UTD Chapter Explores Mysterious Marfa Lights

Society News ^ | 10 December 2005 | The Society of Physics Students at the University of Texas at Dallas

[BigTex5]

Between 10 and 14 May 2004 a dozen members of the UT Dallas SPS chapter conducted a series of experiments in order to determine the origin of the mysterious lights commonly seen near the town of Marfa, TX. The Marfa mystery lights are a phenomenon that occurs after dusk outside the town of Marfa, Texas where lights are observed to appear, disappear, and move about seemingly at random on the horizon.

[BigTex5]

The rest is a PDF file located here.

[Jeff Head]

Folks, including the US Military, have been trying to figure this out for a long time, along with the "spook" lights near Joplin, MIssouri.

[BuglerTex]

Aw, shucks.

[MineralMan]

Heck fire...those Marfa lights are easy. It's some good ol' boys drivin around in their F150 after eating several burritos each. Every once in a while, they stop, light a few farts, then move on down the road.

It's fun, harmless, and kills some time.

[bert]

When they figure it out they can come to NC and check out the Brown Mountain lights.

[BigTex5]

The students claim its the lights from the highway several miles away. But, that highway wasn't built until the 1930s, so that doesn't explain the sightings in the late 1800s.

[MineralMan]

"But, that highway wasn't built until the 1930s, so that doesn't explain the sightings in the late 1800s.
"

They had matches back then, and buggies. It was still the boys lighting farts.

[ArrogantBustard]

Is this a confession?

[MineralMan]

"Is this a confession?"

I never lived in Texas, but there were some strange lights around my home town back in the early 60's. I'm just sayin...

[BigTex5]

They had matches back then, and buggies. It was still the boys lighting farts.

HAHAHAHA! Good one. I forgot about those bumpy wagon trains.

[ArrogantBustard]

"I can neither confirm nor deny ... yadda yadda blah blah ..."

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/MM/lxm1_print.html

MARFA LIGHTS. The Marfa lights are visible every clear night between Marfa and Paisano Pass in northeastern Presidio County as one faces the Chinati Mountains. At times they appear colored as they twinkle in the distance. They move about, split apart, melt together, disappear, and reappear. Presidio County residents have watched the lights for over a hundred years. The first historical record of them recalls that in 1883 a young cowhand, Robert Reed Ellison, saw a flickering light while he was driving cattle through Paisano Pass and wondered if it was the campfire of Apache Indians. He was told by other settlers that they often saw the lights, but when they investigated they found no ashes or other evidence of a campsite. Joe and Sally Humphreys, also early settlers, reported their first sighting of the lights in 1885. Cowboys herding cattle on the prairies noticed the lights and in the summer of 1919 rode over the mountains looking for the source, but found nothing. World War Iqv observers feared that the lights were intended to guide an invasion. During World War IIqv pilots training at the nearby Midland Army Air Fieldqv outside Marfa looked for the source of the elusive lights from the air, again with no success.

Those who have viewed the lights over a long period personify them and insist that they are not only harmless but friendly. Mrs. W. T. Giddings, who grew up watching the lights and whose father claimed he was saved from a blizzard when the lights led him to the shelter of a cave, considers the lights to be curious observers, investigating things around them. Over the years many explanations for the lights have been offered, ranging from an electrostatic discharge, swamp gas, or moonlight shining on veins of mica, to ghosts of conquistadors looking for gold. The most plausible explanation is that the lights are an unusual phenomenon similar to a mirage, caused by an atmospheric condition produced by the interaction of cold and warm layers of air that bend light so that it is seen from a distance but not up close. In recent years the lights have become a tourist attraction. The Texas State Highway Department has constructed a roadside parking area nine miles east of Marfa on U.S. Highway 90 for motorists to view the curious phenomenon.

[JimSEA]

One the Mekong River near Nongkhai, Thailand, a similar phenomenon has become a real money maker for the locals. I sat out at the right time of the year (Fall -- October) two years ago and saw nothing but perhaps I didn't drink the requisite amount of Lao whiskey.

[Rusty0604]

I used to live in Alpine many moons ago and people were always coming there to figure out a scientific explanation for them then. We used to ride out and look at them just for something to do.

[Angelas]

ping interest

[KarinG1]

I'm not trying to put UTD down, I've known some really nice and intelligent people who went to school there. But let's face it, this isn't a case where graduate students from M.I.T. are being sent to investigate the speed of light. If these guys see funny lights in the night sky I will still be skeptical.

[Hattie]

I saw them a couple of years ago when my husband and I went through Marfa. I was a real skeptic when we parked at the roadside area around dusk. They look about the size of big balloons, white, red, come together, then split apart, dancing and jumping around. There are a number of them. Still get chills when I think about them.