe the circle, “the grass was pressed down forming a circle of sixty-foot diameter impression with the grass in a recognisable concentric pattern… the vegetation was laid down in concentric circles.” This account, written in 1952, was not from the popular press or from a UFO fanzine; it was documented first-hand, by US government personnel on official investigations.

There are several others with impressive details too. Many of the 1970s formations in Australia and Canada have been photographed. There is also a whole magazine article available on the Canadian cases, published in 1979. (The notion that Doug & Dave invented the phenomenon in Hampshire in 1978 is thereby exposed.) We have contemporary press cuttings on a number of early cases, and have learned of several accounts tucked away in books on unrelated matters (for example a circle in Cumbria in 1968, mentioned by its author during reminisces about nature rambles).

Taken as a whole, this body of evidence is beyond reasonable dispute; crop circles have been appearing for as long as anyone can remember.

About the photographic evidence

It is true that there are no perfect aerial photographs showing circles before 1978. We believe this is logically accounted for by the fact that crop circles were not widely reported, there was no research community to receive reports and keep records, little media interest and no real context in which they could be interpreted.

What we do have is a growing body of photographs, of varying quality, taken from the ground. These sometimes show classic crop circle floor details, frequently demonstrating a swirling effect and sharp edges to the flattened regions.

The photographs are not as impressive as those of the modern era, but we would not expect them to be. No-one was flying over formations to record them, and in cases where they may have been photographed from the air (for example the case from Tangmere in 1943) the images were never published and their whereabouts today is not known.
Under the circumstances, we believe the body of evidence presented is remarkably strong. Please contact us if you can add anything to the records detailed on this site, using the form below.

Terry Wilson
historic old crop circles



The Secret History of Crop Circles
available now in book form, and also available as an e-edition for Kindle

Terry Wilson's ground-breaking book about the hidden history of the crop circle phenomenon is now available again, updated and expanded to cover more than 300 historical cases of crop circles prior to the 1980s. This brand-new e-edition contains a wealth of fascinating information, images and discussion on the early history of the subject, and is ready to buy right now, for your Kindle:


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