The Illinois-Central Light: Beauregard, MS

Booger Lights: The Flagstop Mystery

Positioned astride a long sweeping curve in the Illinois-Central Gulf Railroad, the town of Beauregard in Copiah County, Mississippi is no stranger to terror and tragedy. On March 3, 1966 a tornado ripped through the area and killed fifty-eight people. Even earlier in the town’s history, on the afternoon of Sunday April 22, 1883, an F-3 tornado swept along a 55-mile track through the town and almost wiped Beauregard clean.

More than a hundred people were injured in that twister. The storm destroyed more than forty homes and businesses. Only three houses escaped major damage. Fortunately, one house that survived was a three-story home on the edge of town belonging to Dr. Elias A. Rowan. Like most country doctor’s homes in those days, Dr. Rowan’s house also served as the hospital for the community. He took in the bulk of the injured. Despite Dr. Rowan’s tireless efforts to lessen the victims suffering, eleven still died from the Beauregard tornado of 1883.
The town’s residents never forgot Dr. Rowan’s efforts. He remained respected as a member of the community, not only as town doctor, but for his work with the church and charity. Dr. Rowan lived an active life and continued his practice long after most would have retired.
One night in 1912, an elderly Dr. Rowan ventured across the Illinois-Central tracks toward the Beauregard Station to meet a patient returning from a procedure done at a large city hospital. The doctor didn’t notice the approaching train until it was too late. The engineer saw the frantically waving lantern, but could do little to stop in time. Beauregard lost its best-loved citizen to dismemberment below the oncoming train’s screeching wheels. Dr. Rowan’s death became just one more tragedy to befall a seemingly cursed town.
Though respected and loved for all his days, it appears Dr. Rowan failed to find rest in the afterlife. The old house beside the tracks soon gained a reputation for paranormal activity. Reports of strange sounds, unexplained lights, and ghostly apparitions centered on Dr. Rowan’s house kept the townspeople away. For many years, the house remained much as its owner left it and no one went inside to plunder Dr. Rowan’s belongings or investigate the baffling occurrences. Thus, it was no surprise to locals when train crews first reported the mysterious light on the tracks.

It was in 1926 that a train first braked to a stop for someone frantically waving a lantern in Beauregard and upon investigation found no one there. When the train reached McComb, the crew reported the incident to the yard boss, who laughed it off. The same thing happened the next night. The light soon became a regular occurrence and the town of Beauregard became known as “Flag Stop” among local railroaders.

The yard boss kept careful records of the stoppages at Beauregard, but feared the ridicule of his superiors. It was some time before he reported the incidents. When he finally took his logbooks in there was no laughter. The railroad assumed the light was an act of sabotage perpetrated by union agitators. They immediately called in railroad detectives to investigate.
The detectives did a thorough investigation and questioned everyone who had witnessed the light. Before long, the investigators had an exact location pinpointed and began a stakeout. Their target was a stretch of tracks where the light always appeared. It happened to be adjacent to Dr. Rowan’s abandoned house. Finding no other possible source for the light, they concluded Dr. Rowan’s ghost was responsible for the incidents. The case was closed.
Trains continued to stop for the phantom lantern of Beauregard for many years afterward. The railroad lived with the nuisance. Eventually, light activity dwindled after new landowners demolished Dr. Rowan’s house in the late 1940’s. However, there are still reports of an occasional sighting of Dr. Rowan’s lantern near the site of his old home on the south edge of town.
Today, little remains of the town of Beauregard. Economics has accomplished what Mother Nature failed to destroy. To get there off I-55 north of Brookhaven take Wesson exit 51. The remains of Beauregard lie on US Highway 51. Freight and passenger trains still use the tracks and travel at high speeds around the blind curve in town. I strongly urge light hunters to stay off the tracks as a train can come on them unexpectedly just as it surprised Dr. Rowan. No one wants you to add your ghost to the Illinois-Central legend.

Thornton Austen is the author of Blood Knowing
from Arkansas Traveller Publishing
© 2011, Thornton Austen

August 1st, 2011 | resurgam3191 | Tags: Beauregard, Booger Lights, Brookhaven, Copiah County, Dr. Elias A. Rowan, Earth Light, ghost lights, Illinois-Central, McComb, Mississippi, railroad, Thornton Austen, tornado.
Categories: Ghost Lights | Comments: No Comments

Texas Ghost Lights

The Booger Lights Project:

Some Texas Ghost Lights

Angleton – The Britt Bailey Light
Anson – Light appears near a local cemetery
Big Bend National Park – The Bruja Canyon Lights and others
Marfa – The famous Marfa Lights have been the subject of numerous investigations and an episode of Unsolved Mysteries
Mexia – On Battery Road a ball of fire travels late at night.
Mt. Pleasant – The Barrett Cemetery Light
Odessa – Lights reportedly appear in Odessa Cemetery
San Antonio – The prairie lights
Saratoga – The Big Thicket Light haunts a gravel road
Sweetwater – Mysterious orange lights reported floating across Sweetwater Lake
Wimberly – Strange lights near a campground and swimming hole

Thornton Austen is the author of Blood Knowing
from Arkansas Traveller Publishing
© 2011, Thornton Austen

July 14th, 2011 | resurgam3191 | Tags: Anson, Booger Lights, Bragg Road, Brit Bailey, Bruja Canyon, Earth Light, ghost lights, marfa, Odessa, San Antonio, Texas, Thornton Austen, Wimberly.
Categories: Ghost Lights | Comments: No Comments

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: