Spooklight

[Dj I.C.U.]

The Spooklight, also called the Hornet Spooklight or Devil's Promenade, is a mysterious visual phenomenon allegedly experienced by witnesses in a small area known locally as the "Devil's Promenade" on the border between southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma west of the small town of Hornet, Missouri. Despite the fact that it is named after a small, unincorporated community in Missouri from which it is most commonly accessed, the light is most commonly described as being visible from inside the Oklahoma border looking to the west. The Spooklight is commonly described as a single ball of light or a tight grouping of lights that is said to appear in the area regularly, usually at night. Although the description of the light is similar to that of other visual phenomena witnessed throughout the world, the term "Spooklight" when standing alone generally refers this specific case. Numerous legends exist that attempt to desribe the origin of the Spooklight, one of which involves the ghosts of two young American Indian lovers looking for each other.

[Dj I.C.U.]

According to most accounts, it has appeared continually since the late 19th Century, although it was generally not well-known to anyone but locals until after World War II. Some date the first encounters with the light back to the Trail of Tears in the 1830s. However, the first documented sighting is generally accepted to have occurred in 1881, although some report sightings as far back as 1866. The earliest published report dates back to 1936 in the Kansas City Star. In 1946 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers supposedly studied the "Hornet Light", but could not find a cause for it. In their words, it was a "mysterious light of unknown origin". Early residents of the area reported seeing lights in the forest, over their land, or even in their yards. During the 1960s, there was a general store in Hornet that gave out information about the light to sightseers. It included a "Spooklight museum". There have also been various establishments along the Missouri-Oklahoma state line that served a similar function, but they have since closed. During the 1960s and 1970s the roads where the Spooklight usually appears were often packed with parked vehicles and people hoping to get a glimpse of the mysterious light.

[Dj I.C.U.]

Aficionados say the best chances for spotting the light occur after dark when parked on Oklahoma East 50 Road, three miles south of the three state junction of Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma in Ottawa County, Oklahoma and looking to the west. The light has been seen in backyards of the area and has been spotted both near to and far away from sightseers. Its color is also not consistent: some eyewitnesses report a greenish glow while others describe it as orange, red, yellow, or even blue. It is almost always said to be in the shape of a ball, although some say it more resembles a camping lantern travelling a couple of feet off the ground.

The light is also very bright even when it appears to be far away from the observer. Some watch the Spooklight through binoculars or even telescopes. Most sightings of the Spooklight occur from some distance away, but there exist many accounts of the light invading the car of a sightseer or of the light giving chase to those looking for it. In these cases the eyewitnesses generally report an intense heat emanating from the light at close range.

[Dj I.C.U.]

Explanations for the lights appearance vary widely from the extraordinary to the mundane. The area of Oklahoma in which the light is seen is very hilly and forested and out to the west of where the light is seen lies Interstate 44. It has been suggested that the headlights of cars seen over the hills explain the lights appearance, which is sometimes said to bob up and down, dance, or even split into multiple globules of light. However, most people prefer to state that they cannot explain the almost nightly appearance of mysterious lights in the area. Other explanations for the light's appearance includes atmospheric gases being affected by electrical fields. A University of Arkansas professor studied the light in the 1960s and suggested that it was from a fixed object.

[swetha]

i guess there must b a valid explanations for such happenings?

[Dj I.C.U.]

To see an investigation regarding to spookelight:"Joplin Spooklight Investigation" just visit http://www.ghostresearch.org/Investigations/Joplin.html

[Dj I.C.U.]

The Surrency spook light is a classic example of the ghost light phenomena in the best tradition of some of the more famous ones already familiar to most Forteans, such as the Marfa Light in Texas and the Brown Mountain Light in North Carolina.

Theories as to the causes of ghost lights include the usual explanations such as ball lightening, car headlights reflections seen through fog, seismic activity, mirages and the ever popular "swamp gas."

For the greater part, ghost lights seem to appear mostly in and around mountainous areas, in swamps and along train tracks.

The site of the Surrency light (called the "spook light" by locals) is centralized along a stretch of the Macon/Brunswick railway that runs through the small town of Surrency, Georgia.

This Surrency light was first brought to my attention in 1989 by an acquaintance who is a resident of nearby Baxley, Georgia and whom I'll refer to here as "James Joyner."

Throughout his life, Mr. Joyner has lived in Baxley and has witnessed the Surrency light on several occasions, encountering the phenomenon for the first time as a teenager.

He described to me how one night he and some friends went out to the local railway area where others claimed the light could be seen. He was standing on the train track when the light appeared several hundred yards in front of him, hovering silently over the railway. Mr. Joyner's description of the light was "a very bright, golden-yellow light, about the size and shape of a grapefruit." When he tried to approach the light, it began to move toward him until it finally blinked out, only to then reappear behind him! (He describes his other experience as being quite similar to the first).

The Surrency Light has been an observable phenomena since the turn of the century.

Explanations for the causes of the light vary from the local belief that it is somehow connected to the famous Surrency ghost that haunted the hotel/home of a Mr. A. P. Surrency (for whom the town is named) to the discovery of a mysterious geological formation underneath the ground in Surrency, as theorized by Cornell University professor Larry Brown.

The Surrency hauntings were first written about in the Savannah Morning News after the paper received a letter from A. P. Surrency describing what he claimed were supernatural occurrences taking place in his home.

Personal accounts from diaries, as well as from books and magazines, have described instances in the Surrency house where, allegedly, tables flew through the air, mirrors exploded in hallways, clocks began spinning crazily after witnesses reported hearing a mysterious "buzzing" noise, hot bricks fell from the sky, lights flickered in the dark and voices were heard screaming, crying or laughing in and around the premises. The hauntings reportedly continued until the house burned down in 1925.

There may be a more earthly explanation, however.

Geological professor Larry Brown was part of a scientific team that discovered what may be an ancient reservoir of water or other fluid lying nine miles beneath a pine forest in Surrency. Dr. Brown is a director of the Cornell University-based Consortium for Continental Reflective Profiling (COCORP) which developed a detailed picture of the Earth's mantle. Dr. Brown describes this reservoir as "about two miles in diameter and apparently shaped like a contact lens." He also states that "we really don't have a good idea what the formation is composed of. If it is water, it would upset a lot of scientific theories as it is theoretically impossible for water or other fluids to exist at such a great depth due to the intense heat and pressure."

After Surrency Mayor Stanford Tillman was informed of the geologic discovery, he was quoted as saying, "A lot of us suspect that the [Surrency House hauntings] had something to do with the unusual magnetic activities in our area. The discovery of this object formation is very exciting to me."