Exploring The Marfa Ghost Lights of Highway 67 In West Texas

ANDREW ARNETT

May 14, 2024 • 6 min read

Marfa Lights @Arnett Files ℗

The Marfa Ghost Lights of West Texas is an aerial phenomenon that has been plaguing the region for time untold. Imagine you're driving along one night, on a lonely stretch of open desert. Perhaps you're a salesman or a businessman or you're driving towards a romantic rendezvous. You're minding your own business, listening to the tunes on the car stereo when suddenly strange glowing lights pop up over the horizon on the road ahead.

At first you think they are the headlights of a tractor trailer. But the lights are red-orange in color and they keep on rising up into the sky so you realize it is not another motorist sharing the highway with you. Perhaps a helicopter then, or a small plane.

Then the lights start to do a little dance in the sky overhead. They zig zag and dart across the vault of heaven in uncanny fashion. Then, to your added amazement, they split like an amoeba into two, then three lights, swirling about.

You're trying to stay focused on the road and you just keep driving. You think maybe it was just glare on the windshield or perhaps you should lay off the Ambien, etc. You think the lights are gone then you look in the rearview mirror and there they are, a whole bunch of the glowing orbs but now they are following you down the highway. What the hell is going on?

This scenario sounds like something from a Steven Spielberg movie but it is in fact a commonly reported incident by motorists who travel along Highway 67 (between Presidio and Marfa) in west Texas. Researcher James Bunnell, who has authored books on the subject, states:

"You might just see mysterious orbs of light suddenly appear above desert foliage. These balls of light may remain stationary as they pulse on and off with intensity varying from dim to almost blinding brilliance. Then again, these ghostly lights may dart across the desert...or perform splits and mergers. Light colors are usually yellow-orange but other hues, including green, blue and red are also seen. Marfa Mystery Lights (MLs) usually fly above desert vegetation but below background mesas."

So what exactly is the nature of the beast we are dealing with here? Often, such sightings are sequestered, like errant cows, into ideological corrals that are more suited to the accepted paradigm.

Such is the case with the Marfa lights, who have gotten the ubiquitous labels that have dogged most or all of UFO related phenomenon including meteors, campfires, automobile headlights, Chinese lanterns, etc. We've been down this road before.

The Fortean minded amongst us have attributed the phenomenon to the paranormal like ghosts, will-o-the-wisp or more commonly, to UFOs, specifically, of the Orange Orb genus.

In the book History of Marfa and Presidio County, Texas 1535–1946 (1985), Cecilia Thompson notes how the first historical record of the Marfa Lights occurred in 1883 by Robert Reed Ellison. He saw flickering lights while driving cattle through Paisano Pass, as did other settlers, who thought they were seeing campfires but upon closer inspection, found no evidence of campfires.

O. W. Williams, a Texas lawyer and surveyor in the Terlingua area in the 1880’s, had learned of the Marfa Lights through a Mexican guide. His grandson, Clayton Williams, told Texas Monthly:

“He (O. W. Williams) had a Mexican guide named Juan Cano and he told my grandfather stories by the campfire that the Indians had told the Mexicans, including one about the Marfa lights. The Indians called them Alsate’s Ghost, for the Apache chief who had been killed by the Mexicans. My grandfather wrote a lot of stories—Indian stories as told to Mexicans, who told my grandfather. He saw the lights too, but I don’t think he ever wrote down his observations. But he told me about seeing them.”

Skeptics have noted how the Marfa Army Airfield was once located just 9 miles east of Marfa, during the years 1942 to 1947. It was then used as a regional airport for years after. Skeptic Brian Dunning claims that the Marfa AAF and airport would be under constant patrol yet no sightings of unusual phenomenon were reported in the vicinity.

Nonetheless, the area has become a popular attraction for the paranormal enthusiasts and the curious alike. An official Marfa Lights Viewing Area has been established 9 miles east of Marfa on Highway 90 and a Marfa Light Festival is held annually in town.

The specific location where the Marfa Lights are most often observed are in Mitchell Flat, that is nine miles east of Marfa and 80 miles northwest of Big Bend National Park. I think special attention should be paid to the geography of the area. What makes it special?

A look at the geography of the location reveals certain unique characteristics. Marfa is located on a mile high desert basin. It is surrounded by mountains and mesas. It provides distant uncluttered vistas - perfect for observation.

High winds can prevail in this location and the temperature can drop dramatically 30 to 40 degrees after sunset. Perhaps most significantly, Mitchell Flat and the surrounding area bears residual fallout from volcanic activity.

The nearby mountains Chinati and Paisano were once active volcanoes which thirty-one million years earlier spewed their volcanic ash over the area leaving thick layers of ash on the ground referred to as tuff. This tuff can be from 50 to 100 feet thick.

At present, a thin layer of top soil sits over the tuff, allowing for vegetation and desert life however, any construction or ranch road will reveal the volcanic ash beneath.

The presence of the once active volcanoes caught my attention immediately due to its association by some, with UFO activity.

Mexican journalist Jaime Maussan [currently of Nazca Peruvian mummies fame] last year reported on video footage showing two UFOs flying into Popocatepetl volcano, south of Mexico City. Maussan claims that volcanoes can serve as "wormholes" or interdimensional gateways for UFOs to travel through. Nothing less than alien technology, he claims, can survive the severe 1000C temperatures inside of a volcano.

This is an interesting proposition to make. I don't have all the mathematics of it figured out, but as Einstein states, E=mc2. The point being that there is a direct correlation between energy (heat) and mass/speed of light. If energy has an effect on matter/speed then it makes sense that it could have an effect on bending space.

Could this be what those mad scientists down at CERN are thinking?

Just some food for thought.

References:

https://visitmarfa.com/visit/page/marfa-lights

Andrew K. Arnett is a writer and producer. He has been published in Paranoia Magazine, New Dawn, Nexus, Konbini and Alien Buddha Press. He lives in Brooklyn, NY and hunts ghosts with the Brooklyn Paranormal Society. Find him on Twitter: @AndrewArnett

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