The Marfa Lights: A Real American Mystery
What is the cause of the mysterious ghost lights outside Marfa, Texas?
Filed under Paranormal
| Skeptoid #38 April 11, 2007 Podcast transcript | Listen | Subscribe |
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Tonight we're going to zip up our windbreakers and camp out in our folding chairs, drinking coffee from a thermos, until the ghostly Marfa Lights make their appearance, hovering and wavering out in the field before us.
In 1957, a magazine article first reported the mysterious phenomenon of hovering balls of light bouncing around the night near Marfa, Texas. About ten miles east of Marfa, in an area called Mitchell Flat, the odd lights appear perhaps a couple dozen times per year. They're about the size of basketballs and appear to float about shoulder high. Sometimes several appear at once, wavering about, sometimes even merging together or moving about in a group, splitting apart, and behaving in a most remarkable fashion. They only appear at night, at any time of year and in any weather, and are usually white or yellow or orange. Sometimes red or blue are reported, but most are white.
One unique characteristic of the Marfa Lights is that they are actually there and can actually be observed; their existence is definitely not just a story. The city of Marfa has even erected a viewing platform, where hopeful light spotters can be found every night. You can actually go there, and if you're lucky or patient enough, you will actually see the Marfa Lights.
The default skeptical explanation which is readily put forth is that the Marfa Lights are simply car headlights, seen from a great distance and distorted by temperature gradients. Critics of this explanation quickly point out that the Marfa Lights have been reported for hundreds of years, since long before there were any car headlights around.
Well, apparently, the Marfa Lights have not been around all that long, after all. The earliest accounts come from a rancher named Robert Ellison in 1883. However, upon closer inspection, it appears that there is no actual record that Robert Ellison ever saw such a thing. There are reports from his descendants that Ellison said he saw lights, but there is no written record, not even when he wrote his memoirs about his life in the region in 1937. Curious that he would leave that out. Apparently, all evidence that the lights existed prior to the arrival of automobile highways in the region is purely anecdotal. Throughout history there have been hundreds and hundreds of reported "ghost lights" that probably never existed outside of the observers' whiskey-soaked imaginations. Those ghost lights that have become famous are those few that are observable today, such as the Marfa Lights, and almost all have multiple versions of illustrious histories invented for them. A similar phenomenon in Arkansas called the Gurdon Light is said to be the swinging lantern of a brakeman accidentally beheaded by a passing train. Not surprisingly, the exact same explanation is put forth for the Big Thicket Ghost Light in Bragg, Texas. These ghost lights can't all be headless brakemen, so it's conceivable that the folk explanation is not true in every case.
So what are these lights, you ask, and why can't someone run out there and track one down? There are two reasons why this is easier said than done. First, it's illegal. All the property in the area is privately owned, most of it by people who are tired of these tourists chasing around in the night, and do not welcome them. Second, the terrain is exceptionally difficult to traverse. However, hardy souls have made the attempt on numerous occasions. At least two television shows have done just this, and wisely staked out people in different locations in an effort to triangulate and precisely locate the lights. But, as luck would have it, these triangulation efforts have never been successful. The only thing conclusively demonstrated was that the lights are not where they appear to be. This has effectively put to bed other theories, such as the suggestion that piezoelectric effects from the quartz bedrock causes ball lightning. If ball lightning was floating around out there, searchers would be easily able to triangulate and close in on it.
Unfortunately for all of those like myself who love a good mystery, and contrary to what's printed in all the Marfa tourism brochures and on all the ghost light web sites, the Marfa Lights have been thoroughly and definitively explained. The same explanation most likely applies to many similar lights around the world. If you prefer a mystery and don't want to hear it, then turn off your iPod now. It's a spoiler, and like all spoilers, it's disappointing.
May I have the envelope, please? The winner is ... the car headlights combined with some fascinating atmospheric phenomena. In 2004, The University of Texas sent the Society of Physics Students, a highly respected professional association, to investigate the Marfa Lights. Their official report, available at spsnational.org, found conclusively that when the lights appeared, they were precisely correlated with car headlights on Highway 67. The lights were completely predictable and the phenomenon was fully repeatable, based on cars on the highway. Quite a few photographs have been taken of the lights at night, which when superimposed upon a photograph from the same camera location during the day, show Highway 67 in the extreme distance, precisely in the same place as the light in the night photograph. The strange movement of the lights is attributed to the magnifying or shimmering effect caused by a so-called Fata Morgana mirage, a type of superior mirage, in comparison to the more common inferior mirage. Superior mirages, where objects appear higher than their actual position, can make distant objects — even those below the horizon — appear to hover in the air. Inferior mirages, where objects appear below their actual position, can make objects up in the air, such as a patch of sky, appear below the horizon, like the proverbial lake in the desert. Anytime the temperature gradients are suitable, the Marfa Lights should appear and behave predictably. Other independent investigations have also found the same correlation with cars on nearby Highway 90.
There are still critics who do not accept what the investigations have revealed, in some cases because of the stories of reports that predated the highways. These critics are reminded that there is no record of Marfa Lights reports before the appearance of automobiles in the area. And anyway, a lantern or other light would be affected in exactly the same way as the car headlights are today.
Some reports talk of the lights hovering above a person, moving around them, or behaving in other ways inconsistent with the SPS explanation. The Marfa Lights have been photographed and videotaped exhaustively, but none of that evidence supports such reports. Many such reports are probably hoaxes, imagination, or exaggerated recollections. However, it is very difficult to judge the distance of a light source distorted by a Fata Morgana inversion layer. Many reports of people getting within a few meters of a Marfa Light are probably quite genuine: Every visible indication would be that the light appears to be hovering eerily just out of reach.
Considering the evidential consistency and comprehensiveness of the SPS investigation, and its numerous independent verifications, I see no reason to doubt that the mystery has been conclusively solved, and certainly see no need for bizarre and unprecedented alternative explanations like the piezoelectric lightning balls. I'm still a little worried about encountering a headless lantern-swinging brakeman in the dead of night, but that's only because I'm afraid he might want my head, Ichabod Crane style.
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© 2007 Skeptoid Media, Inc. Copyright information
References & Further Reading
Brown, Alan. Haunted Places in the American South. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2002. 40-44.
Smith, Julia Cauble. "Marfa Lights." Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association, 18 Jan. 2008. Web. 13 Oct. 2009. <http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/MM/lxm1.html>
Stolyarov, Alexander, Klenzing , Jeff, Roddy, Patrick, Heelis, R. A. "An Experimental Analysis of the Marfa Lights." Society of Physics Students. American Institute of Physics, 10 Dec. 2005. Web. 1 Mar. 2007. <http://www.spsnational.org/wormhole/utd_sps_report.pdf>
Thompson, Cecilia. History of Marfa and Presidio County, Texas: 1535-1946. Austin: Nortex Press, 1985. 197.
Treat, Wesley; Shades, Heather; Riggs, Rob. Wierd Texas. New York: Sterling Publishing, 2005. 68-72.
Reference this article:
Dunning, Brian.
"The Marfa Lights: A Real American Mystery." Skeptoid Podcast. Skeptoid Media, Inc.,
11 Apr 2007. Web.
10 Sep 2010. <http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4038>
Discuss!
Remember, you should always read with skepticism the comments of anyone too lame to put their real name & city.
In October 1988, a group of us geology undergrads, camping in the Ft. Davis area, went to watch the Marfa lights. It was exactly as described in the podcast, and it was a marvelous mystery that has always stuck in my mind.
My journal for that time reads: "Now, I did see the lights, sometimes four at once, but they weren't anything to make me believe in supernatural. The lights were always just above the horizon on the same horizontal. They would fade in and out, and slowly move one way or the other. Binoculars showed them to look like light filled balloons." (I hadn't re-read that in years!)
I just couldn't believe that no one had tried to explain them (with reason). So thanks for bringing the explanation to light.
One guy in our group, who had seen them before, said it was best to listen to Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" while watching the lights, for effect, I am sure.
That was a fun night that left me with a weird mystery ever since. Thanks for taking me back to that memory.
PS Love your podcast!
Mike Daugherty, Fremont, Nebraska
May 05, 2007 8:28pm
Great article, thank you!
One thing, it looks like the Society of Physics students moved the article. The link to:
http://www.spsnational.org/societynews/utd_sps_report.pdf
is a dead link.
I searched their site but did not find the missing paper.
John M. Garrison, San Diego
April 24, 2009 3:46pm
Thanks for the enlightening (pun intended) read. I got sent over here from Wired, and I've been out to see the Marfa lights on several occasions. Seems like a fairly decent explanation, but I wonder if it covers this experience (granted, I'm recalling this from years ago, but the memory is extremely vivid, and several of my family could corroborate the story):
We like to head a couple hundred yards down the road from the viewing station to an old ranch gate. There used to be an airfield out there, I'm told, but it could also be old ranch roads. In any case, we hopped the gate and walked down the old trail a bit (maybe another couple hundred yards). On the way back, I looked to my left (in the general directions the lights show up) and saw one, hovering in the air not more than 30 yards away, above a bush. I could tell the distance with near certainty because it illuminated the ground beneath it. It was probably about 12 feet in the air, and about the size of a basketball.
Unfortunately, it was dark and the brush is thick, so we couldn't go investigate further. It remained in place for maybe 10 to 15 seconds, then disappeared.
Seems like the accounts investigated are horizon lights, and no mention of closer lights had them casting light on the ground.
Thoughts?
Sean, Crane, TX
April 25, 2009 5:00pm
THAT IS COOL
BOB, NEW YORK
May 21, 2009 12:27pm
Sean - I'm thinking more along the same lines as you..I've seen them myself as has my mom, dad and husband...probably two or three different times. I don't know that the Fata Morgana belief holds up....It doesn't mention the different colors I've seen and from what I've read, that type of mirage is seen during the day. I was told quite an interesting story about a Marfa light hovering over the house of the owner of one of the souvenir shops in Alpine and that was a present day story....not from the 1800's.
Sheryl, Kingwood, TX
May 28, 2009 1:54pm
I was among other members of an Elderhostel group from the Davis Mts. Education Center who went out to try to view the lights one evening earlier this month. For some reason, our leaders chose a local winery as our viewing site. Apparently, the setting enhanced our viewing, because several of our group soon became convinced we actually saw the lights--and the more free wine we sampled, the more visible the lights became. WHOOO-EEEE!
J. Froneberger
Junction, TX
Jean Froneberger, Junction, TX
May 31, 2009 7:08pm
Interesting read. My knowledge of the phenomenon is slight, but the explanation seems reasonable -- though given the comments, perhaps not conclusive.
For the inquiring minds, the present location for the cited report by the Society of Physics Students: http://tinyurl.com/l69ph3 .
Reid, Springfield, IL
July 12, 2009 3:04am
I've seen the 'lights' several times. But once with both my parents in Jan 1990 we were traveling west and for miles away could see a large portion of the sky light up different colors. Finally we were under it and there were beams of different colored lights shooting in varied directions while the whole sky would light up, then fade. All different colors. We stood in front of the motor home for about an hour watching it. Then Mom tired and went inside. Next morning she said she saw a whole different show when looking out the window from the bedroom.
Must have been the 'Northern Lights' as I have heard they sometimes appear there. They were much better than the simple white lights (Marfa Lights) I'd seen before. It was before they built the viewing area on the south side of the highway. We were on the north side between the highway and the railroad tracks, in a worn patch of dirt where cars had obviously parked often.
Joe Haley (Izzymovin@yahoo.com), San Antonio, Tx
July 26, 2009 8:29pm
I love reason and thank you for the explaination, however their are still things mere reason fails to peg!
GIL, South East, TX
November 12, 2009 8:07pm
I saw the lights back in the spring of 1992 shortly after a thunderstorm had passed through. At the time the viewing area was just a pull-in.
It was a typical experience that others have described with a slow moving light that changed colors and then split into two. Then the two lights would make a slow circle in the air. We probably stayed out there an hour or so and left while the lights were still out there.
I think we went back out during the day as well just so I could see the area in the light.
By the way, the link to the UT report goes no where now.
Derek, North Texas
December 24, 2009 9:31pm
Cool
I find a Fata Morgana mirage neither disappointing nor mundane. It's fascinating, the natural phenomena that are out there and how simple things can create intresting and seemingly-otherworldly happenings.
Anyway, good episode
Jonathan, Earth
January 07, 2010 4:35am
I went and seen the lights and you are wrong we had people sitting on the highway behind the scene and there were no cars however many of different lights good try on explaining it but that is not it.
Heath, Odessa
January 23, 2010 5:02am
You are wrong. I studied the headlight theory and it proved not to be true.It is still an enigma waiting to be solved truly. There are different theories to how this happened, like lightning balls and some believe they are Indian ghosts dancing. Nice research though. :D
Alice, Earth
March 09, 2010 5:02pm
Show us your evidence to falsify what has already been conclusively demonstrated as natural phenomena, Alice. Otherwise, keep your drivel to yourself.
Stuart, Beijing, China
March 18, 2010 7:54am
I have seen the Marfa Lights in hot, dry conditions, rain and sub-freezing weather with snow on the ground. They have always looked and behaved the same each time, so I assume each sighting represents the same phenomenon. It is hard for me to believe that this explanation can explain all of those sightings.
Wayne, Oklahoma City
March 24, 2010 10:06am
Stuart, it will not be easy to post my evidence on this website, however you cannot be sure that during their four night stay that they actually saw them since they only are seen 11or 12 times a year so no i will not keep my drivel to myself.So there, Stuart.: >
Alice, Earth
March 29, 2010 3:45pm
why must everyone think their smart & have a solution to everything ...
Manda, Mars
May 01, 2010 6:31pm
I agree with Alieana,the headlight theory is wrong.
Chris, Hoover
May 06, 2010 4:39pm
the headlight theory is wrong for it has already been proved wrong.
Rachel, Earth
May 09, 2010 6:56pm
I'm sure we're all convinced by the echos of 'I think the headlight theory is wrong' when all that opposes that is the Society of Physics Students very comprehensive reports. (The link in the article is broken but you can use the search function to easily find it.)
Saying that the headlight theory is wrong is meaningless without supporting it with why and evidence. Reality isn't subject to a popularity vote.
Brandon, Falconer
May 22, 2010 9:15pm
I have seen the lights and heard the stories. During wwII lights were out and they were still seen. And if this can be repeated in an experiment why do they only appear once and awhile vs everytime cars are on the highway?
Raul, Sacramento
May 28, 2010 12:14pm
Dont you think it is a little odd that the terrain happens to make the lights hard to get too?? And the fact that it is private property? I think it is weird. Untill someone actually goes up to one of those lights I am very doubtful of any proposed solution.
Tara, School
June 20, 2010 8:04am
I saw the lights in 1996,right after thanksgiving.we were discussing that they could be car lights from the mountains in the distance but the lights do behave rather strangely,such as one light rising up then splitting into two separate lights moving horizontally away from each other.also three separate lights appearing then moving towards each other horiz. with the center light stationary then sinking as one light when they met. some just appeared seemed to float in one spot and then dissapeared. i dont know what they were but there was a lot of them.
jeff lanford, von ormy tx
July 01, 2010 4:03pm
When I was in college, myself and 3 buddies drove to Marfa on our way home from El Paso. This was in 1992. We saw the lights from the road and it led directly under them. We pulled off the side of the road when we were directly under them. We looked straight above us to observe them. They did not seem very high, but were very bright and they moved in a triangle flashing on and off with the 3rd point of the triangle moving to form a different triangle. To this I swear. They are not headlights, would bet my life on it.
Mark, Gainesville, FL
July 15, 2010 12:43pm
why do you care if we say that the headlight theory is wrong!! The headlight theory is WRONG!!!!!!
Emma, Earth
July 29, 2010 8:44pm
who cares about the marfa lights their big bright lights!
Marie, Earth
August 07, 2010 7:20pm
So if it is Headlights, what were they seeing in 1883? HEADLIGHTS? What type of atmospheric phenomena? My family and I are going for the Marfa lights Festivle in September.. CAN'T WAIT!
Chersa, San Antonio, TX
August 14, 2010 9:28am
Chersa, reading is your friend. From the article you are commenting on..
"There are still critics who do not accept what the investigations have revealed, in some cases because of the stories of reports that predated the highways. These critics are reminded that there is no record of Marfa Lights reports before the appearance of automobiles in the area. And anyway, a lantern or other light would be affected in exactly the same way as the car headlights are today."
Brandon, Falconer
August 15, 2010 1:07pm
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I live in a valley area, famous for actors Glyn Houston and Richard Burton, as well as Tom Jones! Sorry USA but he lives with you lot now!
Anyway, there's a long stretch of quarried cliffs opposite my house, a remnant of coal mining, that is called "THE SCREEMING QUARRY".
It was said that a bunch of gypsies [travelling Irish people] were chased up there for thieving money and food from locals and that they fell [or pushed] over the cliff...200-300 feet.
And, yes, when you are in my valley, you can hear screaming-like noises, especially in summer and at evening! This made a skeptic like me wonder...Why more so in the summer and evening?
While out running, down the rocky face of the cliffs one summer evening I could feel the shiver up and down my back from the eerie sounds that the cliff was making!
But as I listen closely, I could make out the rhythmic squeaking [of metal] coming from the children's park swings at the foot of the cliffs!
It is simply that children play there more in the summer and the warm evening air carries the sound on the wind further up the mountain...I still get a tingle down my back though!
Griff....It's the way you tell 'em...
neil griffiths, Cardiff uk
April 12, 2007 5:21am