Gurdon by Day
A Nice clip of the Gurdon, Arkansas sighting area in daytime as presented by Haunted Arkansas.
The Gurdon Light Article posted earlier
For those of you who plan to visit Gurdon for the upcoming Halloween season, notice the tall weeds and grass down the tracks. That means you will have more to watch for than ghosts. Skeeters and chiggers and ticks. (Oh, my) There are also snakes around, so be careful as you hunt for the Gurdon light.
Happy Hunting,
TA
Thornton Austen is the author of Blood Knowing
from Arkansas Traveller Publishing
© 2011, Thornton Austen
The Crossett Light – A Warning
After numerous emails from local residents, we find it necessary to issue a warning to people who wish to view the Crossett Light at its current location. During the days around Halloween, Ashley Road 425 and the other local gravel roads are a popular location for hayrides. In particular, locals warned us of coming upon utility trailers loaded with children and parked without lights in the intersection of Ashley 425 and Ashley 16. It should be obvious to any responsible adult that this is a recipe for tragedy.
As with the second disaster at Statesville, NC, The Booger Lights Project cannot stress enough that people wishing to view ghost lights should USE COMMON SENSE! Vehicles traveling or parked at night along roads should display some form of light for safety. Red lights are especially good if parked since they do not hinder night vision. While we have not personally witnessed any hayride vehicles and trailers without lights in the area of the Crossett light, one local law enforcement official confirmed that there had been more than one incident of such unsafe practices reported. During the time around the Halloween season, you should use due CAUTION when traveling in this area.
Hayrides are great fun and a wonderful tradition. However, we must do everything we can to insure we go home in one piece. If you are on a hayride, do not willingly engage in unsafe activities just to see a light that is often visible on other nights. If someone parks and cuts out the lights, protest. Yes, the person driving might be an adult, but ultimately, in all modes of paranormal tourism, you are responsible for your own safety.
There are enough ghosts in Southeastern Arkansas already!
The Crossett Light – Part II
The Booger Lights Project: Crossett – The “New” Light
Part I appeared on 1 September 2011.
The absence of its namesake light left the town of Crossett without its claim to Fortean fame. Most people believed the reports of the light’s passing with the removal of the Missouri-Pacific tracks. The sporadic reports that the light sightings that drifted in from local teenagers were dismissed as wishful thinking, but as reports increased it became clear that the Crossett Light hadn’t died. It simply moved to a more hospitable location near the old Bovine Station.
In fact, it is hard for Crossett to claim the light anymore, as it appears much closer to the town of Hamburg than it does its original location. However, local habit conquers geography in this case and the light retains its old name.
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| The Crossett Light Road (c) 2010 Thornton Austen |
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| The Light Road 3 hours later using same camera position on tripod (c)2010 Thornton Austen |
While the light usually appears in the same predictable area, there are times that observers have witnessed the light travel across adjacent properties. Though this is exceedingly rare, when the light strays from its usual pattern it seems to gravitate toward the ruins of the Bovine Station platform to the east of the normal viewing area. On other rare occasions, witnesses report seeing the light appear near ground level between parked cars.
At its current location, the Crossett Light does not attract the attention it once commanded. Still, several amateur investigators have tried to debunk the occurrences unsuccessfully. The viewing area and the zone where the light most often appears is in close proximity to a local highway. This causes most skeptics to dismiss the Light as headlights even though a hill exists between the highway and the viewing area. When the viewer is in position to see the Crossett Light the hill shields the highway from view.
After one adamant and vocal out-of-town critic tried to persuade law enforcement to ban light hunters from the road, a local group set out to dispose of the headlight theory once and for all. They posted observers at the sighting area and the highway with two-way radios. During that night more than a hundred cars passed on the highway. The Crossett Light appeared several times as well, but failed to conform to traffic patterns. Still, the headlight explanation persists, mainly among those who have never seen the actual phenomenon and those who do not bother to even visit the site.
The author was fortunate to be present when another group positioned a laser at headlight level on the highway and directed its beam up the old tram. From the known viewing area and the zone where the light most often appears the hill blocked the beam. However when observers went to the wrong area and stared toward the highway, they could both see the laser and easily identify headlights on the highway. Curiously, from both locations the investigators witness the appearance of the actual Crossett Light.
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| An overlay combining the above photos to show the position of the light relative to the road (c)2010 Thornton Austen |
By going to the designated viewing area, prospective observers remove headlights from consideration and stand a better chance of seeing the actual Crossett Light phenomenon. Take Arkansas Highway 52 from Crossett to the airport and turn left on Ashley County Road 17. After a short distance, Ashley 17 will curve sharply to the right where it intersects Ashley 425. (Not to be confused with the US highway of the same number that goes through Hamburg.) Continue north on Ashley 425 past where the pavement turns to gravel. You will soon pass the site of the old deer camp on the right. Only a chimney remains. Continue north to the crossroads of Ashley 425 and Ashley 16. At the crossroads, turn around and drive back toward the camp for 100-200 yards. Park and turn off all lights. Local tradition says you should flash your headlights three times to summon the Crossett Light. Experience has shown this to be unnecessary, but why buck tradition? The light most often appears near the old deer camp, but if you approach it will disappear.
As always respect private property, be courteous to other viewers, and enjoy the Crossett Light. I hope you are fortunate enough to see it.
The Crossett Viewing Area
from
© 2011, Thornton Austen
Personal Experience – The Crossett Railroad Light
. A Personal Account by Grey Hand
Here’s the proof. When you share your personal ghost light experiences with the Booger Lights Project, (if you give the okay) we will post them here for everyone to see and enjoy. We do reserve the right to edit, but this time as in most cases, no editing was necessary. This personal account of the Crossett Light was made available by Hamburg, Arkansas resident, Grey Hand. (Yep, that’s his real name)
In the summer of 1975, I was 11 years old and saw the (old) Crossett Light for the first time. We were living in North Crossett that summer and earlier in the year the “Good Friday Tornado” had wiped out the town of Warren, Arkansas where my mother’s family lived. My grandparents and two teenaged aunts had survived the storm, but the girls had been at a slumber party at a house on Wheeler Street. This house like most others on Wheeler Street was leveled and the girls barely escaped before it caught fire and burned. My Grandparents decided it would be best if the girls spent the summer with us, at least until all the clean up and funerals were through.
Soon my aunts made friends with some local kids and learned about the legend of the Crossett Light. My mother confirmed that the light existed since she had snuck off from Warren in 1960 with some other teenagers and gone to see the light. I had never heard of the light, but after hearing the legend of the headless brakeman I, like my aunts, was determined to see the light. My parents finally relented and took us down to the tracks along with my little brother and a couple of neighbor kids.
We disembarked the family pickup at the old Unity Road crossing and walked north along the tracks for about a hundred yards until we were well away from the headlights along highway. We waited and waited there in the dark, but saw nothing. Dad had had about enough. He refused to believe there was such a thing as a ghost light, anyway. He had just ordered us all back to the truck when a large orange-ish light like a ball of fire drifted across the tracks about a hundred yards away from where we stood. The order to leave was soon forgotten as we all stood staring into the night.
About ten minutes later, the light came back across the tracks slowly from th other direction. This time, it was much closer and larger. The light appeared one more time that night. I know Dad saw the light, but he still refused to say it existed. I saw the light on the tracks many more times over the years and especially loved to bring friends from college to experience the ghost on the tracks. Like many people, I hated it when Mo-Pac pulled up the tracks, but was glad the light started to appear out on Ashley Co. Road 425. The light does not appear as bright or as large there, but at least it is still around for future generations to enjoy.
Booger Lights On the Road
The fall of the year is when we do most of our roadwork. When we go out to do research for the blog and books, we go in style. Sure, there are fancy rigs on the road that can cost up tp a half mil, but nothing turns heads like an Airstream. They are way cool.
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| 1987 Airstream 345 Motorcoach |
A lot of people who weren’t around during the Apollo moonshots have never seen an Airstream coach before. Up until recently NASA still used one to carry astronauts to the launch pad. There’s nothing like them. When they were made (most of them in the 1980′s) they cost around a hundred grand. The shiny aluminum skin is a lot more durable than todays fiberglass sandwich material that likes to delaminate. And at used prices they are most affordable. Nothing strikes up a conversation at the campground or the rest stop like our mobile research and recreation vehicle.
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| The Mobile Research and Recreation Vehicle rolls through the New Madrid Seismic Zone near Senath, MO |
from
© 2011, Thornton Austen
