Here is the link Asa was talking about a ghost light.
THE HORNET GHOST LIGHT
By Paul A. Roales
Last Updated January 5, 2006
STATE OF MISSOURI
DIVISION OF RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT
Jefferson City, Missouri
News Release by Leslie Kennon
The Ozarks, thousands of sprawling acres of scenic beauty and packed full of Indian and colorful local legend, is reviving one of its oldest phenomena -the "ghost lights".
For more than 50 years, especially since the coming of the auto age, tourists from all over the country have come to see them; national magazines have given space to the story; photographers have tried in vain to take pictures.
And today the "ghost lights" are becoming a top tourist attraction in the area. No one can explain their origin. No one can give an accurate account of whence they came nor can any two people describe the lights in the same words.
To each it is something different, a symbolism of something unknown, sometimes feared, always interesting. It is, to the tourists' way of thinking something unique which they cannot find anywhere else and which is well worth their time to visit.
The "ghost lights," as they are called by local citizens, appear actually as one bright light, often dimming and then bouncing back over the rolling mountains as a great blaze of light. It is as though some giant ball player were taking his gigantic ball of light and tossing it in the air, sometimes catching it on the mountain which serves as his mitt, or sometimes missing it when it disappears.
During World War 11 the U.S. Corps of Engineers spent weeks in the area with the latest scientific equipment. They tested caves, mineral deposits, highway routes, every possible logical explanation as to why the lights existed. They came away baffled.
Of late, nationally known scientists have visited the area and as yet, they have not come up with the answer.
Area residents come away with stories which would go well on Hallowe'en. As a Joplin police officer said, after relating a weird experience on the oft-traveled ghost light road, "It was the last time I've been there and It's the last time I'm going there".
Legend has it that an old time miner carrying his lantern across the fields disappeared and that it is his lantern which still causes the light to shine.
In a more logical sense, it is a definite tourist attraction of the area, a little extra in a tourist's trip to the Ozarks, the Shepherd of the Hills country or on to Central Missouri to the Lake of the Ozarks or other points. (End News Release)
The Offical Story of the Hornet Ghost Light (above) is wrong on many counts. First, photos of the lights are available...for example the postcard shown above and my photo below. Second, the explanation for the lights is very simple.
I arrived at the Spook Light Museum near Joplin, MO at 4:30 PM on April 4, 1980. It was closed and padlocked. I had driven from my home in Tulsa, OK to see for myself the Hornet Ghost Light famous in Fortean literature since it first appeared around 1886. The best spot to view the light is 1/4 mile out on a dirt road due west from the Spook Light Museum. To get there coming from the West take the first Missouri exit off Interstate 44 then double back west along the south outer road to State Line Road (gravel) and take State Line Road 3.8 miles south to the Spook Light Museum. The picture below of the Spook Light Museum and its owner "Spooky" Middleton is from OK Magazine for 10/28/79.
When I first arrived at the site it was about 2 hours before sunset. The sky was clear. The temperature was about 45 degrees and there was a light breeze. Looking due west down the Spook Light Road with my 7x35 binoculars I could see a stretch of distant highway, which confirmed what my research had told me I would see. If you examine a topographic map of the Joplin, MO area you will notice a 4.5 mile stretch of US Route 66 which runs due east from Commerce, OK to Quapaw, OK before turning North (colored yellow on the map below). From my location on Spook Light Road (at the red X on the map below) I was 9.7 miles due east of the eastern end of that stretch of straight highway. The binoculars clearly revealed that stretch of US 66 and occasional flashes of light reflecting from cars on that highway caused by the sun setting in the West. I knew that after the sun set I would no longer be able to see those reflections, but the car's headlights would be in my direct line of vision. When the museum opened at 6:00 PM I spent about 40 minutes talking to 70 year old Garland (Spooky) Middleton about the lights and reading the mass of newspaper clippings about the ghost light that he has pasted on the walls of his museum-pool hall.
After the sun set at about 6:40 PM I returned to my observation point and could already see the Spook Light directly west of me on the road. My binoculars proved the Spook Light was nothing more that car headlights on that stretch of Highway 66 in Oklahoma about 10 miles away. Occasionally several lights were visible with my binoculars (representing 2 or more cars), but the lights would merge into one light when seen with the naked eye. The presence of more or less cars could explain the apparent brightening and dimming of the Spook Light as seen by the naked eye. I remained at the site until about 8:00 PM studying and photographing the Spook Light. The best photos were obtained shortly after sunset on Kodachrome 64 film at 1/15 sec. with my 50mm Minolta lens opened to F 1.4.
So the Hornet Ghost Lights are only car headlights. How about other famous Ghost Lights...like the ones in Marfa, TX or the Brown Mountain Ghost Lights in North Carolina. Well, I have never seen the Marfa Lights, but I have seen the Brown Mountain Lights and I believe they are lights refracted/reflected from the town of Hickory, NC. But that is another story.
January 2001 Update
The page above has brought lots of emails since I posted it, almost every one disagreeing with me. One person even said that the topographic map was wrong and there was a hill between my observation point and Highway 66 which would prevent me from seeing the highway (perhaps the hill grew since I was there in 1980). But I will stick to my story.
To make a couple points: 1) Yes the spook light was seen before there were cars, but very infrequently. Those sightings could easily be explained by cabin lights or campfires in the vicinity of the future towns of Commerce or Quapaw. And 2) In every photograph I have seen of the spook light it is in the same place (just left of center of the base of the "V" of trees down the road). Look at my color photo above, the postcard above, the photo (Plate 21) in the book "Earth Lights Revelation", etc. In every photo the light is in the same place...exactly where it can be explained by the cars on Highway 66 as I mention above. If my explanation is wrong, why is the spook light in the same place in all the photos?
March, 2003 Update
And the emails keep coming. Here is a recent one:
"From: [email protected]
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2003 21:19:20 EST
Subject: (no subject)
To: [email protected]
X-Mailer: 6.0 for Windows XP sub 52
I wantyou to know that I think youre screwed in the head about the hornet spook light it is not headlight reflected they were seen numerous times before cars NOT rarely like you said. all you stupid geologists who think that they know everything are so full of ****!!!! thank you
woofie "
I guess his mother never told him that if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.
I am willing to hear from reasonable people, but if woofie reflects your attitude, don't bother to email me. January 2006 Update
When I first visited the Hornet Spook Light Museum in 1980 I remember seeing a newspaper clipping on the museum wall that stated the Army Corps of Engineers had proven the lights were only car headlights. But I was never able to find that reference. Many ghost light web pages carry the claim that the Army Corps of Engineers were not able to explain the lights. Finally someone who read this page tracked down the original 1946 report by the Army Corps of Engineers and passed it on to me.
From an article titled:"Solving The Mystery Of The Tri-State Spook Light" in The Kansas City Star of Sunday, May 19, 1946, on pages C1 and C2 by Charles W. Graham (a member of The Star's Staff) it states that under the command of Maj. Thomoas E Sheard of Camp Crowder, they contacted Richard Y. Jones, chief of the civil engineering dept., who with his friend Joe Duck had already determined the cause of the lights but had never officially reported their findings, and began an investigation. Using car lights and sycronyzed watches on a scheduled system on the Quapaw road, they were able to reproduce virtually all of the observered phenomena commonly reported as the ghost light.
So my explanation is not new. It is strange that the Army Corps of Engineers report is not better known. Maybe because it debunks the ghost lights?
I hope you have enjoyed my efforts. Feel free to email me with suggestions for improvements. RETURN TO MY HOMEPAGE HERE. You will find my email link there. You can also access my other web pages from there.
THE HORNET GHOST LIGHT
By Paul A. Roales
Last Updated January 5, 2006
STATE OF MISSOURI
DIVISION OF RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT
Jefferson City, Missouri
News Release by Leslie Kennon
The Ozarks, thousands of sprawling acres of scenic beauty and packed full of Indian and colorful local legend, is reviving one of its oldest phenomena -the "ghost lights".
And today the "ghost lights" are becoming a top tourist attraction in the area. No one can explain their origin. No one can give an accurate account of whence they came nor can any two people describe the lights in the same words.
To each it is something different, a symbolism of something unknown, sometimes feared, always interesting. It is, to the tourists' way of thinking something unique which they cannot find anywhere else and which is well worth their time to visit.
The "ghost lights," as they are called by local citizens, appear actually as one bright light, often dimming and then bouncing back over the rolling mountains as a great blaze of light. It is as though some giant ball player were taking his gigantic ball of light and tossing it in the air, sometimes catching it on the mountain which serves as his mitt, or sometimes missing it when it disappears.
During World War 11 the U.S. Corps of Engineers spent weeks in the area with the latest scientific equipment. They tested caves, mineral deposits, highway routes, every possible logical explanation as to why the lights existed. They came away baffled.
Of late, nationally known scientists have visited the area and as yet, they have not come up with the answer.
Area residents come away with stories which would go well on Hallowe'en. As a Joplin police officer said, after relating a weird experience on the oft-traveled ghost light road, "It was the last time I've been there and It's the last time I'm going there".
Legend has it that an old time miner carrying his lantern across the fields disappeared and that it is his lantern which still causes the light to shine.
In a more logical sense, it is a definite tourist attraction of the area, a little extra in a tourist's trip to the Ozarks, the Shepherd of the Hills country or on to Central Missouri to the Lake of the Ozarks or other points. (End News Release)
The Offical Story of the Hornet Ghost Light (above) is wrong on many counts. First, photos of the lights are available...for example the postcard shown above and my photo below. Second, the explanation for the lights is very simple.
I arrived at the Spook Light Museum near Joplin, MO at 4:30 PM on April 4, 1980. It was closed and padlocked. I had driven from my home in Tulsa, OK to see for myself the Hornet Ghost Light famous in Fortean literature since it first appeared around 1886. The best spot to view the light is 1/4 mile out on a dirt road due west from the Spook Light Museum. To get there coming from the West take the first Missouri exit off Interstate 44 then double back west along the south outer road to State Line Road (gravel) and take State Line Road 3.8 miles south to the Spook Light Museum. The picture below of the Spook Light Museum and its owner "Spooky" Middleton is from OK Magazine for 10/28/79.
So the Hornet Ghost Lights are only car headlights. How about other famous Ghost Lights...like the ones in Marfa, TX or the Brown Mountain Ghost Lights in North Carolina. Well, I have never seen the Marfa Lights, but I have seen the Brown Mountain Lights and I believe they are lights refracted/reflected from the town of Hickory, NC. But that is another story.
January 2001 Update
The page above has brought lots of emails since I posted it, almost every one disagreeing with me. One person even said that the topographic map was wrong and there was a hill between my observation point and Highway 66 which would prevent me from seeing the highway (perhaps the hill grew since I was there in 1980). But I will stick to my story.
To make a couple points: 1) Yes the spook light was seen before there were cars, but very infrequently. Those sightings could easily be explained by cabin lights or campfires in the vicinity of the future towns of Commerce or Quapaw. And 2) In every photograph I have seen of the spook light it is in the same place (just left of center of the base of the "V" of trees down the road). Look at my color photo above, the postcard above, the photo (Plate 21) in the book "Earth Lights Revelation", etc. In every photo the light is in the same place...exactly where it can be explained by the cars on Highway 66 as I mention above. If my explanation is wrong, why is the spook light in the same place in all the photos?
March, 2003 Update
And the emails keep coming. Here is a recent one:
"From: [email protected]
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2003 21:19:20 EST
Subject: (no subject)
To: [email protected]
X-Mailer: 6.0 for Windows XP sub 52
I wantyou to know that I think youre screwed in the head about the hornet spook light it is not headlight reflected they were seen numerous times before cars NOT rarely like you said. all you stupid geologists who think that they know everything are so full of ****!!!! thank you
woofie "
I guess his mother never told him that if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.
I am willing to hear from reasonable people, but if woofie reflects your attitude, don't bother to email me. January 2006 Update
When I first visited the Hornet Spook Light Museum in 1980 I remember seeing a newspaper clipping on the museum wall that stated the Army Corps of Engineers had proven the lights were only car headlights. But I was never able to find that reference. Many ghost light web pages carry the claim that the Army Corps of Engineers were not able to explain the lights. Finally someone who read this page tracked down the original 1946 report by the Army Corps of Engineers and passed it on to me.
From an article titled:"Solving The Mystery Of The Tri-State Spook Light" in The Kansas City Star of Sunday, May 19, 1946, on pages C1 and C2 by Charles W. Graham (a member of The Star's Staff) it states that under the command of Maj. Thomoas E Sheard of Camp Crowder, they contacted Richard Y. Jones, chief of the civil engineering dept., who with his friend Joe Duck had already determined the cause of the lights but had never officially reported their findings, and began an investigation. Using car lights and sycronyzed watches on a scheduled system on the Quapaw road, they were able to reproduce virtually all of the observered phenomena commonly reported as the ghost light.
So my explanation is not new. It is strange that the Army Corps of Engineers report is not better known. Maybe because it debunks the ghost lights?
I hope you have enjoyed my efforts. Feel free to email me with suggestions for improvements. RETURN TO MY HOMEPAGE HERE. You will find my email link there. You can also access my other web pages from there.
