The Marfa Lights

"Scientific research suggests that most, if not all, are atmospheric reflections of automobile headlights and campfires.”

Obvious to anyone who has seen the Marfa Lights, the person responsible for the above quote had never seen them, for themselves….

It wasn’t until my first trip through south Texas that I even heard of the Marfa Lights. I had stopped in Amarillo, to visit with my brother-in-law, James, and his family. I told him that I was heard on to El Paso, and then down along the border towns of Texas, as part of an assignment that I was working on. My brother-in-law. He asked if I was familiar with the Marfa Lights - to which I responded with the most appropriate of  questions: “What???”

It turns out that the lights were first seen, in 1883 by, Robert Reed Ellison - a local cowhand. As history tells it, “he saw a flickering light while he was driving cattle through Paisano Pass and wondered if it was the campfire of Apache Indians. Other settlers told him they often saw the lights, but that when they investigated they found no ashes or other evidence of a campsite.”
In 1885 Joe and Anne Humphreys reported seeing the lights, as well. Both of these accounts are published in History of Marfa and Presidio County, Texas 1535-1946, by Cecilia Thompson.
Elton Miles’s, 1976 book: Tales of the Big Bend included stories of the Marfa Lights, dating to the 19th century .

Yet science simply dismisses them - presumably because, after numerous attempts, they have not been able to garner any conclusive evidence as to what is causing the lights.

For me, I was quite skeptical, but equally, I was intrigued. Hell, what’s not to be intrigued about! So off to Marfa I went. It turns out that they have a beautiful ‘viewing station’ constructed along Highway 90 - which runs east/west between Marfa and Alpine. The architecture, alone, is worth the visit! On the back side of the building is a concrete platform, with a few binoculars - you know, the kind that always show up in the old movies from atop the Empire State Building. The view is quite beautiful, on its own - regardless of the lights. It peers out over a vista of the Chihuahua Desert, with a small mountain range off in the distance.

The first night that I was there, I saw nothing. I did, however, get the scoop from a tour bus driver who was there with a group of tourists. He told me that two nights before, the lights had appeared within close proximity to the viewing station, and all of the tourists scrambled for the confines of the tour bus! Most times the lights are seen way off in the distance - probably about 15 miles away. This, for me, in and of itself, was impressive. To be able to see these lights, brightly, from that distance, needs some intensity.

But on my second visit I did, in fact, see “the lights”. And yes, they were far off in he distance. But here is where it got very real, for me - as well as all of those who were on the platform with me: First there was one light - an orb, really. It was red, in color. It appeared a small distance above the ground - as if located on one of the mountainsides. It pulsated a bit, then turned white. As it did, another light appeared  some distance to the right of this one. It was white, as well. Then it turned green. When this happened, the original light went out.
This scenario continued, with more and more lights making themselves visible. Eventually the lights spanned much of the width of the mountain range. Several of the lights were near the tops of the range.

Then, here were the ‘realness’ got even more real: A light appeared above the mountain range, and began to move to the right. There was a gap between peaks, which I estimated to me at least a mile. This orb, which appeared to be moving slowly, actually traversed this gap in 13 seconds. If the orb were traveling at 60 miles per hour, it would have taken it one full minute to traverse this gap. If it had been traveling at 120 miles per hour, it would have taken it thirty seconds. You finish the math.
Then another light appeared, much farther to the right of this one. It moved diagonally, from right to left, across the face of the mountain range.
All in all, the lights - more than twenty in all, appeared, disappeared, and reappeared for more than two hours - several of them alternation colors (primarily white, red, and green).

Now, where I live it is out in the country. I am also in the flight path for the helicopters out of Fort Campbell. Most nights there is at least one helicopter perched high in the sky, with a very bright spotlight on. For a while I actually thought it was a bright star in the sky. But as bright as this light it, it is truly minuscule compared to the lights that I saw in Marfa - and they were much farther away than this helicopter perched above my neighborhood.

I am certain that their origin is NOT as the opening sentence of this post implies: "that most, if not all, are atmospheric reflections of automobile headlights and campfires.” Whatever else they could be is rather irrelevant to me. And the reason for this is that they are just ‘cool as heck’. And the “coolness”, combined with the absolute mystery, is enough to keep me going back - and just watching.

_David