Spooklights, also known as Ghost Lights, or a Will-o'-the-wisp, are lights that appear in the atmosphere without an obvious cause. The majority of these are seen only at night. Some appear in the sky, while others appear near the ground. Most are seen frequently on many nights of the year.
Popular legends say that these lights are caused by ghosts, aliens, restless Native American spirits, among other things.
Despite the popular folklore, many of these have a practical explanation. Some spooklights have been shown to be car headlights from a nearby highway, some of which only appear under particular atmospheric conditions. Many others are thought to be the result of swamp gas combusting, especially those that occur in swampy or boggy areas. Others are thought to be some kind of plasma discharge created by fault lines in the Earth's crust. Ball lightning, a rare meteorological phenomena, is also considered an explanation for some of these.
Despite that, some spooklights appear to defy explanation, and the legends persist. There are several spooklights in Arkansas that we are actively investigating.
One light, in particular, is quite prominent: the Gurdon Light. There isn't any dispute as to whether or not this light exists - it's most certainly real. The debate centers around what it is. The light most frequently appears along an old railroad line, near a place where several railroad bridges pass over a series of slow-moving stream beds. The most practical explanation is that it's swamp gas being emitted from the boggy area. However, that doesn't quite explain how it's getting ignited, and why it seems to move down the abandoned rail-line. We are hoping to capture the light on a thermal-imaging camera and to perform a spectral analysis of the light. Thermal imaging will help us understand what kind of temperature is being emitted by this light - if it shows up as a hot object, it's probably swamp gas burning. If, however, it shows up as something much colder - then the mystery deepens.
Of course, there are a number of other spooklights in Arkansas, and we will be examining them in detail in the coming year as well.
