What's behind the Brown Mountain Lights, unexplained flickers that have tantalized N.C. mountain residents and visitors for centuries? For now, it remains a mystery.

Last weekend, a group of researchers invited me along as they set up camp beside the slopes of Brown Mountain, a low ridge near the border of Burke and Caldwell counties. Their goal was to see the lights up close - and maybe explain their origin.

I'd written about the group this past summer when they sent out a videotape of the lights in action. I decided to tag along in hopes of updating their investigative efforts - and maybe get a peek at the lights myself.

Group leader Joshua Warren, 25, has made a full-time career out of writing, filmmaking and researching the paranormal. He came to the mountain with armloads of equipment that can detect radiation, electromagnetic fields, microwaves and other kinds of energy. He also brought a spectrometer, a device that can analyze light to determine the composition of what's emitting it. And, of course, there were plenty of cameras.

"What we're focusing on right now is documenting these things. We're not trying to explain all the mysteries of the universe," he said as he prepared to embark on a nighttime hike.

Warren used his videotape to pinpoint a place on the slope that had proven to be a hot spot for sightings of the lights, and then used satellite-based GPS technology to find his way there.

He frequently investigates hauntings, even conducting ghost investigations for Asheville's Grove Park Inn, but said he's not necessarily on a ghost hunt on Brown Mountain.

"We don't have any reason to believe the lights are anything other than a natural manifestation of the Earth," he said.

Over the years, scientists have posed theories, including gases, seismic activity, mirages, radioactivity and ball lightning to explain the lights. But none seems to satisfactorily account for their behavior. Warren said he believes a combination of factors - say, an unusual chemical plus wind or temperature or some other variable - might be responsible.

One local legend dating to the 1200s attributes the lights to the spirits of warriors slaughtered in a brutal battle between Native American tribes on the mountain. Perhaps, legend suggests, the lights are torches carried by the ghosts of grieving maidens.

More recent folklore, described on U.S. Forest Service maps, says the lights are from the ghost of a slave sent with a lantern to the mountain to search for his missing master.

Unfortunately, our group didn't see any unexplained lights. November is supposed to be peak time for sightings, but Warren believes the unusually warm weather may have had something to do with their absence.

"Even when the lights don't appear, it's valuable for our research," he says. "By documenting such conditions, it allows us to rule out times when the elements are not conducive to the phenomenon."

He vows his search will go on. Anyone interested in knowing more about the lights might want to check out a Web site Warren has set up, www.brownmountainlights.com. On it are directions to an overlook on N.C.181 that's one of the best places to watch for the lights, plus photos by Warren and colleagues.

The Grandfather Ranger District of the U.S. Forest Service, at (828) 652-2144, can provide maps and guidelines to the area's hiking, camping and other recreation.

Warren says if his work inspires someone to help find the answer to the mystery, he'll be happy.

• Story originally published by:
The Charlotte Observer / NC | Leigh Dyer - Nov 11.01

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