Brown Mountain Lights
Published: 05/16/2010 by Blue Ridge Parkway
The phenomenon of the Brown Mountain Lights has puzzled observers for centuries. The earliest known accounts and sightings are based in Indian Lore from the early 1700s. In 1913 the United States Geological Survey studied the lights and concluded that they were the headlights of locomotives. A few years later a flood indundated the valley and stopped movement over the railways. When the lights continued to appear, the skeptics had a field day at the expense of science. Another study in 1922 by the United States Geological Survey concluded that the lights came from a variety of sources - automobiles, nearby towns, and brush fires. Scientists explained that at sundown the peaks and the valleys produce unstable air currents that refract or bend light rays. A light from the valley beyond Brown Mountain might be bent syward away from its source. Questions continue to be raised. Are the light caused by phosphorous, UFOs, radium ore deposits, or marsh gas, sometimes called the elusive"will-o'-the-wisp?"
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Brown Mountain Lights
