The first known ‘crop circle investigator’ was Robert Plot, Professor of Chemistry at Oxford University in late 1600’s. In 1680, Plot visited farms in southern England to examine this phenomenon first-hand.
Robert Plot, in his words, ‘excavated’ over 50 crop circle sites, and noted farmers’ stories about other crop circle reports. Plot noted simple circles, circles with squares, circle rings, and spirals. Plot noted that animals tended to stay away from crop ‘figures.’ Plot did his own historical research, uncovering additional historical reports. Plot published his first work mentioning crop circles in 1686 in the book The Natural History of Stafford-Shire. Plot hypothesized that crop circles were formed by hollow thunderbolts - - or else it was elves, dancing witches, deer, or mosses. Plot did the first ‘crop circle’ soil sample testing -- he compared dirt from the center of circles with dirt from the inside edge of the circles, and with dirt from outside the circles; where he noted soil dehydration in the circles, and occasionally finding white, sulfurous residues. Plot noted that crop yields, in the areas within the crop circle boundaries in successive years, increased by up to 30%. Many of these same findings are still being found in crop circle formations today.