The lights were also written about in a 1957 issue of Coronet magazine. But even if that’s the case, what’s causing it? To others, the lights are not a mystery. 10 With so many con f icting theories about the lights, people complain that there will never be a de nitive answer about their origin. The actor was so taken with the Marfa Lights, he is said to have carried around a telescope to view them. When the conditions are right, the lights mysteriously materialize, like deer quietly stepping into a meadow, as night falls on the wind-blown, forsaken West Texas landscape about 9 miles (14 kilometers) east of Marfa. Since the 1800s people have reported seeing the mysterious Marfa lights, and since the 1800s, the answer, by those who have lived in the area long enough to hear the question, “What are they?” has always been, “No one knows.” Everything You Need to Know about the Mysterious Marfa Lights The Marfa Lights—or Marfa Mystery Lights, as some call them—are a top reason to visit Marfa, drawing visitors from around the globe for a chance to see these unexplained phenomena. In general, ghost lights are considered evasive and mysterious, popping up … Just about everyone in Marfa, and many who have visited, has a story like that. What are the answers to the mysterious marfa lights. The mysterious Marfa lights in deep West Texas are a reminder that there are stranger things in life than fiction. Causes of the lights then veer away from ghosts and animals, and into the more scientific. How Are The Marfa Lights Described? I couldn’t tell if they were 10 miles away or a hundred, the size of a car or a house. Marfa Lights are mysterious glowing orbs that appear in the desert outside the West Texas town of Marfa. Wait until it’s late, pull on to the shoulder, turn off the car, and wait in the quiet nighttime silence. Marfa, Texas, is a small town famous for unexplained lights that regularly appear. The Marfa lights seem to occur more frequently during the second half of the The strange, hovering orbs are most often spotted between the small town of Marfa and the area called Paisano Pass, often witnessed by drivers on Highway 90. “Many people who think they are seeing the Marfa Lights are undoubtedly looking at automobile headlights or ranch lights,” wrote local historian Lonn Taylor in the Marfa newspaper The Big Bend Sentinel, “but it is clear that there were other lights out there before there were either automobiles or electricity in the Big Bend, and they are still out there.”. Through the decades, Hollywood productions have used the town as a backdrop in movies. Copyright © 2020 Multiply Media, LLC. They are a blended assortment of individuals, youthful, old and each age in the middle. But what they are is where people tend to stop agreeing. Some think they are an optical illusion. (The airfield, in fact, is the private land where the lights appear, and WWII pilots flying overhead also reported sightings.). Sometimes they changed colors, other times they split apart. After being spotted in 1883 and being written about in 1957 for the first time, there have been many theories that have tried to unravel the mystery of the Marfa lights. You may see mysterious light orbs of all colors appear over the desert. Shafer says she’s even heard people speculate that someone simply ties flashlights to jackrabbits and sets them loose. My first stop takes me to Highway 90, nine miles from Marfa in West Texas. But what are the Marfa Lights and can they be explained by science. The Marfa lights are lights which are visible from a viewing area about 10 miles east of the town of Marfa, Texas. How Can You See T em? Now, this legend is firmly a part of the history — recorded as the first sighting of mysterious lights on the Marfa plain and commemorated on a plaque at the Marfa Lights Viewing Center (MLVC) just east of Marfa on US67/90. Many viewers record their experience — a Marfa Lights View Park encourages it. Kathleen Shafer, an artist, geographer and author of “Marfa: The Transformation of a West Texas Town,” has seen the lights, too. And then there are the Marfa Lights. The Mysterious Marfa Lights by Rachel Bernstein 1 Near the little town of Marfa in western Texas is one of the most incredible sights in the United States: the Marfa lights. What does contingent mean in real estate? If you drive along U.S Route 67, you may even observe these lights. What Causes the Lights? The Mysterious Marfa Lights 21 Sep 2011. Others claim it’s space aliens trying to contact us, or the ghosts of Spanish conquistadors. Sightings occur between dusk and dawn, lasting from a few seconds to several hours. These mystery yellow, white and even sometimes colored lights move through the air with no real pattern, but disappear when approached closely, making scientific observation difficult. Though the lights can be seen from a distance and tend to “disappear” if observers approach, this is no tall tale, like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, one that stokes the imagination’s embers. Whole generations of Texans have been looking for the answer to the question - "What are these lights?" She moved to Marfa in spring 2017 after visiting regularly since 2007. “He spotted lights flickering at the base of Paisano Pass, and he thought they were fires from Apaches,” she says. Yes, headlights still seem the most plausible answer – though the road to Presidio, at that time of night, is fairly lightly trafficked. According to oral history, Shafer says, the lights were first sighted by rancher Robert Ellison as he drove cattle from Alpine to Marfa in 1883. 1,981 in the 2010 census) with an outsized reputation. If there’s one thing that people who have seen the Marfa Lights in Texas agree upon, it is that they are worth every effort to describe them. "They appear only 10 to 20 times each year, in all seasons and any kind of weather." Despite having written an autobiography later in life, Ellison never mentioned in print seeing the lights. Marfa, Texas. T e highway department has constructed an o cial viewing site near Marfa. Some folks find the lights fascinating, and some feel … They come from near and far to congregate at this location peering into an infertile desert along the precipitous skyline. Witnesses have seem them burn bright in the West Texas night sky? 2 The Marfa lights are spheres of light the size of soccer balls in bright Red Bull's skydiving team celebrated the night sky, and the mysterious Marfa lights of a Texas town, in an epic recent nighttime skydive by the Red … How many candles are on a Hanukkah menorah? Why don't libraries smell like bookstores? Marfa sits nearly 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) above sea level and possesses the atmospheric temperature gradients between warm and cold to conceivably create this mirage phenomenon. However, the local population has few complaints about the mysterious lights. If there's one thing that people who have seen the Marfa Lights in Texas agree upon, it is that they are worth every effort to describe them. The Marfa lights, also known as the Marfa ghost lights, have been observed near U.S. Route 67 on Mitchell Flat east of Marfa, Texas, in the United States. Robert Ellison, a cowboy who was driving cattle in the Chihuahuan Desert of West Texas, first thought the strange lights in the distance might be Apache campfires. Ultimately, it seems observers of the lights are at a crossroads in the barren Texas-scape: Those who would like to write off the lights as an illusion, and those who would write them off as an illusion, with a romantic twist. All Rights Reserved. What Are the Marfa Lights? The famous Marfa Lights in Marfa, Texas (naturally) have inspired numerous rumors and urban legends. Eye-witnesses have described the Marfa Lights as strange lights which can hover in the air while appearing otherworldly or extraterrestrial. They have gained some fame as onlookers have attributed them to paranormal phenomena such as ghosts, UFOs, or will-o'-the-wisp. The town has, in the 20th and early 21st centuries, improbably evolved into a tourism and cultural hub, and a center for minimalist and conceptual art. 2 The Marfa lights are spheres of light the size of soccer balls in bright colors of red, orange, greed, blue, white, or yellow. My wife and I are standing at a low Texas Department of Transportation observation building on Highway 90 about 9 miles east of Marfa, Texas, the seat of Presidio County. But maybe we should just ask the Red Bull Air Force where they come from? Since then, the lights, which appear sporadically, have become a part of Marfa lore — and one of its main attractions. It’s about ten o’clock at night. The eerie lights have been seen fopr generations, but the mystery of their origin remain. But in 2011, a group of scientists published a study in the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics on the lights after coming to a much simpler conclusion: They determined that the lights are actually car headlights on nearby U.S. 67 that appear warped as they travel across 20 miles (32 kilometers) of flatland. What are the answers to the mysterious marfa lights? How long will the footprints on the moon last? (We'll discuss the MLVC, built in 2001, in its chronological position below.) The Marfa Mystery Lights, Marfa: See 552 reviews, articles, and 92 photos of The Marfa Mystery Lights, ranked No.1 on Tripadvisor among 10 attractions in Marfa. The Marfa Lights appear almost every clear night between Marfa and Paisano Pass in Texas. Yellow orbs, like lamp-lit basketballs hover and twinkle — and at times gyrate — over the shrubby high-desert ground, in the shadows of the Chinati Mountains. “If you ask a sour puss they might maintain that the lights are car headlights,” she says. The material on this site can not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with prior written permission of Multiply. While they are often referred to as the "Marfa Lights", they have also been called "Ghost Lights". This unexplainable phenomenon can be seen in the desert outside the West Texas town of Marfa. The U.S. Army, local pilots, phisics students, and engineers have all failed to explain what causes them. I didn’t understand them, but I didn’t care. Some think they are an optical illusion. He never found the source of the lights twinkling in the distance, even after hours of searching. The Marfa Lights have been visible for generations. They described the lights as glowing orbs of unknown origin that appear in the sky over the vast emptiness of West Texas, presenting themselves at random intervals but always in … Of course, this is where the debate really heats up, because Rancher Ellison and Judge Williams claimed to have seen the lights in the 1880s, which was long before the automobile began carving its path across America. They appear only 10 to 20 times each year, in all seasons and any kind of weather. Photographer Dustin Snipes was on hand as the skydiving team, led by Jon DeVore, went for a stunning nighttime jump, strapping lights and sparklers to themselves and literally becoming mysterious … The earliest written account of the lights, however, appeared in the San Angelo Times in 1945, according to journalist Hall. Marfa, Texas, is a small town (pop. “We leaned against my car as the day turned to dusk, and within a few minutes, the lights started. mysterious Marfa lights. Are the Yeti Just a Bunch of Bears? Your Body Aches Have Nothing to Do With the Weather. One possible explanation centers on how layers of air at different temps refract light. MARFA AND ITS MYSTERIOUS LIGHTS. “I don’t know that too many people agree on one explanation, but I think that most people in Marfa don’t care what they are. The mysterious ‘Ghost Lights’ of Marfa, Texas By Elettra Fiumi & Eliot Stein 17 January 2018 For more than 135 years, people have reported strange lights above the horizon in Marfa, Texas. Other explanations: glowing gases or electric charges caused by pressurized igneous rock. They are the main tourist attraction in the area. It was founded in the 1880s merely as a water stop, and during World War II it served as a training hub for flyers at Marfa Army Airfield. “I think the lights are real,” says Shafer, who believes the “atmospheric conditions” claim, “but I also think they are an illusion. James Dean’s last film, “Giant,” was filmed in Marfa, Texas. 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