Gurdon Light Caught on Film
Booger Lights: A Successful Trip to Gurdon
Every once in a while, we abandon the farm for a road trip. Usually, October is our yearly mining and treasure-hunting trip. That leaves the other eleven months for more unusual pursuits. We love a good ghost light so this time we ventured to Gurdon, Arkansas for a look at the famous Gurdon Light.
For those who have never heard of Gurdon, it lies south of Arkadelphia off I-30. The Gurdon ghost light appears on a lonely stretch of the Caddo, Antoine, and Little Missouri Railway that crosses Arkansas Highway 53 roughly two and a half miles from town. This section of tracks was the scene of a grisly and well-documented murder in the 1930′s. When railroad foreman Willie McClain accused a track worker of sabotage, the worker turned on McClain and smashed his head with a spike setting sledge. The light is supposedly the ghost of McClain wandering the tracks that were once his charge.
See Close-up below
Unlike many ghost lights, the Gurdon light is well investigated and documented . The light was featured on NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries in the 1990’s and was first captured on camera for Fox Kids Real Scary Stories.A moonless night is always best for seeing the Gurdon Light. You must walk the tracks away from highway 53 for a distance of 1 ½ to 2 miles. Take care, because there are several trestles to cross and some have decayed ties. The light is usually seen between the fifth and seventh trestles. If you walk all the way to the seventh trestle you can easily identify headlights where the tracks pass under I-30. (Obviously, that is not what you are looking for.) We were fortunate to see the light on our first attempt…And even more fortunate to get a couple of pictures.
We have now added Gurdon to our resume of ghost lights and other Earth Light Phenomena along with the lights of Crossett, Ark., Dover, Ark., Marfa, TX, Collinston, LA, and Brown Mountain, NC. While some people prefer to debunk, bunk, categorize, skepticize, or otherwise delineate such phenomena, we prefer to just have fun. Sometimes in life, it’s better to enjoy than to explain.For More Photos See Below:
There were plenty of orbs out that night
A close-up of the above orb
Multiple Orbs
The light caught as it faded from the third trestle
An enlarged view of the above detail
The light as seen from beside the cemetery
An enlarged view of the above detail from beside the cemetery
Thornton Austen is the author of Blood Knowing
from Arkansas Traveller Publishing
© 2011, Thornton Austen
Tags: arkansas, Booger Lights Project, Earth Light, earth light phenomena, ghost lights, Gurdon, Gurdon Light, Legends, south arkansas, Spook Light, Thornton Austen, Unsolved Mysteries
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I live in Gurdon an have for over 20 years an have seen the light several times and have been up close to it and have even seen it follow us as we walked back to the truck and then get in front of us as we walked. I have heard voices at the cemetary. This is something that i am looking forward to taking my kids to see when they get older.