Hello Everyone,

I actually found this one by accident when researching a little bit about the other eerie lights. This one seems to hold a lot of credibility because of the large amount of witnesses and the time frame the light existed. The Maco Light carries a haunting luminescent tale through the areas surrounding Maco, North Carolina.

The Maco Light:

Well, like many of the lights, and I am sure you will be hearing this from me a lot, this one occurs around the railroad tracks in the swampy wooded areas by Maco. Kind of odd that so many occur near railroad tracks and also in North Carolina.

The Maco Light has been reported since the late 1800s and up till 1977. There is a reason it being seen in 1977 but you will have to keep reading. This light very distinctly resembles the red-to-white hot glow of an old kerosene lantern. Many believe an old railway lantern because of the location and folklore.

This light has appeared so many times and so prominently that trains have even stopped for it, thinking that it was something on the tracks. This includes a time that President Grover Cleveland was passing through.

The light seemed to appear regularly up until around 1935 casting its eerie glow upon the unfortunate, or may fortunate, observer. Once again people blame car lights in the distance and this time even swamp gas. They believe the reflecting lights from the trains or even the swamp gas itself it emitting the ghostly Maco Light.

That might explain something, well not the cars that weren’t there in the 1860s. But what about the swamp gas. Maybe. But the swamp gas was still there after 1977 when the light seemed to mysteriously disappear.

In 1977 the railway tracks were removed or relocated and the old train bridge was removed as well. The Maco Light seemed to go along with the tracks. Huh….kind of odd right. Or eerie.

Folklore:

Many believe the Maco Light is caused by a ghostly spirit that was decapitated while trying to warn another train. His name was Joe Baldwin. Although investigations can’t turn up anything about Joe, they did find a nearby accident involving a Charles Baldwin who was killed several years earlier than the tale of Joe.

Interesting, yet there is a nearby street in a development named “Joe Baldwin Drive.”

Legends and folklore live on for a long time.

Many believe old Joe Baldwin is out there trying to warn about a detached railway cart. Only problem is, it isn’t there. Neither is his head which many believe he is searching for. Many tales of Joe say that his head was never found after the gruesome incident. Maybe he is looking for that too on a hot humid night among the eerie, humid, wooded swamps of Maco, North Carolina

Thanks for Reading,

Joshua Crane Dowidat

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maco_light