Marfa lights
The Marfa Lights, also known as Marfa's mystery lights or ghost lights, are an unexplained phenomenon observed near Marfa, Texas, where people report seeing glowing orbs of various colors, including white, red, blue, and yellow. These lights, often described as being the size of basketballs, exhibit peculiar movement patterns—twinkling, splitting, and vanishing—primarily on clear nights in a remote area. Documented sightings date back to 1883, originating from a cowboy's observation while driving cattle. Over the years, numerous theories have attempted to explain their source, ranging from Native American campfires and ghostly phenomena to natural occurrences like swamp gas and electrical charges in the geological formations nearby. Despite these theories, no definitive explanation has been confirmed.
The Marfa Lights have become a significant tourist attraction, drawing visitors from around the world, which has positively impacted the small town's economy. The phenomenon has also inspired local folklore, with some residents viewing the lights as friendly or protective rather than ominous. Annual events, such as the Marfa Lights Festival, celebrate this unique aspect of local culture, further enhancing the community's connection to the lights and their enduring mystery.
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Marfa lights
The Marfa lights, sometimes called Marfa's mystery lights or Marfa's ghost lights, are a visible phenomenon near the town of Marfa in the southwestern part of Texas. People have reported seeing white, red, blue, and yellow lights, and these lights are most often seen on clear nights. The lights allegedly move around in an unusual and irregular fashion over an area that is almost completely unpopulated. Those who have seen the lights describe them as glowing objects about the size of basketballs that twinkle, split apart and rejoin, and disappear and reappear seemingly at random.
People have reported seeing the Marfa Lights for more than one hundred years, and numerous theories have been proposed to explain them. While it is impossible to predict when or if the lights will appear, the lights have turned Marfa and the area surrounding it into a tourist attraction. Many attempts have been made by both professionals and amateurs to determine the lights' origins, but no definitive answer has been found.
Background
The first recorded sighting of the Marfa lights occurred in 1883 shortly after the town was founded as a railroad water stop. Marfa is a small town in northeastern Presidio County. The lights are viewed from Highway 90 and are visible between Marfa and Paisano Pass when looking toward the Chinati Mountains.
A cowboy named Robert Reed Ellison reportedly noticed the lights as he was driving cattle through a pass outside Marfa. Ellison originally thought the lights were coming from an Apache campfire. However, when he mentioned the lights to others, he discovered that people who had seen the lights before found no evidence of a fire when they investigated. Over the years, other settlers and cowhands mentioned seeing the lights, but even when they rode directly toward the lights, they could not find a source.
Some skeptics doubt the validity of the story attributing the first sighting to Ellison—Ellison does not even mention the incident in his autobiography. However, others claim that the sightings were so common among the locals that Ellison probably did not think the lights were worthy of inclusion. The stories of his sighting reportedly came from his descendants, who recall him mentioning the lights.
While the lights amused the locals in the nineteenth century, those in the early twentieth century considered them worrisome. During World War I (1914 – 1918), people thought that the lights were a sign of a potential attack, while during World War II (1939 – 1945), the lights were a concern to officials at the Marfa Army Airfield, where thousands of pilots trained during the war.
The mysterious lights are occasionally called ghost lights and were often feared by people of the past. According to legends, the lights were lanterns or torches carried by the restless spirits of an Apache chief called Alsate and a family of settlers who became lost during a storm and died. However, many residents of the area today see nothing to fear in the lights and take them in stride. Some even view them as friendly, with anecdotal accounts of the lights leading people to safety during blizzards or other storms.
Theories
Over the years, a number of theories have been proposed to explain the Marfa lights phenomenon. According to the very oldest theories, the lights were Native American campfires or lanterns carried by ghosts. Later theories to explain the lights include swamp gas, static electricity, or St. Elmo's fire, which is a weather-related phenomenon where glowing plasma is released during a storm and forms a bright halo around a thin, pointed object such as a ship's mast. Another theory proposes that the lights are the result of a bioluminescent animal that only comes out at night. Bioluminescent animals, or animals that produce and release a chemical substance that allows their body or parts of their body to glow, include some types of sea creatures such as jellyfish and squids and insects such as glow worms and fireflies. Those who subscribe to this theory believe that the bioluminescent animals live in caves or underground burrows in the nearly uninhabited desert and mountains near the area and only come out at night. Others think that bioluminescent plants may be behind the lights or animals that have come into contact with bioluminescent plants are responsible. However, no specific species of plant or animal has been identified in connection with the Marfa lights.
Some people suspect the geology of the area as being the light source, citing the presence in the area of uranium, mica, and other reflective materials. Others contend that pockets of gas floating through the air are responsible or the lights are a mirage created by the bending of cold and warmer air that makes light appear only at a distance. Still others suspect that electrical charges bouncing between various formations of the quartz rock that is plentiful in the area are responsible for the light.
The most common theory is that lights from other sources bounce off the mica and other rock in the area. This theory holds that the air and light conditions in the area are suitable for reflecting light from great distances. In the past, people suspected that railroad lanterns created the lights. A Southern Pacific Railroad engineer conducted tests in the 1880s that he said proved the lights were reflections from lanterns on a ranch that was miles away from where the lights appeared to be. In contemporary times, some attribute the lights as being reflections of automobile lights on highways that are some distance from the viewing site.
Impact
Regardless of their source, the lights have had a positive effect on the town of Marfa. Tourists come from all over the world to see the lights, providing a source of income for the town, which is less than two square miles in size with a population of fewer than 2,000. The town has also benefited from an annual Marfa Lights Festival, held each September since 1986.
Bibliography
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