Shedding light on Spook light activity ~Zim Matrix660

Shedding light on the Light By DEIRDRE KELLEY News Observer staff Either spooks in the night or a natural phenomenon, the Crossett Light has remained a point of contention between believers and non-believers for nearly nine decades. The light; perhaps Crossett's one true claim to fame; has drawn in visitors from around the state as well as from neighboring states.

These visitations, from locals as well as outsiders, prompted an investigation conducted recently to dispel the idea that the area is haunted. Student Brenda Covington and her professor, Dr. Carson Davis, both of Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, visited Crossett in February to shed some light on the light myth. Decreasingly popular as society became more sophisticated, the story went that the ghost of a decapitated railroad man walked the length of the track, searching for his head while holding a lantern; the Crossett Light.

She said that she had become intrigued after hearing of other similar occurrences in Gurdon and Lewisville. She produced a research paper for Henderson State University based on her research.

Covington, a resident of Springhill, La., said that she had made the acquaintance of Mrs. E.A. Voss, a former resident of Crossett. Voss had a lot of stories about the light and it had stirred Covington's interest in checking it out.

Voss said that she had been born and raised in the area where the light was frequently seen.

"We lived about a quarter of a mile from the tracks, about a mile out of Crossett," she said. "My brothers and sisters and I would walk down the tracks to the theater and we would see the light on our way home. It was the talk of the town, but it did not scare any of us. It was a lot of fun when we were teenagers."

Voss said at the time that she believed the "spook light" was just the headlights of cars crossing the tracks near where the Smith-Prairie Cemetery is today. Hers was not a popular opinion, however, and it was downplayed by many in the community.

Covington arrived in town and spoke with an unidentified woman at a connivence store to find where the location of the light sightings were. She said they were directed to a road out past the airport on Arkansas Highway 52.

It was identified as Ashley 425, which is accessed by turning left on Ashley 17 and not making the right turn to head toward Hamburg. The road, which begins as a paved road and turns into a gravel road, extends a distance where it eventually intersects with Ashley 16.

It is in this intersection, facing back south, that she said the light can be seen these days. Over time the underbrush has grown dense, covering where the old railroad tracks lay. But witnesses say the light travels down the road toward the intersection, at times straight down the road and at other times moving from side to side or disappearing off to one side or the other.

Covington, along with her husband and Davis, found the site and waited to see if they would be lucky enough to see the light. Apparently luck was with them and they were able to see what some others had not.

They saw, Covington said, exactly what Voss had suspected: car lights.

"The rumors said the light moves to the left and to the right, and it does," Covington said. "The road is fairly straight with farms scattered along the way. You can see the light briefly, as the traffic turns into the farms.

"From Highway 52 there is a 4- or 5-foot incline making the light seem to move up and down. Trucks have a higher elevation so they can be seen above the dips in the road.

"It is an illusion, with a long road, which makes your perception off-kilter. You see the light at a different time as you hear the sound of traffic. So it is a perception-vs.-reality issue."

Covington said that she and Davis timed the sighting of the light with the passing of the traffic, convincing them of their conclusion. They observed the same conditions with the publicized lights in Gurdon and Lewisville.

She said that the sightings occurred mostly in the winter months when there was less foliage on the trees.

"I don't believe it is a headless man walking around, but I'm a skeptic anyway," she said. "I know this probably hurts the small towns, with all those coming to visit to see the lights.

"A lot of kids, teenagers, go out to see them. There may be three girls and 15 boys out there and they need to be doing something else. There are a lot of places where they can fall through and snake infestations. It's just not safe for anyone.

"Sometimes the truth is not fun, but it's for the best. That's the reason I did my research, to dispel the myth."

While Covington's intentions may have been for the best, local law enforcement officers did not report any more illegal activities in that area than in any others around the county.

"Everybody knows it's a myth. We're not going to stop people from going out there," Ashley County Sheriff deputy Marilyn Smith said. "We make security runs out there and if there is drinking or drugs involved, we take the appropriate action.

"When I was growing up everybody went to Stillion. There were more problems there than at the Light. They also go to Five Point or Lock Six. But I don't remember anything specific about problems at the Light."

The legend behind the mysterious light began in the early 1900s. A spur for the Ashley Drew Northern Railroad was built in 1912, linking Crossett, Hamburg and Monticello. This spur moved timber and timber products, and for awhile cattle, through the area.

According to the legend, one dark night a brakeman (or conductor, depending on who tells the story) was switching the rails for a train heading towards his train. Somehow in the process, he had fallen and his lantern was extinguished.

When his body was found, he had been decapitated by the passing train and his head could not be found. It is believed that the Crossett Light is the kerosene lantern held by the wife of the brakeman or by the brakeman himself as the search for the missing head continues.

Witnesses to the mysterious light describe it as an erie light that can be seen about head-high or nearly on the ground, moving toward the spectator. It has been said to move from side to side, bounce and dip, fade and come back, is red, white, amber or blue, and can be seen only after dark.

Some have said it will move toward the watcher, but if that person moves to intercept it, it will keep a constant distance from them. Others have said it has moved toward them, disappearing just before it touches them, only to reappear behind them.

It is said that the light is not visible every night. It is only dark, moonless, misty nights when the "haunting" glow appears down the track in the wooded area east of Crossett. The track crossed roads at four different places and rumor was that the light could be seen at each location at one time. The lay of the land has changed since then, however, and most sightings these days are limited to the one area Covington wrote about.

Covington was not the first to seek the truth behind the light. A story, written in 1947 by John W. Buckner in a Forest Echoes publication, describes the author and a friend in search of the truth behind the light. He said that they discovered the truth, but that it was not revealed because they did not want to dispel the myth that drew so many curious visitors to the area.

In the early 1960s, a group of the Graduate School of Forestry students from Yale University camped out to view the light. They witnessed the light, saying it pulsated from dim to a high glow and to dim again. They said that they were unable to explain the occurrence.

Interest continued to be aroused by the stories, and in 1962 the Parapsychology Lab from Duke University wrote a letter to former local writer Janice Clark asking if it was worth their time to visit the area. Clark responded that it was not.

She said that she and a few friends went out and after spending some nights in the area, with synchronized watches, determined as did Covington later that it was cars crossing the railroad tracks at varying places. The light had been seen at four different crossings and they determined that they had found the source of the mysterious light.

An article in the Arkansas Gazette in 1976 gave three explanations for the light. One possibility was "fox fire," a luminous fungus on decaying logs. Another was automobile lights traveling distant roads. And the third was a brakeman who had lost his life, and his head, in a mishap and is searching for his head.

Believers in the light as supernatural did not agree with the car light theory. Neither did they believe in swamp gas or decaying logs with a luminous fungus growing on them. Naysayers said that rotting logs and swamp gas could not account for the length of time in which the light had been seen through the years. Conditions, they said, would have changed over time and the railroad would not have let rotting logs lay on the track for over 50 years. Neither would such a theory account for the movement of the light.

Some have asked how the Crossett Light could be attributed to vehicle headlights when it dates back about 80 years, and very few cars were on the roads that long ago.

These same people seldom offer an explanation for why a headless man would need a lantern to begin with.



Eventually the use of the railroad spur was discontinued and the rails were dismantled in the 1980s. Some believe with the removal of the track, the Light can no longer be seen. Others disagree, saying it is still visible at the fourth location northeast of town.

Edward Wooten and his family have lived in the area on Ashley 425 for many years. Wooten said that he has seen the light and it does not thrill him or scare him.

"I've seen it all my life," he said. "I've seen it bounce around, but I have no idea what it is. You can't get up close to it. I've seen it in the woods when I went fox hunting with my dad.

"When there are no other lights you can see it better. It's like some phosphorous light, like a lightening bug only much bigger. When I was stationed in the Philippine Islands, we saw the same thing. It truly looks like a man carrying a lantern. We had guys try to shoot it with mortars, but it did not put it out. I saw it a lot out there and see it a lot here too."

Many do not want the myth debunked. The rush of excitement, the takings of one's breath, the heart-pumping fear; that is part of the draw of the Crossett Light. Others simply like "going to see the Light" as an enjoyable pasttime, an excuse to gather in camaraderie, while they may not even believe in it nor have ever seen it.

I think this is very interesting..I have never seen spook lights.. but I have seen shooting stars which is cool. I hope this helps shed some light on the spook light theories.