Earth: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. The tracks are no longer in use, and the rails at least partially removed/covered, but it remains one of the most popular Halloween attractions in the area.[1][2][3] The light has been described as blue, green, white or orange and appearing to have a "bobbing" movement.[4]
Folklore
According to folklore, the light is the swinging lantern of a ghost brakeman accidentally beheaded by a passing train, searching for his disembodied head. Another variation of the legend holds that the light is a lantern carried by the ghost of a worker killed in a fight with another railroad employee on the tracks.[5] According to skeptical writer Brian Dunning, very similar folklore exists for a number of such "ghost lights", and it's not likely "headless brakemen" could be such a common occurrence. [6]
Explanations
One scientific explanation is that the light is the piezoelectric effect of underground quartz crystals in the area that are under constant stress and cause an electric reaction that results in the glow. Gurdon sits above large amounts of quartz crystals and the New Madrid fault line, and the light consistently appears in the evening rather than intermittently.[5] The light has also been proposed to be the reflection of passing cars on Interstate 30, however believers contend there have been reports of the lights since the 1930s, while the interstate was not built until the late 1950s.[1][2][3]
See also
- Aleya (Ghost light), Bengal
- Aurora
- Brown Mountain Lights
- Chir Batti
- Cohoke Light
- Hessdalen light
- Longdendale lights
- Maco light
- Marfa lights
- Min Min light
- Naga fireball
- Paulding Light
- Will-o'-the-wisp
[ ⚑ ] 33°54′55″N 93°09′19″W / 33.91528°N 93.15528°W[7]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Brown, Alan (2002) "Haunted Places in the American South", University Press of Mississippi, ISBN:1-57806-477-5
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 McNeil W. K, Clements William M. (1992) "An Arkansas Folklore Sourcebook" University of Arkansas Press, ISBN:1-55728-254-4
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Unsolved Mysteries: Gurdon Light, NBC (December 1994)
- ↑ "Arkansas Legend: The Gurdon Light". KARK-TV. https://www.kark.com/about-us-2/arkansas-legend-the-gurdon-light/.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "The Gurdon Light Gurdon, Arkansas A mysterious light floating in the trees of Arkansas may be a piezoelectric effect.". Atlas Obscura. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gurdon-light.
- ↑ Dunning, Brian. "The Marfa Lights: A Real American Mystery". Skeptoid. https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4038. "A similar phenomenon in Arkansas called the Gurdon Light is said to be the swinging lantern of a brakeman accidentally beheaded by a passing train. Not surprisingly, the exact same explanation is put forth for the Big Thicket Ghost Light in Bragg, Texas. These ghost lights can't all be headless brakemen, so it's conceivable that the folk explanation is not true in every case."
- ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: City of Gurdon
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