My experience with the Hornet Spook Light

[JimNasium]

I'll assume that most of you have a basic understanding of spook lights to begin with. Here's a good overview of this particular one: http://www.prairieghosts.com/devprom.html I'll preface this by saying that I am a skeptic and that I don't believe that this particular phenomenon is paranormal. Rather I believe that it is unexplained natural phenomenon of some sort.

I had been to this site in college but it was more of an excuse to drink beer and scare the girls we were with. That was 20 years ago but I still am somewhat juvenile so I decided to make the hour long drive back to drink beer and scare my current girlfriend last November. We had a nice dinner in Joplin then drove to Spook Light Road to see if anything would happen. It was a bitterly cold night with clear skies and a half moon which illuminated the fields that are on both sides of the road. We had driven up and down the road a couple of times and decided to park the car and wait for a bit. Suddenly I see what I assume to be a bright (think halogen) flashlight in the field to my left. It was only 50 yards away and it was moving away from us. There was a second flashlight in the same field approximately 100 yards away. Both were moving in the same direction. These lights only persisted for roughly 15 seconds and then were extinguished. It was only then that we realized that there wasn't anyone in the field as far as we could tell.

I still am unsure of what it was that we saw. There were some high school/college aged kids there that night and they very well could have been playing a prank. As I said before I was initially convinced that it was a flashlight. It was only after the light vanished that I attributed it to a possible Spook Light sighting. I certainly intend on going back this spring when the weather is a bit more comfortable.

[airika]

After reading on the website that you linked us to, the description that they give for the "spook lights" is far different then yours. I'm under the impression that what you was looked more like a flashlight, and what is being described on the website looks like calls of fire. I'm not saying that you're wrong...and I'm not saying that what you saw was actually flashlights....I'm just stating that it has a high probability of being "explainable"

[JimNasium]

After reading on the website that you linked us to, the description that they give for the "spook lights" is far different then yours. I'm under the impression that what you was looked more like a flashlight, and what is being described on the website looks like calls of fire. I'm not saying that you're wrong...and I'm not saying that what you saw was actually flashlights....I'm just stating that it has a high probability of being "explainable"

Just to be clear, I am not saying I saw the Spook Light. I'm saying I don't know what I saw. Once the lights went out there wasn't anyone visible in the field.

[airika]

Just to be clear, I am not saying I saw the Spook Light. I'm saying I don't know what I saw. Once the lights went out there wasn't anyone visible in the field.

Although I don't know how tall the grass is in the field, if someone could have ducked down to hide, or what not......I do want to again state....that I'm NOT doubting what you saw...and I'm not saying that you're being irrational....I'm not making fun or belittling you at all....I was merely stating another possibility of what it could have been. Please don't take offense....I meant none.

[Barek Halfhand]

Hey Jim

like the story!

Tho I think the lights you saw were other dudes trying to scare their girlfriends looking for "spook lights"..........B

Edited February 11, 2007 by Barek Halfhand

[Loonboy]

Sounds very much like the 'willo the wisp' phenomenon, and also like the Langdendale lights in the Peak District in England. In the latter, bright lights would be seen illuminating the whole valley, or be seen on hilltops (search and rescue kicked in to go look for them and found nothing on multiple occasions), plus some smaller orbs of light would enter cars and dance around while people were driving on the roads through the valley.

[mysticwolf777]

Jim, an enteresting story. I too have been to see the Hornet Spooklight but have no such success. Even during a weeknight when we went this past summer, there were 12 to 15 vehicles there waiting with traffic up and down the road every few minutes. So from what I've heard, the light is shy and only makes an appearance when all is quiet. But some of the stories are truly fantastic, such as it riding on the hood of cars, or in the rear window, one old resident even told of it passing through him. I'd love to experience it. Mysticwolf

[boorite]

Hi, Jim.

What color were the lights, and how would you describe the way they moved?

There is evidence that certain kinds of weird lights are hazardous to one's health.

[JimNasium]

Hi, Jim.

What color were the lights, and how would you describe the way they moved?

There is evidence that certain kinds of weird lights are hazardous to one's health.

The closest one was brilliant white and I truthfully cannot recall the characteristics of the furthest one. Remember that this happened so quickly that it was difficult to process all of the information. As far as motion goes the first one looked similar to a flashlight or perhaps more accurately a lantern being carried at waist height. In other words, it was not moving quickly. I just wish it would have lasted longer so that I could have processed what was happening and been able to effectively analyze what I saw.

[bLu3 de 3n3rgy]

Hi, Jim.

What color were the lights, and how would you describe the way they moved?

There is evidence that certain kinds of weird lights are hazardous to one's health.

oh, what like Boorite?

[boorite]

Thanks for the answers, Jim. Would you say that the lights moved in a complex or erratic way, as lanterns would if they were being carried, or more smoothly?

Anvil: A woman in Virginia reported that in 2003, she witnessed four brilliant orbs moving through her house. They exited through a window, leaving behind four round areas of altered color and texture on the window screen. In 2006, the screen was chemically analyzed. It was found that the discolored areas contained altered isotopic ratios. Specifically, some iron impurities in the aluminum coating of the mesh material had been changed to Cobalt 60. This could only be the result of extremely powerful ionizing radiation-- neutron radiation, in fact. What they couldn't figure out is why the witnesses-- the woman and her son-- weren't dead of radiation poisoning. Well, she and her son had both been ill for about two weeks after their sightings and had assumed it was the flu. In addition, years later, the woman's orthopedic surgeon asked her if she'd had radiation treatments for cancer, as her bones showed evidence of neutron bombardment.

In short, I don't know what those little things are, but they might be radioactive.

[bLu3 de 3n3rgy]

gosh now that is scary!!

[Paranormalcy]

Jim, glad to see a post on the Spooklight! I also have been there and I am (or was) one of the names/stories on the PrairieGhosts website (Jason Patterson). I also haven't seen anything in the few times I've been there, short of kids building a bonfire in the middle of the freaking road, or someone parked in the middle of the road with their door open (and their interior light on) etc. But we did get LOTS of good eyewitness accounts and stories, some of them even on tape (which I can't find unfortunately).

If you were in the same location as I'm thinking, the field to the left was accessible with no real problem - about three of us went into that field years back, way down into the clearing where the trees open up (this place had non-Spooklight reports of "something else"), so while I'm not saying it wasn't the Spooklight, that sounds like the area my friends investigated years ago, with flashlights, so there is at least a pretty good chance it could have been normal human activity in your case as well. We found the albino animals (horses anyway) in the field to the right, to have been quite a cheap thrill one night.

None of us have been back there for years ever since the police cracked down on Spooklight seekers at the request of the local property-owners - its open to the public again?

Fascinating stuff about the radiation, Boorite! Reminds me of similar reports with UFOs, Mothman, etc. Hmmm.

[kiddglock]

Where'd you eat? The Rib Crib is a very good BBQ place that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. We usually eat at Golden Corral anymore though, due to the vast number of items for the kids.

Been there with my girlfriend back when I was a kid. It's a rite of passage for kids from the Four State area. Here's a good link:

http://www.spooklight.freewebspace.com/

Did any of y'all realize that the animated film Cars with Paul Newman and Larry the Cable Guy was inspired by this area where old route 66 runs through? If you buy the Director's Cut DVD with the extra scenes you can get a short addition "Mater and the Ghost Light". It is obvious that they modeled this on the Spook Light that they probably heard about while in this area. Mater and Doc Hudson as well as some others, are modeled after real people who live around Riverton, Kansas (not far from the Spooklight).

The area where Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma meet up is called "Spooksville" due to the strange going's on there. Quite frankly the area has been hainted a long time.

The connection between cancer and the light is one I'd never made. There are indeed many cases where people who witnessed UFO's later developed many medical conditions probably due to their exposure to high levels of radiation during the encounter. I had never thought of the spooklight doing this. When you think about it though, the Spooklight is nothing if not a UFO itself! AND, the levels of cancer in the Four State area are some of the highest in the nation. This is due to the proliferation of mines and debris from mining in the area. So cancer from the Spooklight could easily go unnoticed.

The Spooklight is indeed a "will o' the wisp" IMO. In fact, it is one of the most famous, having been featured on Unsolved Mysteries and many local programs. It ranks right up there with St. Elmo's Fire and the Marfa Lights.

[Loonboy]

Occasionally, some observer will even take a shot or two at the light, like Franklin Rossman, who lived near the Devil’s Promenade for years. He twice attempted to shoot the light with a “30-30” rifle but the shots had no effect whatsoever.

What is it with people? They see something they don't understand and they just want to destroy it...

[kiddglock]

What is it with people? They see something they don't understand and they just want to destroy it...

This light has been around at least since the first white people settled the area (1820's probably) and probably before that. It has been called a "haint" and a "hoodoo" and was feared greatly by many who lived in the area. I don't have evidence of it and during the past few years it has been fashionable to take a scientific or even a "county-fair" type attitude towards it, but the light has chased and burned people before. Also, there have been many strange happenings in and around the immediate countryside which may or may not be associated with the light-so it is not all just a benign phenomenon that I maybe inaccurately portrayed as kind of a fun family outting type of experience.

Imagine yourself as a lonely Oklahoma rancher out early on an autumn morning to check some calves you've got two or three miles from your house. Suddenly, this light appears in the full darkness. It is easy to imagine in such a scenario somebody pulling out their deer or coyote rifle and taking some shots. So while what you say has some truth to it, there is some basis for the fears of the locals.

No offense intended by my post-just some explanation of why some might feel threatened by the light. This thing is about as well-documented as anything we ever get on here.

[Barek Halfhand]

link from OP: http://www.prairieghosts.com/devprom.html

"This light has appeared seemingly as a ball of fire for almost 140 years, varying in size from a basketball to larger. It spins down the center of this gravel road at great speed, rises up high, bobs and weaves to the right and left. It appears to be a large lantern, but there is never anyone carrying it. The light has appeared inside of vehicles, seems to retreat when it is pursued and never allows anyone to get to close to it. Does the light have some sort of intelligence? That remains just one of the many mysteries connected to this light."

hey all .

remember seeing a show long time ago about the fiery balls of light being sparks from tectonic plate shifting involved in the dynamics of the earths crust....like biting down on a 'wint-o-green" lifesaver and getting a spark....B

Edited February 14, 2007 by Barek Halfhand

[Fake Account Delete]

I'll assume that most of you have a basic understanding of spook lights to begin with. Here's a good overview of this particular one: http://www.prairieghosts.com/devprom.html I'll preface this by saying that I am a skeptic and that I don't believe that this particular phenomenon is paranormal. Rather I believe that it is unexplained natural phenomenon of some sort.

I had been to this site in college but it was more of an excuse to drink beer and scare the girls we were with. That was 20 years ago but I still am somewhat juvenile so I decided to make the hour long drive back to drink beer and scare my current girlfriend last November. We had a nice dinner in Joplin then drove to Spook Light Road to see if anything would happen. It was a bitterly cold night with clear skies and a half moon which illuminated the fields that are on both sides of the road. We had driven up and down the road a couple of times and decided to park the car and wait for a bit. Suddenly I see what I assume to be a bright (think halogen) flashlight in the field to my left. It was only 50 yards away and it was moving away from us. There was a second flashlight in the same field approximately 100 yards away. Both were moving in the same direction. These lights only persisted for roughly 15 seconds and then were extinguished. It was only then that we realized that there wasn't anyone in the field as far as we could tell.

I still am unsure of what it was that we saw. There were some high school/college aged kids there that night and they very well could have been playing a prank. As I said before I was initially convinced that it was a flashlight. It was only after the light vanished that I attributed it to a possible Spook Light sighting. I certainly intend on going back this spring when the weather is a bit more comfortable.

Strange lights i don't know may be aliens

[Paranormalcy]

"may be" lots of things, and I'm not saying paranormal events and "entities" aren't related, but the Spooklight, according to pretty much all of the reports, acts like a "standard spooklight", and yes that includes riding on cars, splitting into multiple globes of light, etc. moreso than what one would expect of "aliens". Could be "earthlights", "swamp gas", "St. Elmo's Fire", etc. There still seems to be as much evidence for as against the idea there is true intelligence behind the Spooklight.

[kiddglock]

"may be" lots of things, and I'm not saying paranormal events and "entities" aren't related, but the Spooklight, according to pretty much all of the reports, acts like a "standard spooklight", and yes that includes riding on cars, splitting into multiple globes of light, etc. moreso than what one would expect of "aliens". Could be "earthlights", "swamp gas", "St. Elmo's Fire", etc. There still seems to be as much evidence for as against the idea there is true intelligence behind the Spooklight.

I pretty much agree with what you're saying, especially your last sentence. That's why I called it a "will o' the wisp". It seems to be in this same class of lights of unknown origin. There are certain possibilities that people keep going over that have been ruled out, such as lights from what used to be Route 66 and now is I-44. The spooklight pre-exists these roads. At any rate, though I wouldn't call it completely harmless, it, in and of itself, seems to at least be mostly that way.

jpatt, have you ever investigated the Camelot?

[Loonboy]

This light has been around at least since the first white people settled the area (1820's probably) and probably before that. It has been called a "haint" and a "hoodoo" and was feared greatly by many who lived in the area. I don't have evidence of it and during the past few years it has been fashionable to take a scientific or even a "county-fair" type attitude towards it, but the light has chased and burned people before. Also, there have been many strange happenings in and around the immediate countryside which may or may not be associated with the light-so it is not all just a benign phenomenon that I maybe inaccurately portrayed as kind of a fun family outting type of experience.

Imagine yourself as a lonely Oklahoma rancher out early on an autumn morning to check some calves you've got two or three miles from your house. Suddenly, this light appears in the full darkness. It is easy to imagine in such a scenario somebody pulling out their deer or coyote rifle and taking some shots. So while what you say has some truth to it, there is some basis for the fears of the locals.

No offense intended by my post-just some explanation of why some might feel threatened by the light. This thing is about as well-documented as anything we ever get on here.

I understand what you're saying but the locals called it a 'light' to begin with. Has anyone every managed to shoot a photon with a rifle?

Maybe if it was chasing you, and you had a rifle, you might knee-jerk and shoot it, but to set out initially to go and find it and shoot it is very bizarre to me.

[Paranormalcy]

I was hoping the OP would post again. Oh well.

The Spooklight seems to have the same kind of handful of varying stories (its a lantern, its a torch, its a train, etc, its star-crossed Native American lovers, its a pair of frontier kids, etc) as a lot of other "local" legends like Crybaby Bridge, Gravity Hill and such, I sometimes wonder if the place had legends associated with it (perhaps different ones) before it became famous for the light.

Besides being invited on a central Oklahoma investigation of an abandoned hospital I haven't been on any other investigations of "landmark" type sites.

[kiddglock]

I understand what you're saying but the locals called it a 'light' to begin with. Has anyone every managed to shoot a photon with a rifle?

Maybe if it was chasing you, and you had a rifle, you might knee-jerk and shoot it, but to set out initially to go and find it and shoot it is very bizarre to me.

Well, what can I say? We're a bunch of hillbillies around here. Somebody figured if they could bring it down they could sell it or something. I dunno. Maybe it had been a long time since deer season and the 'ol boy wanted to use his rifle.

In all sincerity, people have widely divergent views on it, ranging from a tourist attraction to outright fear. In the end, it truly is a UFO.

[kiddglock]

I was hoping the OP would post again. Oh well.

The Spooklight seems to have the same kind of handful of varying stories (its a lantern, its a torch, its a train, etc, its star-crossed Native American lovers, its a pair of frontier kids, etc) as a lot of other "local" legends like Crybaby Bridge, Gravity Hill and such, I sometimes wonder if the place had legends associated with it (perhaps different ones) before it became famous for the light.

Besides being invited on a central Oklahoma investigation of an abandoned hospital I haven't been on any other investigations of "landmark" type sites.

I'd like to get in there and look around.

[Barek Halfhand]

hey all..

map quest shows that area 12 miles SW of Joslin Mo to be the Peoria Indian Reservation ..think that was mentioned somewhere in the thread? ..anybody have a clue in relationship to the reservation where this spooklight field might be pinpointed in an aerial photo?...........B

Edited February 14, 2007 by Barek Halfhand