My uncle in Roswell spent 20 years tracking crop circles and quit over one photo
My uncle has been doing the UFO and crop circle thing in Roswell since the 90s, and he finally sat me down and walked me through why he walked away in 2019. He said he drove 400 miles to check out a formation in a wheat field near Dodge City, and the farmer admitted he made it himself with a rope and a garden roller so tourists would stop and buy pumpkins. The part that got me was his line, that he could not tell the real ones from the fake ones anymore. How do you all decide which sightings are worth digging into when the fakes are this easy to make?
Your uncle's story kind of proves the fakes are winning the arms race. Back in the 90s most hoaxers were sloppy, you could spot bent stalks and footprints and call it a day. Now guys watch YouTube tutorials and lay down boards before they flatten anything, so even a careful eye gets fooled. The folks I know who still do this mostly stopped trusting photos and started looking at harder stuff, like who owns the land and whether the wheat actually keeps growing after. Your uncle wasn't wrong to quit, the easy tells are gone.