Just imagine yourself standing in a large grassy field with a dense forest in the distance. It is dark except for a few stars and maybe the moon has already come into view. Every few minutes you notice a plane streaking across the sky. It is also very quiet. A dog is heard far away breaking the nighttime silence. Occasionally you hear the faint sound of some large trucks making haste on Cloverdale Highway which is about a mile away.
You are standing near a small camp fire for its light as well as its warmth. The flames are flickering due to a slight breeze. You and your friends are busy scanning the dark skies and tree line. You have been in the cool night air for at least a couple of hours and are beginning to wonder if your time is being wasted. You and the others engage in idle talk.
But suddenly and without any notice, there it is! A very bright eight-foot diameter foot ball of pulsating light is hanging in the air –perhaps less than one hundred feet from the ground. It is not moving even though there is a slight breeze. Perhaps you stare at it for a few seconds or maybe up to a full minute before it began to move. Through your binoculars you zoom in on the large orb and you clearly see different sections of the Spooklight slowly pulsating at varying intervals. And as it moves away, you notice that it is also gaining altitude. After about three to four minutes the orb has risen to maybe 300 feet from the ground and moving at a steady flight.
The luminous orb continues on its mysterious and invisible path for a few minutes and then it suddenly disappears. It just as though some one turning off a light with a light switch! The sighting is over. You wonder if the Spooklight is still there and no longer visible or did it deplete its energy and no longer exists. You and your friends are asking all kinds of questions. And then you begin to think– will another Spooklight appear tonight? You and your friends begin once again scanning the skies and tree line.
The above narrative is fairly common to anyone venturing out to one of the locations where these Spooklights are seen on an almost nightly basis. And I know for I have seen about 180 of these wondrous and mysterious orbs. They are not only impressive to watch they are addictive!
These Spooklights have been seen in and near the Cloverdale area since the early 1970s.
An excellent sighting involving multiple witnesses occurred on February, 11, 1973 when Raleigh Nix and his friends watched a very large and bright ball of light suddenly appear about 900 feet from them in a large grassy field a short distance from Lexington (a small town east of Cloverdale). All four of the astonished witnesses had their eyes fixed on the very bright eight foot-diameter pulsating ball of light as it was first seen sitting on the ground. The strange orb began to slowly move farther away and perhaps was a foot or so above the grass. At first it was as the wind was pushing it across the open field but after a few moments it began to flit about erratically and then it suddenly disappeared – just as though some one flipped a light switch!
But this was not Raleigh’s first time to stare in amazement at one of these glowing spheres. He had already watched three others Spooklights in the same area during the course of a few weeks.
The question normally asked is what are these Cloverdale Spooklights?
No one really knows what these Cloverdale Spooklights are. They are not associated with any UFO or paranormal phenomenon. Many theories abound but the theory that they are a very rare natural phenomenon produced somehow by powerful subterranean electrical currents has gained considerable acceptance. For instance, there is a stable geological fault that extends eastward from Mississippi across much of northern Alabama. The Spooklights are seen directly above this fault. Is this a coincidence? It is also a know fact that a considerable amount of quartz lies beneath the surface and this mineral possesses piezoelectric properties which means that electrical energy is discharged when the quartz is subjected to changes in the physical stress it experiences as the physical tension in this fault zone naturally wanes and waxes. But how these electrical fields produce Spooklights (assuming they do) is not fully understood.
These Spooklights are truly a wonder to watch. Since I first learned about them I have observed about 180 of these strange glowing orbs. Hundreds of witnesses have seen them. These large orbs are typically about eight feet in diameter and are a bright yellowish-orange. It is very rare for a Spooklight to be seen smaller than eight feet. Many witnesses and myself included have been near enough to several Spooklights to accurately estimate their size. This is one unique characteristic of the Cloverdale Spooklights. They are always the same size. They are not solid – but rather a ball of pulsating light. Some are in view for just a few seconds while other are in plain sight for up to ten minutes.
They are completely silent and are unaffected by the wind as they move slowly across large grassy fields or dense forests. It is common for them to stop for a few moments and hover for reasons unknown. When one is hovering, not even a brisk wind can move it.
They seem to travel on some kind of invisible path in an east to west or west to east direction at a speed of about 20-30 MPH. They normally will not stray from their path. So when one is spotted, it is fairly certain others will be seen at the same place.
The Spooklight and the Train
One of my early and most baffling Spooklight sightings involved a train. It was early autumn and in Alabama the nights can still be warm and humid. My friend Greg Keeton and I were at one of the “hot spots” where dozens of Spooklights had been seen. The location was about four miles south of the Tennessee state line and about two miles east of highway 17. We were in a very large grassy field and about a half a mile in front of us were some train tracks and a large track of land which years ago was used as a prison camp.
We arrived at about 7:00 p.m. and were hopefully we would watch at least one Spooklight that night. We along with others had some good recent sightings here. I set up my 35 mm camera and we begin to watch. The sky was clear without any trace of clouds and there was a slight breeze out of the south. Time passed and all we saw was an occasional airplane fly high above us. At 10:30 I told Greg that I was ready to call it a night and packed up my gear and walked back a couple of hundred yards where I had parked my car. I then walked back to Greg was and as we were about to leave we heard in the far distance the air horn of an approaching train. We knew within a few moments the train would be in sight. We joked that we had not seen any ”lights” and that we were going to stay and watch the train go by that way we could say we saw one light – the train’s head light that night. As we were watching the train’s light pierce the darkness to our far left, I for what ever reason turn to my right and there was one of the most awesome Spooklight sightings I had seen.
There to our right was a large and very bright yellowish orange Spooklight hover about 30 feet directly above the train tracks. It was not hovering near the tracks but directly above them. It was completely silent and the slight breeze had no effect on it. It just sat there. The orb was not too far away from us so we could accurately estimate its size.
As the train came into our view, it was going closer to the Spooklight. After about a minute when the train’s engine was directly below the Spooklight, something truly remarkable happened. The Spooklight instantly began moving in the same direction and at the identical speed of the train. It was as though the Spooklight and the train’s engine had become somehow “locked” or synchronized and the train’s engine was pulling the Spooklight.
The Spooklight did not change color or brightness during this strange episode. They both kept moving farther away from us and after a couple of minutes the train and Spooklight had move too far away for us to continue watching.
It was an amazing sighting! This is the only sighting I know of that involved a train. And since the train did not slow down I’m guessing the train engineer was unaware of the Spooklight. And as to why the Spooklight wanted to follow the train is a question that I cannot answer. Even today when Greg and I get together to watch Spooklights we always talk about this sighting and we are still mystified.
Copyright© 2007 Wyatt Cox
