Hello Everyone,
Well out of all the eerie lights this is my last. Although, I will be discussing certain parts, or reasons why, I chose to do a segment about mysterious and eerie lights in another post. This last haunted light I saved because of a tale that is associated with it. Even though I will not dive much into detail on the tale or legend but it is eerie and sad. This light has a name that no one would suspect has anything to do with a haunted or ghostly light. Just kidding, it’s called the Spooklight.
The Spooklight:
This light was first reported all the way back to the terrible days that included the “Trail of Tears,” in the 1830s. However, the more common reported times was toward the end of the late 19th century and was first documented around 1881.
The first official report on the light went out in a newspaper in 1936 and the Spooklight did not gain most of its attention until after WW2. Perhaps this was because news began to travel quicker. Or maybe because more people moved into the area and became more aware of it. Instead of just dismissing it for some crazy hallucination they realized they were seeing something that should take a little more consideration. The Spooklight.
The Spooklight is also known as the Hornet Light and several other names given to it by locals in the area. The light most often appears to people when facing or looking West. The Spooklight can be seen in various areas and not one set location, unlike most of the other eerie and ghostly lights we have been discussing.
It occurs after dark, that hasn’t changed, and is found between the border of Missouri and Oklahoma near the town of Hornet, Missouri. The most interesting thing to me is how the Spooklight appears in people’s backyards, through-out the area. Or in the middle of the woods. It appears as either a ball of light or some say it resembles the shine of a camping lantern. The Spooklight varies in colors from blue, red, orange and other colors but is mainly reported as being a greenish hue or glow. Either way, a mysterious or haunted light that is not supposed to be there in the night would give me and eerie feeling. No matter what color it is, but I guess a greenish color might be a little more intense as far as my spooky feelings go.
Tales and Studies:
Once again the light is commonly thought to be lights reflecting through the woods to the nearby areas and through refracting and blah, blah, blah it looks like something else. OR this is the Spooklight. I would have to admit this could be some of the cases of reports but once again, there were the ones almost a hundred years before cars.
Of course there are the other explanations that the Spooklight is gases in the area or an electric field, or an electric field messing with the gases. Although lots of these explanations can replicate the Spooklight it still does not explain the reports from way back when.
One tale of the Spooklight is the one that I find the most interesting. Perhaps because it is different form the many others and somewhat sad when I thought about it. Pretty much the tale is that the Spooklight or the multitude of lights in the area are two lost Native American lovers looking for each other. Considering that the light was reported since the time of the “Trail of Tears,” it adds to its eerie and heartbreaking impact.
Just to think as you sit out in the woods at night looking for the Spooklight and sitting silently in place. You are in fact looking at the spirits of lost lovers in the woods. Perhaps they can’t see the other lights. If there is one at the same time. Perhaps that strange and eerie green glow in the silent chilly night is just wanting some help. Some help form you to find the other. Will you answer that plead or turn away in fear?
Thanks for Reading,
Joshua Crane Dowidat
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spooklight