Signs - A Story of Crop Circles

Crop circles in Great Britain, where the majority of the world’s circles are found, usually appear in grain fields of canola (called "oil seed rape" in the UK), wheat and barley. It is important to note that in the UK, fields growing "cereal crops" are collectively called "cornfields," although those fields are NOT growing corn (maize).

However, circles appear in other types of crop fields as well. In 1997, a rather nondescript pictogram was detected in a Dutch carrot field. It contained some interesting evidence, reported by Dr. Eltjo Haselhoff in The Deepening Complexity of Crop Circles:

The field had been ploughed into long ridges, about twenty centimeters high, with the carrot plants growing on top. When I stepped on them, they immediately showed the traces of my own footprints, which were at least five centimeters deep, and crushed the carrot leaves into the ground.

Were other footprints visible inside the circle formation?

However, inside the formation, there were no footprints anywhere, and the carrot plants seemed completely untouched, although they lay withered against the ground, almost as if they had been cooked. It was quite a contrast compared with the surrounding plants, which were of a fresh green color, standing firmly upright.

Dr. Haselhoff was convinced the carrot-field phenomenon was not man-made:

It was clear that no one had set foot inside this crop formation, simply because of the lack of footprints. What was found, however, were various burn marks on the plants. In several places, the far ends of the carrot leaves were burned to ashes, and sometimes the entire leaf had been burned away.

It wasn’t just evidence of burning that intrigued Haselhoff:

Closer inspection of the stem revealed that it had been bent, while its convex side only was covered with many tiny little dents, which seemed to be dehydrated. I checked many other plants throughout the field outside the formation, but none had similar marks on them...It almost seemed as if the stem had been hit at one side by a shower of sparks, which had made it bend in the opposite direction. (Haselhoff, pages 10-11.)

The reason for this striking evidence? Neither Haselhoff nor others ever really figured it out.