Marfa is a small town tucked away in the Chawawa Desert of West Texas, 100 miles North of Big Beng Country and within close proximity to Fort Davis, Texas. The town itself in inhabited by no more than 2,000 people, and is perhaps at first glance most typical of a somewhat isolated but nonetheless spirited community. But after dark, the town is host to one of the most mysterious phenomenons in North America.
In the summer of 1993, I was visiting the McDonald Observatory with my parents, when we were told of the Marfa Lights by local residences of Fort Davis. Intrigued, we set out to look at them. I took with me my 60mm Refractor Telescope. What I saw defied by imagination. A number of lights danced the sky, which would change colors and brightness as they moved. They stood still sometimes for significant lengths of time, and at those moments I was able to get good views through my 60mm telescope.
Over the span of five minutes, I observed one of the lights. What look from a distance to be only one light was actually two very bright spheres sitting in close proximety. For a moment, one of them got much dimmer as one became brighter, and then they reversed the tend and the opposite light became brighter as the other dimmer. Then, in almost mirroring symetricy they morphed into teardrop shapes. After a moment they morphed again into saucer shapes. Suddenly, the two spheres morphed again this time into a single light. A bright red light then came from outside of the telescopes field of view and disappeared as it made contact it seems with the larger and brighter object. After a moment a green light appeared beneath the ball, and dropped away and out of my field of view. Suddenly, the object blinked out... and I looked up from my telescope to see that the light had disappeared.
The next day, we spent our time in Marfa talking to local townspeople and reading what we could. The biggest question on my mind was: what was the phenomenon? One town resident told me that a cantelope-sized orb circled her head roughtly 10 times and flew away very rapidly. The Apache's have a legend about the phenomenon. They describe a lost indian chief who forever wanders that area, searching for his missing tribe by lighting campfires to signal them.
After my trip to Marfa, I continued to study the phenomenon. The first clue to the mystery comes from the Texas Historical Marker located in a small viewing area made just for the phenomenon, just East of Marfa. The plaque reads:
Skeptics most often claim that what people see are in fact car lights from I-67, a highway south of Marfa in which the lights do sometimes appear. This does not jive with the fact that the lights have been seen for thousands of years, nor does it jive with my own observations. St. Elmo's Fire has been proposed, but the conditions for St. Elmo's fire only occur in the Spring. Swam gas is an impossibility in the middle of the Desert. Still, many "skeptics" ignore the body of evidence indicating the existance of a very real phenomenon. It is my belief that the Marfa Lights are an unknown natural phenomenon, though they behave and seem to act much more like classic UFO sightings.
In the summer of 1993, I was visiting the McDonald Observatory with my parents, when we were told of the Marfa Lights by local residences of Fort Davis. Intrigued, we set out to look at them. I took with me my 60mm Refractor Telescope. What I saw defied by imagination. A number of lights danced the sky, which would change colors and brightness as they moved. They stood still sometimes for significant lengths of time, and at those moments I was able to get good views through my 60mm telescope.
Over the span of five minutes, I observed one of the lights. What look from a distance to be only one light was actually two very bright spheres sitting in close proximety. For a moment, one of them got much dimmer as one became brighter, and then they reversed the tend and the opposite light became brighter as the other dimmer. Then, in almost mirroring symetricy they morphed into teardrop shapes. After a moment they morphed again into saucer shapes. Suddenly, the two spheres morphed again this time into a single light. A bright red light then came from outside of the telescopes field of view and disappeared as it made contact it seems with the larger and brighter object. After a moment a green light appeared beneath the ball, and dropped away and out of my field of view. Suddenly, the object blinked out... and I looked up from my telescope to see that the light had disappeared.
The next day, we spent our time in Marfa talking to local townspeople and reading what we could. The biggest question on my mind was: what was the phenomenon? One town resident told me that a cantelope-sized orb circled her head roughtly 10 times and flew away very rapidly. The Apache's have a legend about the phenomenon. They describe a lost indian chief who forever wanders that area, searching for his missing tribe by lighting campfires to signal them.
After my trip to Marfa, I continued to study the phenomenon. The first clue to the mystery comes from the Texas Historical Marker located in a small viewing area made just for the phenomenon, just East of Marfa. The plaque reads:
The Marfa Lights, mysterious and unexplained lights that have been reported in the area for over one hundred years, have been the subject of many theories. The first recorded sighting of the lights was by rancher Robert Ellison in 1883. Variously described as campfires, phosphorescent minerals, swamp gas, static electricity, St. Elmo's Fire, and "ghost lights," the lights reportedly change colors, move around, and change in intensity. Scholars have reported over seventy-five local folk tales dealing with the unknown phenomenon.
Skeptics most often claim that what people see are in fact car lights from I-67, a highway south of Marfa in which the lights do sometimes appear. This does not jive with the fact that the lights have been seen for thousands of years, nor does it jive with my own observations. St. Elmo's Fire has been proposed, but the conditions for St. Elmo's fire only occur in the Spring. Swam gas is an impossibility in the middle of the Desert. Still, many "skeptics" ignore the body of evidence indicating the existance of a very real phenomenon. It is my belief that the Marfa Lights are an unknown natural phenomenon, though they behave and seem to act much more like classic UFO sightings.