Odd light phenomena mistaken for ghosts7/23/2023 ![]() An important difference is that the hunter at Cole Mountain was not a man named Brown but a landowner named Charles Jones (Musick 1977, 65–67, 184). Today you can still see the “faithful old slave’s” lantern burning as his spirit still searches for his lost master.Īs I note, however, this tale is, in turn, quite similar to a narrative from West Virginia about the Cole Mountain Light (near Moorefield), attributed to the mid-1800s. When he did not return, one of his slaves took a lantern and scoured the ridge for him. One night he ventured onto the mountain to hunt. Warren (2014, 8):īrown Mountain was named after a plantation owner who lived in the area in the 1800s. This is a variant (as folklorists say) of a legend related by Joshua P. Supposedly, an old slave had become lost and wandered with a lantern, trying to find his way back to his master’s home but failing, a pursuit that he now perpetually continues as a ghost. Still another legend of the Brown Mountain Lights was told to me by a young man visiting the overlook. Not only are no sources cited, but elsewhere in his book (2011, 280) he actually disparages such “scholarly trappings”-just what could help us decide whether he was relating folklore or mostly writing fakelore. Coleman-has discovered a wealth of detail about “Belinda” and “Jim” (as he calls the supposed ghosts). (However, see Walser 1980, 44–45, for earlier sources.) Somehow the author-ghost ballyhooer Christopher K. ![]() This latter tale is elaborated into an entire chapter in Dixie Spirits (Coleman 2011, 173–179), a book with many laughable errors and a complete absence of references. The lights materialized to help neighbors find the young woman’s body, and still appear today reminding evildoers that their crimes will be revealed. Another legend tells the story of a young mother-to-be, murdered by her wicked husband. The lights are said to be the spirits of Cherokee maidens who search in vain for their loved ones.” The sign’s text continues:Ī more recent legend says the lights are caused by the spirit of a heartbroken woman searching the mountain at night by torch light looking for her fiancé who failed to come for her on their wedding day. A sign at the Brown Mountain overlook (on highway 181, at mile marker 20, north of Morganton) claims that “For hundreds of years, people have seen mysterious lights floating above Brown Mountain.” Although no historical record is cited or, indeed, appears to exist, the text nevertheless asserts: “According to Cherokee legend, in 1200 the Cherokee fought a great battle near Brown Mountain against the Catawba Indians and many warriors died. A number of legends are associated with Brown Mountain. I consider that there are three main historic periods or phases:ġ. In investigating the Brown Mountain Lights, I discovered that the phenomena-plural-have evolved over time, along with explanations for it. The author at Brown Mountain, NC (the plateau-like ridge to the right).(Author’s photo by Diana Harris.) Evolution of the Lights ![]() Here is my report on the Brown Mountain mystery, based on lengthy research and two visits my wife, Diana, and I made to Brown Mountain in 2014 (the first, however, becoming a fiasco when the area was shrouded in fog!). Although the rare light did not appear to me during a vigil, my research turned up an instance when the phenomenon proved to have been the moon, just coming over the horizon and being viewed through a bank of fog (Nickell 2001, 188–189). 2 In 1999 at Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, I investigated the Teazer Light, another reputed phantom ship in flames. ![]() There are also ghost lights at sea-for example the Bay Chaleur Fireship, seen off the coast of New Brunswick, Canada, and attributed to the phenomenon of St. 1Īmong the most famous ghost lights are the Marfa Lights, after a town in Texas, reported first by a settler in 1883 (Lindee 1992 Guiley 2000, 156) the Hornet or Ozark Spooklight, south of Joplin, Missouri and the Brown Mountain Lights, near Morganton, North Carolina, reported since 1913 (Guiley 2000, 156–157 Corliss 1995, 71–72). However, Rosemary Ellen Guiley in her The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits (2000, 156), cautions: “Many reports of ghost lights can be explained naturally, such as car headlights or phosphorescences known as ignis fatuus” (literally “foolish fire,” e.g., combustion of marsh gas). So-called “ghost lights” are reported at various sites worldwide, the term being applied to luminous phenomena that, many claim, defy explanation.
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