Steve Quayle News Alerts

August 10, 2002
Terry Collins

David Olson is still laughing, nearly 23 years later.

At a family reunion, Olson's nephew, Curtis, and his friends were wondering what would happen if they came across a UFO. David Olson decided to play a little practical joke that became a close encounter of another kind.

On a steamy September night in 1979, Olson, equipped with a propane torch and burlap sacks on his feet, spent five hours creating two huge circles simulating UFO landings in his nephew's cornfields outside Lake City, Minn.

They apparently became the first crop circles reported in the United States, and the southeastern Minnesota town was invaded all right. International media and UFO investigators scoured the landscape.

Olson kept his secret for nearly eight years. And as for his nephew? He hasn't spoken to his uncle since Olson came clean.

Most crop circles, like Olson's, are hoaxes. But many others remain unexplained.

"I guess what amazes me most is since I did it, there has been more than 10,000 crop circles reported," said Olson, 59, of Waterville, which also is in southern Minnesota. "I am flabbergasted."

The new hit movie "Signs" has renewed interest in the crop-circle phenomenon and stories like Olson's.

But the curiosity goes far beyond plunking down $8 for a movie ticket.

For many, the biggest mystery about the crop circles is their origin. For decades, thousands of spheres and assorted designs have been discovered in the middle of fields throughout the world, mostly in Europe. Crop-circle season hits its annual peak usually this month, just before the harvest.

The International Crop Circle Database has reported about 2,000 formations, some dating to the 1950s. Fewer than 50 have been reported this year, mainly in England. A handful have been in the United States.

Since Olson's prank, none have been found in Minnesota, according to Michael Wilmes, managing editor of Agri News, a weekly farm newspaper in Rochester.

UFO believers see the spheres as evidence of flying saucers. Some scientists think they're weather-related. But with dozens of crop circles still being reported around the globe, many believe that extraterrestrial life exists.

"Without question, there is life beyond Earth," said Gary Beckman, publisher of the Edge, a Twin Cities metaphysical newspaper. "There are too many indicators and too many supposed coincidences for me not to believe that crop circles exist."

Beckman, who has taken crop-circle tours in the English countryside, said he believes they are done with such precision they can't be man-made. The insides of hoax circles are usually scattered.

"Am I an expert? No," Beckman said. "But those (unexplained) circles could not have been reproduced with the present equipment we have on Earth. Not a chance."

He argues that the three biggest areas where crop circles have been found in England -- Stonehenge, Avebury and Glastonbury -- just happen to be parallel with Mars. He points out a six-pointed design discovered last month near Stonehenge that experts believe resembles flying ribbons, fueling his notion that "something is out there."

However, Pat Linse, cofounder of the Skeptics Society, in Altadena, Calif., says there's no reason to believe in them.

"It's a fabulous prank, and you've got people running around thinking it's a message from God or something," said Linse, who was raised on a farm near Eau Claire, Wis. "It's one of the silliest paranormal beliefs I can think of."

With the movie's success, Wilmes said, hoax circles are likely to appear;they've been reported recently in Idaho and Montreal, Quebec.

Even now, Olson said, his prank was innocent fun. But its aftermath left him scared.

Word spread quickly after Curtis Olson discovered the circles (one 50 feet across; the other about 30) while mowing hay. Stray animals and lightning were once thought to be possible causes, but the Wabasha County Sheriff's Office determined they were "unexplainable."

And it did seem believable. A deputy sheriff using a Geiger counter found radioactive traces at the site. David Olson later said he had scraped radium off the dial of a Timex watch, mixed it with dirt and spread it around the circles.

Bewildered, Curtis Olson told reporters in 1979, "I myself believe we've been visited . . . Other people can draw their own conclusions."

David Olson remained mum until 1987, when he told reporters that he waited "until any possible statutes of limitations had expired" to avoid being arrested.

His nephew, who now lives in Montana, hasn't spoken to him since. A woman who said she was Curtis Olson's wife said Friday her husband was unavailable for comment.

In 1979, Curtis Olson told the Minneapolis Tribune that if he had planned the hoax and someone found out, "I'd have to hang my head for the rest of my life."

To this day, David Olson claims that he meant no harm. "Curtis thought that he was made fun out of," said Olson, who has leukemia that is in remission. "I just did it as a prank, plain and simple."

He said the moment he finally 'fessed up to family and friends would probably haunt him for the rest of his life.

"I had no intention of doing something fancy," said Olson, who plans on getting a mohawk haircut for his 60th birthday. "I just made circles."

-- Terry Collins is at tcollins@startribune.com.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/3154170.html