Since the Trail of Tears: The Mysterious Sightings of the Spooklight

The Legend Dates Back to the Trail of Tears

The lands Native Americans inhabited was found gold for European settlers who were creating their own world in the country that would soon become the “United States.”

In the 1830s, the settlers started a scheme to expel Native Americans from the states at the East Coast to take charge over their lands.

With all methods, they were driven out of their homes: mass murders took place, houses were looted, it was a horrible scene for everyone.

And this war over land led to what a Choctaw leader called in a newspaper article a “trail of tears and death.”

Now dubbed the Trail of Tears, it is the miles-long way expelled Native Americans had to take towards new territory in the west.

Not only sickness and death resulted from this journey, but also stories – stories that are still told today and are big. Among them is the one of the spook lights.

Legend has it that these Native Americans on the midst of the Trail of Tears were the first to notice the strange lights levitating in the air over an area today known as “Devil’s Promenade” between Missouri and Oklahoma.

The Joplin Spook Light

Many names have been given to these lights, all in connection to the area where they have been discovered: the Joplin Spook Light, Tri-State Spook Light, or also the Hornet Spook Light.

Similarly, there are many tales associated with the balls of light that are usually witnessed in the evening hours.

Legend and Folklore

According to the Farmer’s Almanac, some folklore claims that the mysterious light is the Devil’s lantern wandering about Earth.

In another version, the lantern belongs to a miner who found his death deep in the mines during a tragic accident, according to Atlas Obscura.

Other legends closely associate the lights with Native Americans. Is that because it is claimed that they were the first to have seen them?

One story has it that the light is the one of a Quapaw spirit searching for its lover in the lonely night. Another variation says that it’s the bright orange fire of a torch that a beheaded Quapaw or Osage member carried.

In any way, many have claimed that they saw the unexplained light. These apparent reported sightings date back over a century.

It is widely distributed that the first official account was released in a 1936 Kansas City Star article, but there’s more.

Spook Lights Were Seen Everywhere

In a 1907 article written by the Chicago Tribune, a train engineer reported to have seen a “spook light” in the form of a “red lantern swinging back and forth” in front of a train driving through Ohio in 1887.

Spook lights are seen everywhere, they are more than just a phenomenon restricted to the Devil’s Promenade.

The most famous being the will-o’-wisps that are usually seen above swamps. But what causes these lights to happen?

Some blame natural gas emissions native to swamps, others say the lights are man-made. Not faked in that sense, but that the spook light is caused by the headlights of cars that can be seen from the distant Route 66.

People who have tried this apparently said that this was accurate and that they could recreate a man-made light that corresponded to the appearance of the spook light.

Critics of that theory, on the contrary, say that reports date back before cars even existed. Advocates of the headlights explanation claim that old reports are blurry and don’t actually accurately reflect the existence of a paranormal existence.

Does the spook light exist in the sense of something otherworldly? Or is it just an optical illusion caused by no mystery?