Marfa Lights
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The Marfa lights, also known as the Marfa ghost lights, are regularly observed near
Marfa, Texas 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, Texas, Presidio County. The ci ...
, in the United States. They are most often seen from a viewing area nearby, which the community has publicized to encourage tourism. Scientists observing the lights over the period 2000 to 2008 concluded that the lights were the results of automobile headlights being distorted by warm desert air.


Overview

According to Judith Brueske, the best place from which to view the lights is a widened shoulder on Highway 90 about nine miles east of
Marfa Marfa may refer to: Music * Marfa (instrument), an African percussion instrument * Marfa (music), celebratory music of the Hyderabadi Muslims Places * Márfa, a village in Baranya county, Hungary * Marfa, Chad * Marfa, Texas, a city in the hi ...
. 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 A presidio (''jail, fortification'') was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire mainly between the 16th and 18th centuries in areas under their control or influence. The term is derived from the Latin word ''praesidium'' meaning ''pr ...
, to the south) primarily by their aberrant movements." 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. Referring to the Marfa Lights View Park east of Marfa, James Bunnell describes Marfa lights as "orbs of light", which change in intensity and color, which can move or remain stationary, splitting or merging. He describes the lights as being usually yellow-orange, but also occasionally other hues including green, blue, and red. He states that they usually fly above desert vegetation but below mesas in the background.


History

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 The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...
. Other settlers told him they often saw the lights, but that when they investigated they found no ashes or other evidence of a campsite. Joe and Anne Humphreys next reported seeing the lights in 1885. The first published account of the lights appeared in the July 1957 issue of ''
Coronet In British heraldry, a coronet is a type of crown that is a mark of rank of non-reigning members of the royal family and peers. In other languages, this distinction is not made, and usually the same word for ''crown'' is used irrespective of ra ...
'' magazine. 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. 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.


Explanations


Atmospheric phenomena

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 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. It was est ...
, 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 A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', mean ...
caused by sharp temperature gradients between cold and warm layers of air. Marfa is at an elevation of 4,688 ft (1,429 m) above sea level, and differences of 40–50 °F (22–28 °C) between daily high and low temperatures are quite common.


Car lights

In May 2004 a group from the
Society of Physics Students The Society of Physics Students (SPS) is a professional association with international participation, granting membership through college chapters with the only requirement that the student member be interested in physics. All college majors a ...
at the
University of Texas at Dallas The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD or UT Dallas) is a public research university in Richardson, Texas, United States. It is the northernmost institution of the University of Texas System. It was initially founded in 1961 as a private res ...
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: * U.S. Highway 67 is visible from the Marfa lights viewing location. * The frequency of lights southwest of the view park correlates with the frequency of vehicle traffic on U.S. 67. * The motion of the observed lights was in a straight line, corresponding to U.S. 67. * When the group parked a vehicle on U.S. 67 and flashed its headlights, this was visible at the view park and appeared to be a Marfa light. * A car passing the parked vehicle appeared as one Marfa light passing another at the view park. 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.


Spectroscopic analysis

For 20 nights in May 2008, scientists from
Texas State University Texas State University (TXST) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in San Marcos, Texas, United States, and another campus in Round Rock, Texas, Round Rock. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has ...
used
spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spectro ...
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. They concluded that due to the rarity of observation of "genuine" Marfa lights, those with odd behaviour not explainable as car lights, more research was necessary to determine their nature.


In popular media

The lights have been featured and mentioned in various media, including the television show ''
Unsolved Mysteries ''Unsolved Mysteries'' is an American mystery documentary television series, created by John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer. Documenting cold cases and paranormal phenomena, it began as a series of seven specials, presented by Raymond Burr, Kar ...
'' and an episode of ''
King of the Hill ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels that initially aired on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, with four more episodes airing in First-run syndicati ...
'' ( "Of Mice and Little Green Men") and in an episode of the
Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...
Original Series ''
So Weird ''So Weird'' is a television series that aired on Disney Channel as a mid-season replacement from January 18, 1999, to September 28, 2001. The series was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia. In the first two seasons, the series centered on the ...
''. A book by
David Morrell David Morrell (born April 24, 1943) is a Canadian-American author whose debut 1972 novel ''First Blood (novel), First Blood'', later adapted as the 1982 First Blood, film of the same name, went on to spawn the successful Rambo (franchise), ''Ra ...
, 2009's ''The Shimmer'', was inspired by the lights.
The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...
mention the "lights of Marfa" in the song " No Spare Parts" from the 2011 re-release of their 1978 album ''
Some Girls ''Some Girls'' is the fourteenth studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 9 June 1978 by Rolling Stones Records. It was recorded in sessions held from October 1977 to February 1978 at Pathé Marconi Studios in Paris ...
''. 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 ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson ...
'' episode "
Mad About the Toy "Mad About the Toy" is the eleventh episode of the thirtieth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and the 650th episode overall. The episode was directed by Rob Oliver and written by Michael Price. It aired in th ...
", the family visits Marfa.
Lisa Lisa or LISA may refer to: People People with the mononym * Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA" * Lisa, stagename of Japanese singer Lisa Komine (born 1978) * Lisa (South Korean singer) (born 1980) * Lisa (Japanese musician, b ...
tries to explain the lights but is prevented by
Marge Marge is a feminine given name, a shortened form of Marjorie, Margot or Margaret. Notable Marges include: People * Marge (cartoonist) (1904–1993), pen name of Marjorie Henderson Buell, American cartoonist * Marge Anderson (1932–2013), Ojibwe ...
. The Union Trade had a song called "Marfa Lights" on their 2015 album "A Place Of Long Years".


See also

* Aleya (Ghost light), Bengal *
Aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...
*
Brown Mountain lights 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 a ...
* Chir Batti *
Gurdon Light 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' ...
*
Hessdalen lights The Hessdalen lights are unidentified lights which have been observed in a stretch of the Hessdalen valley in rural central Norway periodically since at least the 1930s. Background The Hessdalen lights appear both by day and by night, and seem ...
*
Min Min light The Min Min light is a light phenomenon that has often been reported in outback Australia. History Stories about the lights can be found in several Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal Australian cultures predating the History of Australia (17 ...
* Naga fireballs *
Palatine Light The Palatine Light is an apparition reported near Block Island, Rhode Island, said to be the ghost ship of a lost 18th-century vessel named the ''Palatine''. The folklore account is based on the historical wreck of the ''Princess Augusta'' in 1738, ...
*
Paulding Light The Paulding Light (also called the Lights of Paulding or the Dog Meadow 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 ...
*
The Spooklight The Spooklight (also called the Hornet Spooklight, Hollis Light and Joplin Spook Light) 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. I ...
* St. Louis light


References

Notes Bibliography * * James Bunnell, ''Strange Lights in West Texas''. Lacey Publishing Company, Benbrook, TX, 2015 * * Herbert Lindee, "Ghosts Lights of Texas," ''
Skeptical Inquirer ''Skeptical Inquirer'' (S.I.) is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle "The Magazine for Science and Reason". The magazine initially focused on investigating clai ...
'', Vol. 166, No. 4, Summer 1992, pp. 400–406 * Elton Miles, ''Tales of the Big Bend'', Texas A&M University Press, 1976, pp. 149–167 * Dennis Stacy, "The Marfa Lights, A Viewer's Guide," Seale & Stacy, San Antonio, TX 1989 * * David Stipp, "Marfa, Texas, Finds a Flickering Fame in Mystery Lights," ''
Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'', March 21, 1984, p. A1. * Cecilia Thompson, ''History of Marfa and Presidio County, Texas 1535–1946, Volume 1, 1535–1900'' (Marfa, TX: The Presidio County Historical Commission, 1985), 194, 197


External links

*
DeMystifying the "Marfa Lights"


– from the ''
Skeptic's Dictionary ''The Skeptic's Dictionary'' is a collection of cross-referenced skeptical essays by Robert Todd Carroll, published on his website skepdic.com and in a printed book. The skepdic.com site was launched in 1994 and the book was published in 2003 ...
''
Discussion of the Marfa Lights (and other 'ghost lights')

Texas Monthly article "The Truth Is Out There"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marfa lights Reportedly haunted locations in Texas Atmospheric ghost lights Weather lore Environment of Texas Marfa, Texas UFO-related phenomena