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Author: Jill Stefko
Hornet Spook Light: Legends, Theories and Investigations
The Hornet Spook Light, an enigma since 1866, is surrounded by legends and theories. Investigators found no adequate scientific answer to fully explain it.
The Hornet Spook Light, AKA Neosho Mystery and Hornet Enigma and the Seneca, Devil, Indian and Missouri Mystery Lights, appears on the Devil’s Promenade in Missouri, near the Oklahoma border. It resembles a ball of fire as it spins and speeds down the center of the road, bobbing and weaving. The light retreats when pursued and doesn’t allow people to get too close to it. One man saw a subtle orange glowing light floating and weaving beside the road. It changed sizes, ranging from that of an apple to one of a bushel basket. The light split off into three, then a single one, before perching on a branch and turning blue. Another man tried to shoot the light with a rifle. There was no effect. The Hornet Spook Light has been investigated by the Army Corps of Engineers and a highly respected parapsychologist.
Legends
The land was once home to the Quapaw Tribe. A young brave and maiden fell in love and wanted to marry, but her father demanded a dowry he couldn’t afford. They were unable to marry or get the tribe’s blessing, so they ran away. Warriors pursued them. The couple held hands and jumped to their death. Shortly thereafter, people saw the mysterious light that they believed was the spirits of the young lovers, which they viewed as an ill omen.
Other legends are that the light is the torch of a decapitated Osage Indian chief’s spirit searching for his head and a miner’s lantern held by his ghost, looking for his kidnapped children.
Legends of Other Mysterious Lights
There are the Brown Mountain Lights in North Carolina that have been seen for centuries in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which the Cherokees first saw in the 1400s. Legends surround them. There was a major battle between the Cherokees and the Catawbas around 1200 CE near Brown Mountain. Cherokees believed the lights were the ghosts of AmerIndian women looking for loved ones who died in battle. Some early settlers thought the lights were the phantoms of slain warriors, while others believed they were specters with candles doomed to walk the mountain for eternity. According to other lore, the light is a slave’s ghost’s lantern that he holds while looking for his lost master or a specter of a woman whose husband murdered her.
There are the Marfa Lights in Texas and their legends The lights are warriors trying to lure soldiers into a trap, a tribe searching for its lost chief, braves and princesses who died for love, an AmerIndian woman seeking her lost children or an Apache warrior who was sealed in a cave to guard gold, a sheriff who wanted revenge for the person who murdered his wife, a rancher who killed bandits who plundered his property and raped his wife or ghosts of pioneers, settlers, soldiers and miners....continues
Originally published on Suite 101 on Jan 23 2012 and reproduced in part here courtesy of Jill Stefko
Copyright©Jill Stefko
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