Are They Car Lights?

This article was extracted from the March 19, 1960 'Science News Letter' article 'Spook Light, Space Fuel'

"Last summer a 17-year old Carthage Mo 'scientist' thaveled 12 miles southwest of Joplin Mo to a lonly northeastern Oklahome road to chase a ghost. He solved the mystery of the famous Hornet 'Spook Light' which had baffled other investigators for years. As young William E. Underwood described his experience 'Soon after dusk a suffused glow appeared in the sky to the west over a range of hills, the center of the lighted area being in line with the axis of the road. The greenish-yellow ball appeared to descend out of the hills and rapidly advance toward us."

When he looked at the Light through a spectrotelescope it had a continuous spectrum, so William deduced that it must have an incandescent source. When he took infrared films of the Spook, he became convinced that it was produced by total reflection of automobile headlights.

The physical features of the Spooky area further supported his theory, for US Route 66, east and west, was in direct line with his observation point and Spring River crossed close by between the gravel road and the highway. Thus William concluded that the Spook was nothing more or less than the light of car headlamps reflected over the range of low-lying hills."

I think this article was about the winners of the 19th Science Talent Search. Perhaps they have it 'registered' at the STS archive.

Here are photos and comments from a new web site by 'Jamie Patterson' that I found on May 2, 2002: http://www.mulvane.org/hsl/photo/mapspic.html

When I was elected to work on the Spooklight's site I really didn't expect to be writing about MY experiences. I thought, "Well ok, but I'm really just the site designer." True, I have gone to see the light; it's been quite a long lasting tradition in my family. I have been down to the road several times in my life. Honestly, I have never seen a light which resembles the phenomenon that my forefathers have described. Still yet, somewhere inside me there is a part that wants to believe that there is something there. I have read literature, checked out the internet, and spent many a night patiently awaiting its arrival on that old dirt road in Oklahoma. Yet, I can not find a conclusive answer and truth be known I probably won't. However, what I plan to do is to gather as much information as possible and present it to you, the readers, in the most objective way possible. My father is also avidly seeking an answer to this century old riddle. We hope that by attacking this from several angles that maybe we can present some kind of a reasonable hypothesis. I have begun researching the history of the area: the "Indian Territories", the people, the myths and legends, the existing roads and other historical facts of the area from the late 1800s to present. You can read about my findings in our research notes history section. My father (sometimes with family or friends) has been making regular trips with a much more technical approach in mind. You can read all about his aspect of our research in the research notes technical section. I would like to leave all of you, skeptics and believers alike, with one last thought... As those of us who have spent more than a few hours looking for the light well know, by the time 4 a.m. rolls around, you begin to see things that aren't there. Because of this, I am lead to believe that many of the so called sightings are nothing more than the headlights that so many researchers have professed them to be. However, there are those odd stories of the lights "dancing" around in the vehicle or hovering on the car fender. It could merely be a need for some to keep propagating an old urban legend and then again it could be the real, bona-fide thing...

This is a photograph, of the spook light, that was taken by Jay Patterson in 1980 . The light that is at the bottom right-hand corner is a car that coming over the hill on E50 (Spook Light Rd). The light in the left-hand corner is the spook light. It should be noted that all the photographs on this page were taken facing east. This eliminates the possibility of explaining this particular phenomena as headlights on hwy 66. The headlight switched off just after photo was taken but the Spkko Light remained. Extachrome 400 pushed to 3200. 20 second exposure. F2.8/128 mm lens. Taken in March 1980 facing East.

This is the Spook Light Museum that used to stand at the corner of the Spook Light Road. It was ran by Garland (Spooky) Middleton, up to the time of his death. The museum was abandoned shortly thereafter.

This is photo11, taken as I was looking down the Spook Light road. It explains in detail the logistics of the the photograph as well as the background objects and lights.

Since so many people claim headlights as the most probable cause of the HSL. We have included some photos of the headlights on highway66 and the town of Quapaw. We realize this is not empirical evidence but found it interesting none the less... One of the explanations offered as a cause of the HSL, is of course headlights. I have included these photographs as an example of how the camera captures the headlights from Hwy66 as well as from the town of Quapaw, Ok. The following collection of photographs were shot with two different systems which will be identified below.... I have recently had the camera repaired that I used to shoot the HSL photographs, in 1980. During my next trip to the HSL, I will duplicate the exact conditions and equipment. I will photograph the headlight phenomena again, so as to have an apples to apples comparison... Until then enjoy...

The above pictures were taken with a Canon Eos Elan, 70 - 210 APO zoom on kodacolor 400 film, 30 second exposure. This is facing west towards the town of Quapaw.