Ghost Lights Of Texas HERBERT LINDEE ike many other places, Texas has its share of reported ghost lights. The two best- Lknown ghost lights in the state are at Saratoga and at Marfa. We at the Houston Association for Scientific Thinking (HAST) have seen both and have found simple causes for both. Explanations offered for the Saratoga and Marfa A The Saratoga and Marfa lights can look impressive and mysterious. Here is what causes them. lights have included luminescence from human ghosts, swamp gas, Satan, UFOs, campfires seen from far away, piezoelectricity, mirages caused by temperature inversion, St. Elmo's Fire, ball lightning, the moon's reflection in water pools, the glow from bat guano phosphates, and phosphorescence from mineral deposits. Although simple logic dictates that there may indeed be more than one source of energy that produces strangely visible luminescence, there is strong evidence that what most tourists take to be ghost lights outside of these Texas cities is a phenomenon of no more subtlety than car headlights seen along a highway quite a bit farther away than the distance one normally encounters when perceiving such objects. Saratoga is a small town in the East Texas 400 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 16 Sar<JTaq<x. 00 3 A (3 in the \Zie\oiur) Site- about smiles from —HP Map 1: Looking approximately south. (See Map 2, of dotted section.) Point C is a reference point. At point A. a car headed north comes over the rise. The lights then shine into the tunnel of trees formed along Bragg Road. Cars from B to A present a slight red glow with their taillights. piney woods, a part of the Big Thicket, growth of the trees above it and the an ecological treasure whose name thicket beside it create a tunnel of aptly describes its plant growth. Local vegetation as one peers down the legends claim the lights have been roadway in the darkness of night. At seen there since the times of the early night, if you travel five miles north Native Americans. Near Saratoga, into the tunnel and then look back, stretching seven miles across the you can see the lights from the cars forest floor, is Bragg Road, an arrow- as they round the curve on Highway straight former railroad bed about 787 (see diagram). To the naked eye, seven miles long. (See map.) The from such a great distance the two Summer 1992 401 Map 2: Dotted section of Map 1. looking approximately west. At Position 1, the car's headlights do not enter the tunnel of trees along Bragg Road. At Position 2, the car's headlights are suddenly directed full force along Bragg Road. headlights appear to be one bright do something quite different. As the motionless spot in the middle of the car approaches, the headlights are first tunnel. The bright spot appears in the directed upward into the sky above the exact middle of the tunnel for a short tunnel of trees. When the car slips time, then suddenly disappears until over the rise, about 60 to 100 yards the light from another car takes its from Bragg Road, the headlights place. The duration of the pheno- suddenly are directed into the tunnel menon varies with the speed of the harboring Bragg Road. The viewer is cars as they travel along 787. A time- rewarded with first a slight glow and exposure photo of the Saratoga light then a sudden dramatic burst of light can be seen on page 528 of the October instead of the slow buildup one might 1974 National Geographic. The actual expect along a stretch of straight experience is eerier than the photo. highway. The lights do not appear to The slight rise in Highway 787 as be the familiar lights of oncoming a northbound car reaches the point at traffic, so they are often interpreted which its lights shine into the tunnel as mysterious. of trees produces a startling effect that This is what most watchers see as contributes to the eeriness of the the Saratoga lights. We have been phenomenon. On a dark night along there four times. On all four occasions a straight highway, the light from an all participants saw the same thing approaching car expands from a small with the naked eye, first a glow then dot until the first car is close enough a bright spot in the middle of the for a person to observe two bright tunnel that appears suddenly, stays a lights. But cars traveling on 787 to the short time, then disappears just as tunnel of trees formed by Bragg Road suddenly. Looking through binoculars 402 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 16 or through a good terrestrial telescope collected plants till darkness, then unmasks the mystery, for then one drove home. We surmised this is more can see the single light separate into a winter phenomenon because the two car headlights. If the lights are heavy summer foliage filters out the exceptionally bright, one can even light. To check this out, John make out the license-plate holder on Chalmers, HAST's vice-president, and the front of the car. I journeyed to Saratoga on July 29, Those with better eyesight say 1991. The night was slightly hazy. We they can sometimes see a change of could see some stars, but it was not color in the light. This occurs if a car the clear night-sky background that traveling south toward Saratoga our groups had had on previous appears in the viewing window just expeditions. As we drove to Bragg as one traveling north, away from Road, car lights along Highway 105, Saratoga, exits the viewing window. which intersects with 787, looked The tail-lights of the southbound car fuzzy when they were far away. replace the image of the white lights We entered Bragg Road after dark of the northbound car. It is quite a and stopped to look back toward 787 remarkable exhibition even when the at one-mile intervals. After about two cause is well understood. miles the phenomenon became less Local residents seem willing to impressive. Something was filtering perpetuate this phenomenon as a out the light from the cars along 787. mystery, for it brings in a considerable By the time we were four miles in, amount of tourism throughout the we could only faintly see the lights year. To their credit, they do not lie that appeared at the end of the tunnel. when asked about the lights. They The difference between these lights either do not respond to questions, or and the ones seen in the winter was they say something like, "Who knows like the difference between the light what it might be?" from a very powerful flashlight and Another indicator of the true that from a small penlight. We believe nature of the lights is the protest the the cause of this dimming to be the town of Saratoga lodged a short time filtering effect of the leaves that now ago against the cutting of the trees covered the branches around the along the road for forest management. tunnel. It is also possible that the Any destruction of that tunnel of trees higher humidity of the summer might might hinder the ability of the light have some dimming effect on the to travel uncontaminated by other light. light sources along that five miles of We saw far fewer occurrences of dirt road directly to the viewer's eye. the lights than one does in winter. That would change the reputation of Two things could cause this. First, the Saratoga lights. darkness occurs much earlier in An interesting point arose on our winter than in summer. Second, our first visit when we talked to the young other visits were on weekend nights, man minding the local museum, one when people are out doing the things of the most interesting local museums they do on Friday or Saturday even- in the state of Texas. He said he had ings. The traffic on a winter weekend never seen the lights because he had night at six o'clock would be expected been on Bragg Road only in the to be much heavier than that of a summer to collect plants, and the summer weekday night at nine lights seemed to be a winter phenom- o'clock. enon. We assumed he meant he After our excursions to the Sara- Summer 1992 403 toga lights, the Marfa lights in West came to a point on the inner rim of Texas promised to offer something the Chinati Mountains from which special. Persistent rumor claims that one can see the entire basin in which there is no roadway where the Marfa Marfa lies. There I waited until lights are seen. I visited Marfa during darkness fell. I could see car lights all spring break of 1991 and found, to my along the road to Marfa, except where great surprise, a highway running the bends and cuts obscured them, and north-south from Marfa to Presidio I could see the lights of Marfa itself exactly where the lights tend to be nestled at the end of this well-lit trail. seen. (See map.) The viewing site is I could also see the three different- on Highway 90 some nine miles east colored stationary lights we had seen of Marfa. Some people claim that at the viewing site, and I made a records of the Marfa lights go back mental note of their positions relative to the 1880s, when ranchers first to Highway 67 as I traveled it north reported seeing them.