Page 42 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

22 Ghosts and Phantoms

Evidently they, too, recognized the handwrit- Various legends have sprung up about the
ing of the elder Chaffin. origin of the lights. Some say the Cherokee
spirits and Catawba braves made the lights
and search the valley for maiden lovers. It
seems that the two tribes had a big battle hun-
FIFTY-TWO percent of Americans believe dreds of years ago, in which nearly all of the
men of the two tribes were killed. Apparently
encounters with the dead are possible. this legend has some basis in fact, because at
least a half a dozen Native American graves
have been found in the area.
The Journal’s summation of the strange According to some local residents, the
case of James Chaffin’s will stated the difficul- lights first began to be sighted on a regular basis
ty in attempting to explain the case along sometime in 1916. At the time it was thought
normal lines. For those willing to accept a that the mystery lights might have been caused
supernormal explanation of the event, it by the headlights on locomotives or cars run-
should be noted that the Chaffin case is of a ning through a nearby valley. However, during
comparatively infrequent type, in which more the spring of that year, all bridges were knocked
than one of the witness’s senses is affected by out by a flood and the roads became too muddy
the spirit. J. P. Chaffin both “saw” his father’s for cars to travel—yet the Brown Mountain
spirit and “heard” him speak. The auditory lights were seen in greater number than before.
information provided by the spirit was not
strictly accurate, for what was in the overcoat Some who have witnessed the phenomena
pocket was not the second will, but a clue to believe that the lights are intelligently con-
its whereabouts. But the practical result was trolled. They say that they have seen them
the same. butting into each other and bouncing like big
basketballs. Certain observers swear that they
M Delving Deeper have tracked the lights at speeds of almost 100
Baird, A. T., ed. One Hundred Cases for Survival After miles per hour. On one Saturday night in
Death. New York: Bernard Ackerman, 1944. 1959, according to some area residents, more
Crookall, Robert. Intimations of Immortality. London: than 5,000 persons turned out to see the lights.
James Clarke, 1968.
Some of the spookiest lights on record are
Fiore, Edith. The Unquiet Dead. New York: Double- the ones linked popularly to ghosts and their
day, 1987. haunting grounds. In the little town of Silver
Murphy, Gardner. The Challenge of Psychical Research. Cliff, Colorado, ghost lights have plagued the
New York: Harper & Row, 1970. local cemetery since 1880. Silver Cliff is itself
Watson, Lyall. The Romeo Error. New York: Dell almost a ghost town: In 1880 it boasted a pop-
Books, 1976. ulation of 5,087; by the 1950s it had only 217
inhabitants.

Spooklights
The ghost lights reached the mass media
Nestled far from the nearest city of Hickory, in the spring of 1956 in the Wet Mountain Tri-
the Brown Mountain region of North Caroli- bune, and on August 20, 1967, in the New
na has been a subject of fascination for more York Times. Local folklore has it that the lights
than 100 years, for nearly every night along were first seen in 1880 by a group of miners
the mountain ridges mysterious lights can be passing by the cemetery. When they saw the
seen for which scientists have failed to find flickering blue lights over the gravestones,
any logical explanation. From sunset until they left in a hurry. Since then, the lights have
dawn, globes of various colored lights, ranging been observed by generations of tourists and
in size from mere points to 25 feet in diameter, residents of Custer County. Many of these wit-
can be seen rising above the tall trees and nesses have noted that the curious blue lights
flickering off again, as they fall to the moun- cannot be seen as clearly on the sandstone
tain passes below. markers. This convinced several spectators

The Gale Enc y clopedia of the Unusu al and Unexplained