This is another installment of LEGENDS of PARANORMAL. I will research the myth and/or legend and show images and videos. Please do not hesitate to comment below on something you would like featured.
The Spooklight, also called the Hornet Spooklight, Hollis Light and Joplin Spook Light, is a mysterious visual phenomenon allegedly experienced by witnesses in a small area known locally as the “Devil’s Promenade” on the border between southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma west of the small town of Hornet, Missouri.
Explanations for the lights appearance vary widely from the extraordinary to the mundane. The area of Oklahoma in which the light is seen is very hilly and forested and out to the west of where the light is seen lies Interstate 44. It has been suggested that the headlights of cars seen over the hills explain the light’s appearance, which is sometimes said to bob up and down, dance, or even split into multiple globules of light. In William Least Heat-Moon’s 2008 book Roads to Quoz, the author suggests that the lights seen at the end of E 50 are explained perfectly by the fact that the road aligns directly with Route 66 across the interstate and the river valley, some three miles distant. He also claims that earlier sightings of the light from E 40 Road, one block to the north, are explained by an earlier alignment of Route 66 to the north of the town of Quapaw, Oklahoma, and also aligned with E 40 Road. The author suggests that there are no reliable sightings of the light in any location but directly west along the road and therefore explainable by the Route 66 connection.
One legend details an old, lost miner and the spooklight is actually his lantern. This explanation results from the Spooklight being situated in an area with a past of intense lead and zinc mining in Southwest Missouri and Northeast Oklahoma.
However, most people prefer to state that they cannot explain the almost nightly appearance of mysterious lights in the area, and descriptions of the lights date back to an era prior to the highway’s construction. Other explanations for the light’s appearance includes atmospheric gases being affected by electrical fields. A University of Arkansas professor studied the light in the 1960s and suggested that it was from a fixed object.
MORE INFO
The Spooklight – Wikipedia
The Joplin Spooklight – A Different Perspective
Joplin Spooklight Investigation – Ghost Investigations