From: UFO UpDates - Toronto <ufoupdates.nul>
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:40:16 -0400
Archived: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:40:16 -0400
Subject: Spooklights' Source Is Still Unknown




Source: The Tulsa World - Oklahoma, USA

http://tinyurl.com/yq7pnn

10/30/2007


Only In Oklahoma: Spooklights' Source Is Still Unknown

By Gene Curtis


Floating lights that bounce up into the treetops, appear to be
about the size of a basketball and frequently are seen in pairs
haunting the area where Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri converge.

The lights can be seen from a country road known as Spook Light
Road many times of the year - especially at this time of year.

After all, Halloween is in the air.

Sightseers in hundreds of cars will be driving two roads - E40
in Hornet, Mo., and E50 in Miami near Quapaw - trying to get a
glimpse of the light that some say is rectangular and others
claim is spherical.

Theories have been offered over the years to explain the strange
phenomenon - some require a belief in the supernatural, some are
more scientific and some claim that the lights are just plain
hallucinations. Some, as the name implies, claim that they are
ghosts - but the lights' source remains a mystery.

An Army Corps of Engineers unit from nearby Camp Crowder, Mo.,
studied the spooklight for several weeks during 1946 and
concluded that the phenomenon was "a mysterious light of unknown
origin."

Similar spooklights found in many other parts of the world have
baffled observers for centuries.

Glowing in the night with an eerie, soft color, they sometimes
pulse, sometimes dance about, usually near the ground or
horizon. Their source is a mystery.

The phenomenon known as the Tri-State Spooklight, the Quapaw
Spooklight, the Joplin Spooklight or the Hornet Spooklight
caused panic in the small Missouri community of Hornet when it
was first noticed by settlers in the late 1800s. Many area
residents packed up and moved away.

But the Quapaw Indians reported legends about their ancestors
seeing the lights in the early 1800s.

Among the earliest legends was that a handsome young American
Indian man fell in love with a beautiful woman and eloped after
her father refused to allow them to marry.

Fearing they would be captured, the couple committed suicide by
jumping from a high bluff overlooking Spring River known as the
Devil's Promenade. According to the legend, the light burns as a
symbol of love between the two young lovers.

At least three early legends involve people using lanterns to
search for their heads after being beheaded.

A Quapaw legend involves an old Indian looking for his head,
which his wife had cut off. A similar story involves a miner who
was decapitated in an accident and is using a lantern in his
search.

Another early legend is about an old sergeant who was captured
during a Civil War battle and was executed by using a cannon to
shoot off his head, which was never found. The old sergeant's
ghost somehow obtained a lantern and since then has been
searching for his head.

A Joplin librarian said in 1997 said she always figured it was
an accumulation of gases and you saw it when the time was right.

A Spooksville Museum was operated for several years but it has
been closed for some time. It displayed photographs and a
collection of stories about the light as well as a viewing
platform. It also offered for sale pamphlets about the
spooklight.

Some experts claimed the light is simply the glow of minerals
and gases in the area. UFO experts have claimed the light is a
"controlled machine from outer space - flying saucers from other
worlds."

Popular Mechanics magazine sent a reporter and photographer to
the area in 1965 to investigate the light and a number of
theories concerning its cause.

The reporter later wrote in an article published in the
September 1965 magazine that the light was produced by
automobiles traveling east on U.S. 66 about 10 miles from the
point where sightings of the phenomenon had been reported. The
magazine said the light's unusual shimmering effect and the
golden hue were caused by layers of air with varying
temperature.

But area residents pointed out as soon as the magazine was
published that the light was seen long before there were
automobiles or highways in the area.


[Thanks to Stuart Miller of http://uforeview.net/ for the lead]



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