State

Page Eight THE STATE October 20, 1931 The Lights of Brown Mountain Til К lirnnii Mountain light i* an unsolved mystery lli. il linn СХ- eited l In'* curiosity of West¬ ern Nor 111 OiirolillilllN for generations. There have been official ГОН in л ii > years llie.se weird anil mysterious lights have boon flushing annl flickering in Hcsl- ern \ortli Carolina. Thousands have seen (licin. hut no satis¬ factory explanation of llicir ori¬ gin ever has liccu offered. and semi-official invostigu- lions, but no satisfactory explanation of it* origin has vet been given. Nor does anyone know exactly how long it Ii:is been in existence. Since fall is consilient the hot linn* of year to ace this light or lights, for sometimes more than one appears at l ho same time interested observers are once again going to Wiseman's View, near Linville Falls, and to various points on Jonas Ridge to ga/e at this curious phenomenon that nightly shines over Itrown Mountain, in Burke County. Difference in Appearance No txvo people mein to sue the light quite the same. Some insist it is pale white, with a faint, irregular halo en¬ circling it. Some sav it is a glowing I «all of yellowish hue. To others it appears almost red. Rut all agree 1 lint it is decidedly spooky. Imagine yourself to 1* stand¬ ing at Lovins, on the Jonas Ridge road to Morganton. as was this observer recently. The moon i- not shining, but there is starlight. Von can clearly sit- the town lights of lidioir. Morganton and Drexel, groii|M-d together in three clusters. Then suddenly above the blotch of darkness that is Brown Mountain, you •«■с a light. It isn't «uch a big light; no bigger than a toy balloon. It isn't Mndi a bright light either; not quite ii' brilliant as the town light' that you see. But it is decidedly a weird, eerie light. You don't have to ask. "Is that the Rrowu Mountain light'" You know. Instinctively you move a little closer to the other spectator*. Nobody л peaks. You have a queer feeling, and perhaps you shiver Just a little. The light shines steadily for a few seconds. It rises in the air. It floats iilniut. It waver- as if hesitating which way to go. Then as suddenly Hu itd ii jiooiti: a* it cauic, it disap|icar8 completely. In a few minutes it ap|n-ars again and goes through almost the same allties. Often there are companion lights that net about the -auto. No Set Rule of Conduct None of the light* apparently has any m-i rule of conduct to follow. They come and go for hours at a time, but you never know just how fre¬ quently they will shine tmr the inter¬ vals of their disappearance. Some¬ times they appear stationary. Some¬ times they move up and down. But they are just as liable to move cross- ways. All in all. it's a queer sight with •eeniingly only one certain fact known about them— the fact that they un¬ doubtedly* exist. They are said to ap¬ pear the year round, though you can not always see them on cloudy nights "Г when tllO moon is too blight, Mountain natives shake their heads " hen you talk of Brown Mountain. They «ay there's a "spell" on it. Hunters tell strange tab*, and declare that dogs come whim|>eriug hack whenever they get to a certain spot — the place where the light supposedly rises. Investigation in 191J The Brown Mountain lights first attracted nation-wide interest in UM3 when the Fnitcd States Geological Survey sent a man to study their ori¬ gin. lie stayed only a short while be- f..r. reporting that they came from the headlight' of locomotives Hadiing up over the mountain. The natives laughed at this explana¬ tion. The oldest inhabitants could well remember the days before trains canto into the section, and they said the light was a mystery even then. Furthermore, headlights make a l-'nui in the air like a search-light, and the light in question is nothing at all like that. The theory that auto¬ mobile headlights were responsible was rejected for the same reason as the train lights. Bui the people really wanted to know what caused the odd lights. In 1022 another government geologist arrived for a more thorough investiga¬ tion. lie stayed two week*. He then announced that 17 | «or cent of the lights originated from automo¬ bile headlight*; 33 per cent from loco¬ motive headlights; I'» per cent from fixed lights; and If) jmr cent from brush fires. Again the natives laughed at such conclusions. They again called atten¬ tion to the fad that the light* were there long U-fore the days of trains and automobiles or electric lights. ( Further Proof of Error As further evidence that the man was wrong, they recalled that the 1 fl I (l flood put the local trains and automo¬ biles out of business for about a week. There could hardly have boon any brush fires during that extremely wet period. Electric linos were out of commission. Yet the Brown Moun¬ tain light continued to put in its regu¬ lar appearance at the same old stand. The geologist cleared up one issue, however, when he said that dust and mist caused the lights to take on vari¬ ous tints. He also found that then* was nothing unusual in the formation of the mountain itself to account for the lights. Not accepting scientists’ innttcr-of- fad opinions, local residents and others from afar have advanced many theories of their own. Some have sug¬ gested th<> will-o'-the-wisp, but since there is said to !*• no marshy ground on the mountain that could hardly l«- the reason. Neither is it likely to be foxlire. since that makes too weak a light to seen from any great distance. And the Brown Mountain light is seen from adjoining ranges — eight, ton. and oven more miles away. An amateur explorer believed that tin mountain contained great mineral deposits, but t lint theory was rejected a* highly improbable after superficial investigation. The Theory of “Stills" The reflection from "stills" wa* given tis another probability, but that could hardly account for lights at regular intervals the entire year. Then recently some investigators claimed it was reflection from street light*. That (Continued on page eighteen)