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The Marfa lights, also known as the Marfa ghost lights, have been observed near U.S. Route 67 on Mitchell Flat east of Marfa, Texas, in the United States. They have gained some fame as onlookers have attributed them to paranormal phenomena such as ghosts, UFOs, or will-o'-the-wisp. Scientific research suggests that most, if not all, are atmospheric reflections, automobile headlights or campfires.
According to Judith Brueske, "The 'Marfa Lights' of west Texas have been called many names over the years, such as ghost lights, weird lights, strange lights, car lights, mystery lights, or Chinati lights. The favorite place from which to view the lights is a widened shoulder on Highway 90 about nine miles east of Marfa. The lights are most often reported as distant spots of brightness, distinguishable from ranch lights and automobile headlights on Highway 67 (between Marfa and Presidio, to the south) primarily by their aberrant movements." [2]
Robert and Judy Wagers define "Classic Marfa Lights" as being seen south-southwest of the Marfa Lights Viewing Center (MLVC). They define the left margin of the viewing area as being aligned along the Big Bend Telephone Company tower as viewed from the MLVC, and the right margin as Chinati Peak as viewed from the MLVC. [3]
Referring to the Marfa Lights View Park east of Marfa (coordinates: 30°16'30"N 103°52'59"W), James Bunnell states, "you might just see mysterious orbs of light suddenly appear above desert foliage. These balls of light may remain stationary as they pulse on and off with intensity varying from dim to almost blinding brilliance. Then again, these ghostly lights may dart across the desert...or perform splits and mergers. Light colors are usually yellow-orange but other hues, including green, blue and red are also seen. Marfa Mystery Lights (MLs) usually fly above desert vegetation but below background mesas." [4]
The first historical record of the Marfa lights was in 1883 when a young cowhand, Robert Reed Ellison, saw a flickering light while he was driving cattle through Paisano Pass and wondered if it was the campfire of the Apache. Other settlers told him they often saw the lights, but that when they investigated they found no ashes or other evidence of a campsite. [5] Joe and Anne Humphreys next reported seeing the lights in 1885. Both stories appear in Cecilia Thompson's book History of Marfa and Presidio County, Texas 1535–1946, which was published in 1985. [3] : 21–22
The first published account of the lights appeared in the July 1957 issue of Coronet magazine. [6] [7] In 1976 Elton Miles's Tales of the Big Bend included stories dating to the 19th century and a photograph of the Marfa lights by a local rancher. [3] : 25
Bunnell lists 34 Marfa lights sightings from 1945 through 2008. Monitoring stations were put in place starting in 2003. He has identified "an average of 9.5 MLs on 5.25 nights per year", but believes that the monitoring stations may only be finding half of the Marfa lights in Mitchell Flat. [4] : 261
Skeptic Brian Dunning notes that the designated "View Park" for the lights, a roadside park on the south side of U.S. Route 90 about 9 miles (14 km) east of Marfa, is at the site of Marfa Army Airfield, where tens of thousands of personnel were stationed between 1942 and 1947, training American and Allied pilots. This massive field was then used for years as a regional airport, with daily airline service. Since Marfa AAF and its satellite fields are each constantly patrolled by sentries, they consider it unlikely that any unusual phenomena would remain unobserved and unmentioned. According to Dunning, the likeliest explanation is that the lights are a sort of mirage caused by sharp temperature gradients between cold and warm layers of air. [8] Marfa is at an elevation of 4,688 ft (1,429 m) above sea level, and temperature differentials of 40–50 °F (22–28 °C) between high and low temperatures are quite common.
In May 2004 a group from the Society of Physics Students at the University of Texas at Dallas spent four days investigating and recording lights observed southwest of the view park using traffic volume-monitoring equipment, video cameras, binoculars, and chase cars. Their report made the following conclusions: [9]
They came to the conclusion that all the lights observed over a four-night period southwest of the view park could be reliably attributed to automobile headlights traveling along U.S. 67 between Marfa and Presidio, Texas.
For 20 nights in May 2008, scientists from Texas State University used spectroscopy equipment to observe lights from the Marfa lights viewing station. They recorded a number of lights that "could have been mistaken for lights of unknown origin", but in each case the movements of the lights and the data from their equipment could be easily explained as automobile headlights or small fires. [10]
The lights have been featured and mentioned in various media, including the television show Unsolved Mysteries and an episode of King of the Hill ("Of Mice and Little Green Men") and in an episode of the Disney Channel Original Series So Weird . A book by David Morrell, 2009's The Shimmer, was inspired by the lights. The Rolling Stones mention the "lights of Marfa" in the song "No Spare Parts" from the 2011 re-release of their 1978 album Some Girls . Country music artist Paul Cauthen wrote "Marfa Lights," a love song inspired by the lights, for his 2016 album "My Gospel." In the 2019 Simpsons episode "Mad About the Toy", the family visits Marfa. Lisa tries to explain the lights but is prevented by Marge. [11]
Presidio County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 6,131. Its county seat is Marfa. The county was created in 1850 and later organized in 1875. Presidio County is in the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas and is named for the border settlement of Presidio del Norte. It is on the Rio Grande, which forms the Mexican border.
Alpine is a city in and the county seat of Brewster County, Texas, United States. The population was 6,035 at the 2020 census. The town has an elevation of 4,462 feet (1,360 m), and the surrounding mountain peaks are over 1 mile (1.6 km) above sea level. A university, hospital, library, and retail make Alpine the center of the sprawling 12,000 square miles (3,108,000 ha) but wide open Big Bend area including Brewster, Presidio, and Jeff Davis counties.
Marfa is a city in the high desert of the Trans-Pecos in far West Texas, United States, between the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park, at an elevation of 4685 feet. It is the county seat of Presidio County, and its population as of the 2020 United States Census was 1,788. The city was founded in the early 1880s as a water stop; the population peaked in the 1930s and has continued to decline each decade since. However, today Marfa is a tourist destination and a major center for minimalist art. Attractions include Building 98, the Chinati Foundation, artisan shops, historical architecture, a classic Texas town square, modern art installments, art galleries, and the Marfa lights.
Presidio is a city in Presidio County, Texas, United States. It is situated on the Rio Grande River, on the opposite side of the U.S.–Mexico border from Ojinaga, Chihuahua. The name originates from Spanish and means "fortress". The population was 4,169 at the 2000 census, and had increased to 4,426 as of the 2010 US census.
U.S. Route 67 is a major north–south U.S. highway which extends for 1,560 miles (2,511 km) in the Central United States. The southern terminus of the route is at the United States-Mexico border in Presidio, Texas, where it continues south as Mexican Federal Highway 16 upon crossing the Rio Grande. The northern terminus is at U.S. Route 52 in Sabula, Iowa. US 67 crosses the Mississippi River twice along its routing. The first crossing is at West Alton, Missouri, where US 67 uses the Clark Bridge to reach Alton, Illinois. About 240 miles (390 km) to the north, US 67 crosses the river again at the Rock Island Centennial Bridge between Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa. Additionally, the route crosses the Missouri River via the Lewis Bridge a few miles southwest of the Clark Bridge.
The Big Bend is part of the Trans-Pecos region in southwestern Texas, United States along the border with Mexico, north of the prominent bend in the Rio Grande for which the region is named. Here the Rio Grande passes between the Chisos Mountains in Texas and the Sierra Madre Oriental in Mexico as it changes from running east-southeast to north-northeast. The region covers three counties: Presidio County to the west, Brewster County to the east, and Jeff Davis County to the north.
The Hessdalen lights are unidentified lights which have been observed in a 12-kilometre-long (7.5 mi) stretch of the Hessdalen valley in rural central Norway periodically since at least the 1930s.
The Min Min light is a light phenomenon that has often been reported in outback Australia.
Black triangles are UFOs reported as having a triangular shape and dark color, typically observed at night, described as large, silent, hovering, moving slowly, and displaying pulsating, colored lights which they can turn off.
The Brown Mountain lights are purported ghost lights near Brown Mountain in North Carolina. The earliest published references to strange lights there are from around 1910, at about the same time electric lighting was becoming widespread in the area. In 1922, a USGS scientist, George R. Mansfield, used a map and an alidade telescope to prove that the lights that were being seen were trains, car headlights, and brush fires, which ended widespread public concern.
Fort D. A. Russell is the name of an American military installation near Marfa, Texas, that was active from 1911 to 1946. It is named for David Allen Russell, a Civil War general killed at the Battle of Opequon, September 19, 1864.
The Spooklight is an atmospheric ghost light on the border between southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma, a few miles west of the small town of Hornet, Missouri. It is caused by the misidentification of distant car headlights.
The Gurdon Light is an atmospheric ghost light located near railroad tracks in a wooded area of Gurdon, Arkansas. It is the subject of local folklore and has been featured in local media and on Unsolved Mysteries and Mysteries at the Museum. The tracks are no longer in use, and the rails at least partially removed/covered, but it remains one of the most popular Halloween attractions in the area. The light has been described as blue, green, white or orange and appearing to have a "bobbing" movement.
The Paulding Light is a light that appears in a valley outside Paulding, Michigan. Reports of the light have appeared since the 1960s, with popular folklore providing such explanations as ghosts, geologic activity, or swamp gas.
The Chinati Foundation/La Fundación Chinati is a contemporary art museum located in Marfa, Texas, and based upon the ideas of its founder, artist Donald Judd.
Farm to Market Road 170 is a 114.6-mile (184.4 km) highway maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) in Presidio and Brewster counties in Texas. The route, known locally as the River Road, runs along the United States side of the Rio Grande which in Texas forms the international boundary between the U.S. and Mexico. The road runs from Candelaria through the city of Presidio as well as several smaller communities and former settlements to State Highway 118 in Study Butte near Big Bend National Park. The road also passes through the southern portion of Big Bend Ranch State Park.
U.S. Route 67 is a major U.S. highway in the state of Texas. It runs from the U.S.–Mexico border west of Presidio to Texarkana at the Arkansas state line. US 67 is part of the La Entrada al Pacifico international trade corridor from its southern terminus to US 385 in McCamey.
Shafter is a ghost town in Presidio County, Texas, United States. The Texas Attorney General's Office listed a population of 11 as of the 2000 Census. It was named in honor of General William R. Shafter, who at one point commanded the nearby Fort Davis. As of 2012, at least one silver mine, La Mina Grande, had been reopened by Aurcana Corporation.
The Chinati Mountains of Texas are a small range in the high desert of far West Texas near the city of Presidio. There is a pass through the mountains on Ranch to Market Road 2810, also known as Pinto Canyon Road, which connects to Farm to Market Road 170 at Ruidosa, Texas. Some believe the range derives its name from the Apache word ch'íná'itíh, which means gate or mountain pass.
Chinati Hot Springs, also known as Ruidosa Hot Springs and Kingston Hot Springs, are volcanic thermal springs and historical oasis located north of Ruidosa, Texas in the Big Bend region of the Chihuahuan Desert, near the town of Presidio.
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