Has anyone read about (or seen) the mysterious lights which can be seen every
night of the year in the desert near Marfa, Texas?  

40 responses total.

Uh, I don't think so. That sort of thing usually goes with UFOs or secret
military test planes.

Have you seen these lights mcpoz?  Try headlights..or flashlights...

No, it is a serious thing.  They have been seen for years.  I have not seen
them, but when I was in the area, their local news had a story about them.
There was a scientific study of them being undertaken at the time.  

Listed below is the first few paragraphs of an item I just pulled off of
Altavista regarding the Marfa lights:

The ghost lights of Marfa, Texas still shine as bright as ever and are
   still as mysterious as they were when they were first seen by early
   settlers who drove their herds into the Marfa area in 1883.
    
   Who can explain their source? Where are they actually located? How 
   long have they been in existence? The mystery is no closer to being
   solved now than when           first seen. 
           
   Robert Ellison came to Marfa in 1883 and off-loaded his cattle in
   Alpine. He then drove the herd west and on the second night out, while
   camped just this side of Paisano Pass, he saw strange lights in the
   distance. At first , it was feared that they were Apache signal fires.
   Mr. Ellison searched the countryside by horseback. He finally realized
   that the lights were not man-made. Other early settlers assured him  
   that they too, had seen the lights and had never been able to identify
them.
                   
   The lights appear almost every night. They seem to come from somewhere
   east of the Chinati mountains but just exactly where has never been
   determined. Those who have searched for their source during the day
   have found nothing! No buildings, no campfires, no evidence of human  
   activity. And no evidence of mineral deposits or swamp areas.  
    
   The ghost lights appear in different ways to different people. Some
   swear they have seen them divide and form separate balls of light. 
   Others claim that they have seen them move up and down. All agree that
   they glow as softly as a star at times and then brighten to the
   intensity of a spotlight. Sometimes they pop off and on. As they fade
   they seem to be receding. There are even accounts of people who  
   claimed they were pursued by the lights. 
    
   A Marfa lights viewing site has been provided for the public by the   
   Texas Highway Department on Highway 90, about 9 miles east of Marfa.  
   Ghost light watchers can park in the area and scan the southwestern  
   horizon, looking toward Chinati Peak. Using the blinking red light on
======================================
If you want to read more, there are lots of references to this on       
http://www.altavista.digital.com.  Just search on MARFA LIGHTS.

Intriguing...a prank of some sort, a portable spotlight of some sort perhaps,
could explain it, but if it's been ongoing since the 1800's I doubt if it's
that simple...

It sounds like it was going on when the first history of the region was
recorded.

My guess would be starlight being distorted by some sort of refraction in the
air, either by heat or by different types of gas.

You could be right.  Maybe there is some temperature phenomena there which
reflects moon or starlight.  Seems funny that if this is as easy to see as
the articles claim, and going on for 100+ years, that it has not had more
notoriety.  

In any case, each year I take a 2 week drive through the Southwest.  I will
try to hit that area this time.

When do you make this trip mcPoz?

I usually make it in the fall.  The last 5 years, at least.  I used to make
it with an old friend from High School, but it has been with my older brother
for the past 3 years.  It is a great adventure each time.  You can see a
summary of it in the "travel" conf.  (I think it was under the title
"Southwest Adventure" or something like that - Nov/Dec 95)

slick, this is inturiging are there any nights where they haven't appeared,
Do the appear even when the moon is not out, even on extremly cloudy nights,
any evidence they are outside the planet, the source anyway.  If they are on
cloudy nights then the source has to be comnig from the earth which means we
ought to be able to find the source. but if they don't appear on cloudy nights
then I agree with Daniel.

From the references you can find it sounds like they are there "almost every
night" and "weather permitting."

what's your personal opinion, mcpoz?

I think it must be some natural phenomena and it must be real.  (At least real
in the sense that if you go there, you would see lights.)  I don't think it
is little green men who have been there since 1883 or whenever.  I plan to
go there next time I take a casual drive thru the Southwest and try to see
what they look like.  What do you think?  Have you read the stuff posted on
the "net"?   Some sound bizarre while others sound like credible first hand
reports.

I think it might be somthing like the northern lights

That's as good a theory as any!

how are those formed anyway?

Ionized particles in the upper atmosphere, I think, but I'm not the one to
ask.

I believe that's right.  Ionized particles in the magnetic field.  Sort of
like a neon light.

Or maybee it's just a bunch of cockroaches...
~-)

Hey, maybe you're onto something here . . . . .

what if cockroaches had magical power to bend light

Now that you mention it, Marfa is sort of close to "Big Bend."

<kain chuckles>

"Big Bend"?

"Big Bend" is one of the truly spectacular national parks in the southwest
corner of Texas.  It is a volcanic caldera, sort of like Yellowstone.  I have
never been there, but may go this year.         

(I was making a play upon words.)

I thought it was that clock in the leaning tower of London..
ack

big BEN...<sigh>

Today I was at Borders and I looked at a Texas map (One of those which shows
each county in great detail, including relief lines).  They mentioned Marfa
as having "ghost lights" as an attraction.  The paragraph mentioned that the
lights have been recorded since the 1800's and they have never been explained.

Are there any geographical features of interest in the direction that the
lights appear from?

Yes, there are mountains all around - 6000-7000 ft hi. One of the articles
said the lights seem to originate at one of the mountain ranges.

Hmmm...

#28 the leaning tower is in Pisa not london
and these lights, is it possible that they're a mirrage?

I guess you would have to list that as a possibility - perhaps the moonlight
bouncing off of an air layer from a temperature inversion??????

The mountains could cause some wort of unusual atmospheric thing...

Well, sometime soon, I will take a trip to that area and let you know what
I see.

funk, maybe the air is especially humid and the moonlight is reflecting an
upside down picutre of the mountains

I'm telling you, it's the cockroaches...

<sigh>

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