Files From the Edge (15 page)

The Crossett Spook Lights: Crossett, Arkansas

Information about the Crossett Spook Lights came to my attention in 2003. Over spring vacation of that year, I decided to take a trip to Arkansas with the goal of tracking down another mystery. When I arrived in Crossett, I was surprised that almost everyone (who was willing to talk) knew about the lights. The lights have been described as being various colors: red, blue, green, and sometimes a yellowish white. These lights always keep their distance from the curious who try to approach. During my three-day visit, I drove one night along Backwater Road and witnessed a ball of green light off the side of the road in the woods. I stopped the car and got out to try and get a better look at it. The light bobbed up and down in the trees, causing me to periodically lose sight of it. I watched it for three or four minutes before it quickly rose into the air and fell into a heavily wooded area. I could find no rational explanation for the phenomena, and although I took about ten photographs not one came out clearly enough. This may be because the light was never stationary—it continuously moved quickly above and below the tree line. Local legend says that the spook light is the ghost of a switchman at the nearby railroad who was killed by a train sometime around 1850. I wasn’t surprised when I discovered a mineral mine less than one-eighth of a mile from the location where the light has been reported.

The Dover, Arkansas, Ghost Lights

The local Dover, Arkansas, newspaper reports that the “Dover Ghost Lights” can be seen almost every night, just 15 miles outside the city. After leaving Joplin, I paid a visit to Dover to try and catch a glimpse of another local legend. Just off highway 7 is a lonely stretch of dirt road considered a scenic route for the area—and the ghost lights’ main drag. It is reported that the light behaves like a curious animal that responds to other lights and sounds. I spent the entire night switching positions using Route 7 as a center point so I would not get lost. At three in the morning, I noticed a faint ball of light ahead of me on the dirt road. At first I thought it was a motorcycle headlight, but quickly ruled this out because I heard no sound and at times the light went at least 10 feet in the air. I flashed the bright lights in my car and was amazed that a second later, the light flashed back! I did this five times and was able to obtain the same clear response. I started the car and slowly drove down the road with the headlights off; the light then seemed to shift in color from a yellow to a blue and quickly moved to the right into the woods. The next day, I went into Dover and asked about the ghost lights. To my surprise, I was given the names of eight people who had encounters with it. Since my time was limited, I was only able to interview one of them. I did not find a mine in that area, but noticed a very large pit filled with water about 15 feet wide and very deep. A volunteer at the local museum told me there were as many as eight such pits and no one knows who dug them.

The Surrency, Georgia, Spook Light

In 2004, I was visiting a friend in Georgia and decided to look into another report of a spook light that has been seen in Surrency, a small town of about four hundred people in the southeast corner of the state. According to the locals, the light can be occasionally seen along the railroads tracks that belong to the Macon/Brunswick line. In the local library, I found eighteen news stories about the lights indicating sightings began shortly after the railroad was constructed in 1911. According to the news stories, the light is the size of a large beach ball and bright yellow in color. During a regional seismic survey in 1985, geologists from the University of Georgia found a bizarre anomaly deep under the town of Surrency. The anomaly is unlike anything they have seen before: a dome-shaped pocket of unknown liquid at a depth of 7 miles. Some believe this strange underground anomaly is responsible for the light while others say it is the ghost of a resident killed in 1870. From 1925 to present, a number of town residents reported poltergeist phenomenon accompanied by mysterious noises, things being thrown around, and disembodied voices.
[7]
I spent two days in the town and although I didn’t see any strange lights or other strange occurrences, I did leave with a great deal of information that proved Surrency is one haunted little southern town.

The Marfa Lights of Texas

The most famous of the American spook lights can be found in Texas in a small town called Marfa, located about 190 miles southeast of El Paso. Although the lights do not appear every night, they are said to be quite regular such that even visitors to the area have claimed to have seen them. The first recorded incident took place in 1883, when cattlemen first thought they were Apache campfires, but soon realized that they were something else, something strange. The lights have been reported to be yellow in color, and float up and down (or sometimes back and forth) in the sky. Several of them have been seen frolicking around as if in play, chasing each other like baby animals.

In 1973, a team of geologists from the University of Texas went to Marfa to make observations between the months of March and June. On one outing on March 19, they were able to see the lights, but as they tried to get closer, the lights moved away and kept their distance. On March 20, the scientists observed the spook light uninterrupted for twenty minutes. They reported the phantom lights swinging in the air, rocking back and forth then started looping around each other. One of the geologists remarked that the lights appeared to be playing. The lights have been photographed many times since 1986. In my analysis of these images, my impression is the photos are inconclusive. The Apache of the region were familiar with the Marfa Lights; they perceived them to be spirits. According to historical records, nineteenth-century settlers of Marfa believed the lights were ghosts of massacred natives. Later in the early twentieth century, Texans believed the lights were spirits that guarded hidden treasures. Finally, in the twenty-first century, many think the lights are probes sent by an extraterrestrial intelligence!

There are a great many locations in the United States and around the world that have their own spook or ghost lights; the cases are so numerous, a book could be written on this phenomenon alone. Whatever they really are, science lacks a definite explanation. Spook light sightings are very well documented and deserve serious study, in my opinion.

Creatures from a Hidden Reality

The vast diversity of paranormal phenomena provides many avenues of research—enough to fill a very thick book. One important part of paranormal research is cryptozoology, the study of unusual creatures.
[1]
Under this branch are creatures such as Bigfoot, lake monsters, the Chupacabra, mothmen, and other creatures we once thought could only be found in our worst nightmares. In our modern age, people still report encounters with monsters; it makes you wonder if all mythological creatures like the minotaur, griffin, cyclops, dragon, gargoyle, and a host of others really
did
exist and were not the product of medieval over-active imaginations. Throughout history, these strange creatures of time and space appear in certain areas of the world but then vanish without a trace—only to reappear once again at some point in the future. Perhaps they are not part of our world, but from a nearby parallel reality. If we accept the fact that over the centuries even a small percentage of these reports have substance, we have to consider their origin may be interdimensional. However, the frequency of reports seems to indicate the nature of their appearance in our world may be cyclic.

Half Human

Way back in 1960, when I was very young, I saw a movie on television called
Half Human
. The movie was supposedly based on a true story of the Yeti (also known as the Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas). The story centered on a peaceful creature somewhere between an ape and a human that lived high in the mountains with his family. One day, greedy hunters who had heard of the creature found and shot his mate and child. The bodies were taken to a village for storage until the hunters could arrange transportation back to England where they planned to display the creatures and sell them to the highest bidder. Well, the surviving male went berserk; he attacked the village and got his revenge but the story had a sad ending. The Yeti was finally hunted down at the edge of a cliff where he fell off after being shot several times. The Yeti portrayed in the movie was a terrifying creature, but it made me wonder who the bad guys really were in the story: this creature was peaceful and minding its own business until greedy profit-seeking humans found him and his family.

I was quite surprised when they played a short documentary at the end of the movie informing the audience that the creatures in the film were real and have been seen in the isolated Himalayas, and in many other parts of the world, including the northwest part of the United States. I felt safe in my apartment in New York, but I was greatly interested in the topic and began going to the library to see what books I could find on the Yeti and his American counterpart, the Sasquatch or “Bigfoot.” You have to keep in mind, this was 1960; the public libraries did not carry many books on the paranormal—especially for kids. With the help of a librarian I was able to find two books, one about the Yeti in Asia and the other called
Tracking Big Foot,
which centered on one individual’s search for the elusive beast in northern California. For some reason, the two were not shelved with the few books on the paranormal, but in the zoology section. I looked at some of the other nearby books, and they were science books about known animals, so my first impression was that the Yeti or Bigfoot was a real creature. Today, I no longer consider the shelving strange; at that time, books about what were called “flying saucers” were located under astronomy!

They Are Everywhere

As time went on, I began to do more research and found that sightings of similar creatures are not restricted to Nepal, Tibet, or the backwoods of the United States. There have been reports of Sasquatch-Yeti-like creatures in almost every state in the United States, including New York and my present home, Connecticut. According to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), these creatures have been seen in almost every country on every continent. The following report of a Bigfoot-like creature was published in
The Republican
, a Connecticut newspaper still in print today. I am very familiar with this paper—for the past ten years it has been carrying my column on astronomy. The sighting that appeared in
The Republican
was made in Winsted, Connecticut; today this creature is part of local folklore and is called the “Winsted Wildman.”

The initial sighting was made on August 21, 1895, and was made by Selectman Riley Smith, a local town official, according to newspaper clippings from the time. Other Winsteders supposedly saw the creature later as well, but it was Smith’s sighting that was given the most credibility. According to the report in the paper, Smith had gone up to pick berries near the Colebrook town line on Lowsaw Road in an area then known as Indian Meadow. He had his dog with him, a six-year-old bulldog named Ned. When Smith bent over and began picking berries, his dog began barking as if someone was approaching. A short time afterward, a “large man, stark naked and covered with hair all over his body,” ran out of a clump of bushes and, with fearful yells and cries, made for the forest at great speed where he disappeared.

According to
The Republican
, “Selectman Smith is a powerful man who has a reputation for having lots of guts, and his bulldog Ned is also noted for his pluck, but Riley admits that he was badly scared and his dog was fairly paralyzed with fear.” Word of Smith’s tale spread through the little town quickly and eventually caught the interest of newspapers from New York to Boston. Soon after the sighting, newsmen converged on Winsted not only to write about the incident, but also to try and capture the Wildman and bring him back to the city on the train! According to the story, the gang of reporters was unsuccessful and all they went home with were “sunburns and hangovers from the local beer.” Townsfolk were scared, however, and a local posse was formed to find the mysterious creature; but like the reporters, the posse was also unsuccessful. Winsted residents speculated on who—or what—the Wildman was. Some newspaper reports from the time even said the Wildman may have been an insane artist named Arthur Beckwith. Beckwith reportedly escaped from a New York insane asylum in 1894 and was thought to be hiding somewhere in the Litchfield, Connecticut, hills. He was found six months later in Cuba, living naked in the tropics and eating raw fruits and vegetables from the jungle. Today the Winsted Wildman is a local legend and people who live in the backcountry still claim to hear his cries in the night; some say they have even seen the creature running through the woods.

In the summer of 2007, I took a trip to Winsted to see if I could get more information about the legendary Wildman. Many of the newer residents had never heard the story, but a trip to the local historical society proved worthwhile. Although many believe that something was seen during that time, no one will say exactly what. You have to remember that in 1895, the Sasquatch, Bigfoot, Yeti or whatever you want to call this creature was unknown. However, people in many different parts of the United States encountered human-like ape creatures in the woods and, as in the case of the Winsted sighting, were simply referred to as “Wildmen.” During my visit, I found the original news story and talked to several people who knew about the infamous creature. I was also told of another sighting that took place in the late sixties in Kent, Connecticut, only about 10 miles north of my home. Concerning the report below, I was not able to track down the original witness, but I did get the story from the
Danbury News Times,
which carried an account of the sighting in 1969.

The Bulls Bridge Bigfoot

This sighting happened in 1968 when the witness was a young boy, about seven or eight years old. It was a cloudy day in late September and the boy was playing near a window in a two-story farmhouse when something outside caught his attention. He watched as a hairy nine-foot-tall creature came over a hill and crossed the front yard. It had a huge stride, as if in a hurry. It kept looking back as it walked, swinging its long arms. When it turned its head, the creature had to turn its shoulders to be able to look toward his direction. The young boy stood motionless, watching as the hairy ape-like figure moved up a hill. The creature slowed down and made eye contact with the boy for only a second. Its eyes glowed like an animal at night when light is shined in its face. The boy later said that he could see the creature clearly because it was still daylight, and he didn’t get scared until it disappeared around the side of the house. That’s when he ran in to the kitchen where his parents were playing cards with another couple. The boy tried to get their attention, but they took it as whining for a treat; a nuisance. It wasn’t until the parents escorted the boy out the front door and slammed the door in his face that they figured out something was wrong: he started yelling, screaming, and kicking the door. Terrified, the boy continued screaming, beating and kicking the door, crying to be let in. His parents let the boy inside and with fearful tears, he told them about the “hairy man.”

His father and a friend went outside to look around, probably thinking they would find a loose cow. The witness then recalls what happened next: “I’ll never forget the look on their faces when they saw the footprints that dwarfed their own.” The father’s friend was a tall man of around six-foot two or three, and when he stretched his legs to step from one footprint to another, it was nearly impossible for him to match the creature’s stride. Their disbelief had turned to fear. Wanting to follow the tracks that went across a recently plowed field, they agreed going in a car would be quicker and safer. They drove down a dirt road and followed the tracks as they crossed the road and up a small hill. The tracks then went into another plowed field and just disappeared as if the creature vanished into thin air.

Since this report also came from Litchfield County, Connecticut, I wondered if this was another sighting of the infamous Wildman. I had learned through local residents that there were eight more sightings of the creature from 1969 to 2008, mostly by hunters in the deep wooded areas of Shelton, Kent, Sharon, and New Milford, well away from populated areas. I explored one of these locations with three other people in 2008. As we walked into the woods, we heard a loud whooping sound that turned into a scream and then a growl. Whatever was making the noise, it sounded like we were getting too close and the creature wanted us to stay away. I later listened to a number of alleged Bigfoot sounds taped from all parts of North America and I must say, several of them sounded exactly like what my research team and I heard that day. If this creature is an ancient ancestor of man, it’s remarkable that it could hide out in one of the most populated areas of the United States for so many years without being shot by hunters or captured on camera. However, if we take into account that this may be a creature that is able to merge in and out of our dimensional reality, its appearance, disappearance, and elusiveness would make sense.

Bigfoot On Video

The following case is a classic in Bigfoot history because it involves the first home movie of the creature ever taken. If the film is not a hoax, it represents undisputable evidence that Bigfoot does exist and the creature can be photographed. Over the years, a number of skeptics have claimed the movie shows nothing more than a man in an ape costume walking in front of the camera. They also claim that when still images are blown up, you can actually see a zipper in the back of the costume. I have looked closely at the video and never saw a zipper or any other evidence to indicate that it is a large man in an ape suit. I have to remind my readers that when a photograph of any type of paranormal event is very clear and sharp, people question it and say it must be fake. On the other hand, when a blurry photograph is presented in which you cannot make out what is on the video or still image, for some reason, there are more skeptics and true believers who will give it validity.

The Patterson Film

On October 20, 1967, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin were out looking for Bigfoot in the Bluff Creek Riverbed area of northern California on horseback. Their intent that day was to gather footage of the Sasquatch habitat—they really did not expect to actually see one. While riding their horses, suddenly one reared, bucking Patterson off, but he was able to grab the 16mm camera from the saddle bag just in time. Gimlin held his horse firm, and watched in awe as the sequence unfolded. Patterson thought his horse reared because of a cougar or bear, and wanted to film it. Instead, they were confronted with a large, dark, hair-covered body crouching down in the riverbed. With only a little more than one minute left of film, Patterson began filming. As he did, the creature stood up and began to walk away quickly. With his camera in hand, Patterson began chasing the animal, while Gimlin spoke a major concern for Patterson’s safety. Patterson tried to catch up to the creature and filmed what has become the most compelling film evidence ever gathered of a live Sasquatch. The film is shaky in the beginning, but becomes more stable toward the end when the animal can be clearly seen and identified. Twenty years after the video was shot, several men who lived in the same town as Patterson came forward and said they were in an ape suit and that Patterson paid them to help perpetrate the hoax. When I heard this, it made me laugh; it reminded me of a similar claim after UFO sightings in the Hudson Valley. Several groups of pilots came forward and claimed that they were responsible for the sightings by flying in close formation and attaching unconventional lights to the wings of their planes. Actually very few people believed their claims, and those who actually saw the UFO didn’t buy it at all. As in the case of the Patterson film, someone is always going to claim responsibility for a dramatic event to achieve their “fifteen minutes of fame” and perhaps make some money on the side.