Tribe
29th September 2013, 17:13
The Devil's Promenade: Inside the rural Missouri town haunted by mysterious light that even Army engineers are at a loss to explain
On a road outside Joplin, Missouri, where the rolling Ozarks merge into the endless flatness of Oklahoma and Kansas, locals report seeing a light called the Spook Light
The anomaly is variously described as a golden, red, or blue light but is always seen as one or more floating orbs
In the early 1940s, the Army Corps of Engineers studied the lights in a failed attempt to scientifically explain them
Locals in the Ozarks hills say they have seen the light and heard the tales of it all their lives.
The name of the area is the title of the series, created by artists Lara Shipley and Antone Dolezal,- but the mysterious apparition itself is known to the townspeople in southwest Missouri as the Spook Light.
Spook Light appears as a basketball-sized orb of light, but only every so often and only by chance on a road called E50, where the rolling Ozark hills disappear into the endless flatness of Kansas and Oklahoma.
Local legend has it that the first to see the lights were the local Quapaw Indians, and some stories saw the light is actually the tormented spirits of two Quapaw lovers run off a cliff by an angry Chieftan.
Other folklore says the light is the torch of a Quapaw or Osage Indian who was beheaded and is searching for his head. Still others maintain it's the spirit of a decapitated miner or Confederate soldier in search of his lost head.
And for every story behind the lights, there's another name for them. It has been referred to as the Hornet Ghost Light, Devil's Jack-O'-Lantern, Ozark Spook Light, and Joplin Ghost Light.
Regardless of the tale behind it or its proper name, the locals who've seen the phenomenon are adamant it is real.
Roberta Williams from Carthage, Missouri has seen the light and told her story to Mysterious Universe.
‘It was before midnight,’ she said. ‘It was like a big, huge ball with a yellow glow and it went right straight through our car. I just screamed.’
Mary Roundtree, a local historian, told NPR she's seen the light, too.
'Its very spooky,' she said. 'It looks like a light way far off, and then its right on you.'
Roundtree said she saw the light as a kid when she and her parents were lured to E50 out of curiosity.
'My heart was just pounding and it was up in my throat and I thought my head was going to explode and my hands got all cold,' she said.
And like almost everyone else whose seen the bobbing orb, she has her own variation of the tale that's behind it.
According to Roundtree, a old Indian man came across some dead bodies in the woods where the Spook now appears. After he buried them, a white farmer came by carrying a lantern. The two killed one another but the light of the lantern still hangs there as an apparition.
The Devil’s Promenade is as dedicated to the the inhabitants of the rural, impoverished area as it is to the Spook Light. The series paints a vivid picture of both the haunting landscape and the fascinating people who populate it.
'We feel the frequent and mysterious appearance of the Spook Light has come to represent for the people we meet a desire for redemption and the fear of slipping into darkness,' write Shipley and Dolezal. 'Our aim is not to provide documentation, but to suggest a narrative that, in the spirit of the light, is part fixed in this unique region and part afloat in a mysterious, otherworldly realm.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2437351/The-Devils-Promenade-Haunting-photos-document-unexplained-light-phenomenon-inhabitants-Ozarks-town-appears.html#ixzz2gIo7ObFu
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
More info here
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/mo-spooklight.html
On a road outside Joplin, Missouri, where the rolling Ozarks merge into the endless flatness of Oklahoma and Kansas, locals report seeing a light called the Spook Light
The anomaly is variously described as a golden, red, or blue light but is always seen as one or more floating orbs
In the early 1940s, the Army Corps of Engineers studied the lights in a failed attempt to scientifically explain them
Locals in the Ozarks hills say they have seen the light and heard the tales of it all their lives.
The name of the area is the title of the series, created by artists Lara Shipley and Antone Dolezal,- but the mysterious apparition itself is known to the townspeople in southwest Missouri as the Spook Light.
Spook Light appears as a basketball-sized orb of light, but only every so often and only by chance on a road called E50, where the rolling Ozark hills disappear into the endless flatness of Kansas and Oklahoma.
Local legend has it that the first to see the lights were the local Quapaw Indians, and some stories saw the light is actually the tormented spirits of two Quapaw lovers run off a cliff by an angry Chieftan.
Other folklore says the light is the torch of a Quapaw or Osage Indian who was beheaded and is searching for his head. Still others maintain it's the spirit of a decapitated miner or Confederate soldier in search of his lost head.
And for every story behind the lights, there's another name for them. It has been referred to as the Hornet Ghost Light, Devil's Jack-O'-Lantern, Ozark Spook Light, and Joplin Ghost Light.
Regardless of the tale behind it or its proper name, the locals who've seen the phenomenon are adamant it is real.
Roberta Williams from Carthage, Missouri has seen the light and told her story to Mysterious Universe.
‘It was before midnight,’ she said. ‘It was like a big, huge ball with a yellow glow and it went right straight through our car. I just screamed.’
Mary Roundtree, a local historian, told NPR she's seen the light, too.
'Its very spooky,' she said. 'It looks like a light way far off, and then its right on you.'
Roundtree said she saw the light as a kid when she and her parents were lured to E50 out of curiosity.
'My heart was just pounding and it was up in my throat and I thought my head was going to explode and my hands got all cold,' she said.
And like almost everyone else whose seen the bobbing orb, she has her own variation of the tale that's behind it.
According to Roundtree, a old Indian man came across some dead bodies in the woods where the Spook now appears. After he buried them, a white farmer came by carrying a lantern. The two killed one another but the light of the lantern still hangs there as an apparition.
The Devil’s Promenade is as dedicated to the the inhabitants of the rural, impoverished area as it is to the Spook Light. The series paints a vivid picture of both the haunting landscape and the fascinating people who populate it.
'We feel the frequent and mysterious appearance of the Spook Light has come to represent for the people we meet a desire for redemption and the fear of slipping into darkness,' write Shipley and Dolezal. 'Our aim is not to provide documentation, but to suggest a narrative that, in the spirit of the light, is part fixed in this unique region and part afloat in a mysterious, otherworldly realm.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2437351/The-Devils-Promenade-Haunting-photos-document-unexplained-light-phenomenon-inhabitants-Ozarks-town-appears.html#ixzz2gIo7ObFu
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
More info here
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/mo-spooklight.html