Adventures at the Hornet Spooklight
Over the recent Christmas holiday I went to Seneca with my friend Dana to visit her family. She knew of my interest in paranormal investigation. So she told me the story of the Hornet Spook light, which was very close to her family’s farm. So we headed out to see if we could find it for ourselves. The first night we went out it was uneventful. We spent about an hour sitting along what is now considered the “old” spooklight road. With a little research we also determined that the light can more regularly be seen from about 10pm to midnight. Don’t all spooky things happen at midnight?
At Christmas dinner it was determined that there was a “new” spooklight road that you could see for sure every time. So we headed out again for the second night closer to the witching hour. After many wrong turns and iffy directions we finally found our viewing spot. It was very cold. We sat with the car off and all of the lights out. I was beginning to get impatient. I said “Lets go!”. But Dana said 10 more minutes……
And then we saw it. She said, “Look back there”. I saw a light, but then almost immediately we saw car lights. I said that’s not the spooklight that was a car. So we waited and there was the light again. So this time I started counting “one Mississippi, two Mississippi…” and when I reached “24 Mississippi” a car showed up. Well that seemed like a long time to link the car and the light this time. And then for the coup De ta, we saw it a third time. No cars anywhere this time!
Did we get any evidence? No. We plan on going back sometime when its a bit warmer to do a bit more research. After “seeing is believing” I started to do a bit more research…..
What is the Spooklight?
The history of the spooklight goes back over 100 years. Documented history shows that there have been sightings dating back to post civil war 1881. The Spook Light, often referred to as the Joplin Spook Light or the Tri-State Spook Light, is actually in Oklahoma near the small town of Quapaw . However, it can only be seen from the east, which is why it has been linked to the tiny community of Hornet, Missouri and the larger better known town of Joplin. Many legends surround the topic of the light ranging from a ghost miner searching for his lost family with a lantern, to a decapitated Osage Indian Warrior searching for his head, to a story of two Indian lovers from different tribes who committed suicide by jumping into the Spring River. There have been hundreds of researchers over the years who have tried to prove or explain naturally what is causing the light to appear. Theories have ranged from reflecting lights from I-44 to swamp gas, to electromagnetivity caused by tectonic plates. All of these theories however have major flaws and therefore haven’t become the official explanation. Around World War II the Army Corps of Engineers studied the area for several weeks and finally left baffled. Since then there have been numerous University sponsored teams, ghost hunters, and avid phenomenon chasers who have done in depth studies of the light and its surroundings.
Tri-State Spook Light booklet cover, circa 1955. Scanned by Celtic Caper. Licence: fair use (cf. Wikipedia).
Background & History
The light is usually seen at night, especially from 10pm into the early hours of the morning. People who have had close encounters with the light describe it as being anywhere between the size of a baseball and a basketball or larger. It can be almost any colour, and may change colours or have multiple elements, but is most frequently described as orange or yellow. Its light is strong enough to illuminate the surface of a road, and is often compared with a lantern or headlight. Indeed it usually looks like a lantern or distant headlight, and many people often take it for such until it exhibits unusual behaviour such as darting across a field and then suddenly extinguishing itself. Local residents have seen it in their back gardens, hovering outside their bedrooms, and bobbing along past their porches.
The area has been studied many times, including most famously by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1942, who concluded that the phenomenon was due to the refraction of distant headlamps on Route 66, which was completed in 1933. Yet many, many witnesses have recorded seeing it before 1933, and even back into the 19th century before cars were invented. Nevertheless the refraction theory is very popular, and the construction of Interstate 44 in the 1960s has only helped to bolster it. In 1986, Keith Partain came up with the theory that there are two kinds of sightings: the misidentifications of distant car lamps, and the encounters with the real spooklight. This would explain why the light has remained so popular over the decades, and seems very plausible indeed when all the evidence is taken into consideration.
For example, most sightings of the light are from Missouri looking west into Oklahoma. Visitors drive along either E40 or E50—both of which have been called Spooklight Road or, confusingly, the Devil’s Promenade—for perhaps a mile and then look towards the west and directly at there I44 and R66 are, just over a small hill. Trees line the sides of the roads. It’s not too surprising that most of the lights seen from this vantage point in this direction are distant and indistinct. On the other hand, there are the other type of report: for example, people having seen a light in the west, only to drive towards it and then have it reappear behind them. Or the sighting of Garland “Spooky” Middleton, proprietor of the “Spook Light Free Museum”, where the light tumbled along sparkling into a field amidst some cattle.
The shack known as the Spook Light Free Museum, or the Spooksville Museum, was built on the intersection of E50 and State Line Road by photographer Arthur Posie Meadows. It was later run by Leslie W. Robertson, who subsequently sold it to his brother-in-law Middleton. Open nightly from 6pm to 1am, it was expanded to include a pool table and bar, and in the early 70s once attracted 271 visitors in one night. It was destroyed by fire, possibly in the 80s after Middleton passed away, and no longer stands.
Spooklight Area
The eastern edge of the spooklight area is on Gum Road, just before the intersection with State Line Road. The light was seen to the south of the end of Gum Road back in the days of the horse and buggy, before cars became popular. Thereafter it is said to have moved further west, especially along E40 in the early part of the 20th century. In the 1950s it is said to have moved again, this time slightly south to E50. In fact, sightings of the light seem to have continued along E40 after this time, and even along Gum Road, so that the whole area can be considered rife spooklight viewing territory—if one is not interested in distant refraction from I44 and R66 of course.
Another common approach is to stay on H43 until the intersection with Iris Road, turning right (west) onto Iris and then right again (north) onto State Line Road. In this way, you approach the spooklight area from the south. This method is especially common given the belief that E50 is the only place where the spooklight can be seen.
photographs by Ed Gibson, Grove, Oklahoma
And then came Rance…
As I was perusing through the many websites I noticed a picture labeled ‘Rance’, well I know only one Rance and that is the famous Rance Burger from KRMS radio here at the Lake. Well how could that be? I called him up and found out that him and a buddy did a movie in college that you can still buy at their website. It was featured at the Moxie’s first annual short film and beer festival!
You can purchase the DVD [ here ]
Sources:
http://www.thespooklight.com/
http://inamidst.com/lights/hornet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spooklight
http://www.thespooklight.com
