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For years, people have seen a mysterious light appear and disappear on a road in far northeastern Oklahoma. KGOU listener Lora Nall asked How Curious:…

How Curious: What Is The Spooklight? | KGOU Search Query Show Search Home Listen Listening Options Listening Options News KGOU News NPR News StateImpact Capitol Insider KGOU AM NewsBrief KGOU PM NewsBrief Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma Watch: Long Story Short National Weather Service Forecast KGOU Archive KGOU News NPR News StateImpact Capitol Insider KGOU AM NewsBrief KGOU PM NewsBrief Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma Watch: Long Story Short National Weather Service Forecast KGOU Archive Programs Shows and Podcasts Schedule Special Programs KGOU Readers Club KGOU Sunday Radio Matinee Weekend Blues Tonic: The Funky Groove Show Global Sojourn How Curious Shows and Podcasts Schedule Special Programs KGOU Readers Club KGOU Sunday Radio Matinee Weekend Blues Tonic: The Funky Groove Show Global Sojourn How Curious Support Donate Online Membership Information Donate a car Thank-you Gifts Member Connect Planned Giving Business Support Donate Online Membership Information Donate a car Thank-you Gifts Member Connect Planned Giving Business Support About About KGOU KGOU History Awards Manager's Minute Key Information FCC Online Public Files Jobs Internships KGOU e-Newsletter Archive Contest Rules Who's Who in Public Radio This is KGOU About KGOU KGOU History Awards Manager's Minute Key Information FCC Online Public Files Jobs Internships KGOU e-Newsletter Archive Contest Rules Who's Who in Public Radio This is KGOU Events Community Calendar Events Calendar Guidelines Submit A Community Event Community Calendar Events Calendar Guidelines Submit A Community Event Contact Us E-mail or call us People About Underwriting Facebook Twitter Instagram Newsletters E-mail or call us People About Underwriting Facebook Twitter Instagram Newsletters © 2023 KGOU Menu News and Music for Oklahoma Show Search Search Query Donate KGOU BBC World Service Next Up: 5:00 AM Morning Edition 0:00 0:00 Available On Air Stations On Air Now Playing KGOU-FM All Streams Home Listen Listening Options Listening Options News KGOU News NPR News StateImpact Capitol Insider KGOU AM NewsBrief KGOU PM NewsBrief Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma Watch: Long Story Short National Weather Service Forecast KGOU Archive KGOU News NPR News StateImpact Capitol Insider KGOU AM NewsBrief KGOU PM NewsBrief Oklahoma Watch Oklahoma Watch: Long Story Short National Weather Service Forecast KGOU Archive Programs Shows and Podcasts Schedule Special Programs KGOU Readers Club KGOU Sunday Radio Matinee Weekend Blues Tonic: The Funky Groove Show Global Sojourn How Curious Shows and Podcasts Schedule Special Programs KGOU Readers Club KGOU Sunday Radio Matinee Weekend Blues Tonic: The Funky Groove Show Global Sojourn How Curious Support Donate Online Membership Information Donate a car Thank-you Gifts Member Connect Planned Giving Business Support Donate Online Membership Information Donate a car Thank-you Gifts Member Connect Planned Giving Business Support About About KGOU KGOU History Awards Manager's Minute Key Information FCC Online Public Files Jobs Internships KGOU e-Newsletter Archive Contest Rules Who's Who in Public Radio This is KGOU About KGOU KGOU History Awards Manager's Minute Key Information FCC Online Public Files Jobs Internships KGOU e-Newsletter Archive Contest Rules Who's Who in Public Radio This is KGOU Events Community Calendar Events Calendar Guidelines Submit A Community Event Community Calendar Events Calendar Guidelines Submit A Community Event Contact Us E-mail or call us People About Underwriting Facebook Twitter Instagram Newsletters E-mail or call us People About Underwriting Facebook Twitter Instagram Newsletters Oklahoma News How Curious: What Is The Spooklight? KGOU | By Claire Donnelly Published October 15, 2018 at 7:01 AM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 6:59 1 of 4 2 of 4 3 of 4 4 of 4 Tri-State Spook Light booklet from 1955. Sean B. Palmer For years, people have seen a mysterious light appear and disappear on a road in far northeastern Oklahoma. KGOU listener Lora Nall asked How Curious: What is this light? And where's it coming from?FULL  TRANSCRIPT:Claire Donnelly: In a video, a group of guys is sitting in a car on the side of a road known as the Devil's Promenade. They're in the far northeastern corner of Oklahoma, right on the Missouri border. They're looking at something low in the sky.There are dozens of videos like this on YouTube. People looking for and recording a mysterious light called the Spooklight. This is How Curious from KGOU, exploring your questions about the state we call home. I'm Claire Donnelly.The best way to see the Spooklight is on E50 Road in Quapaw, Oklahoma, also known as Spooklight Road or The Devil's Promenade. Lora Nall grew up near that area, in Miami, and brought the topic to How Curious. She saw it for the first time when she was in her early twenties.Lora Nall: You're told to park your car on the side of the road and turn it off and turn out all your lights and stay quiet. It starts to just sort of float. Sometimes it looks like it's floating towards you, just this ball of light.Donnelly: There are lots of theories about what causes the Spooklight. In one, it's the spirits of two young Quapaw lovers. According to the story, two tribal members fell in love but were forbidden from getting married so they ran away together. But then a pack of warriors chased them. So to avoid getting caught, the couple held hands and jumped into the Spring River, killing themselves. Another story says the Spooklight is the ghost of a miner carrying a lantern.Nall: So there are quite a few different stories out there but I have never heard anything definitive.Donnelly: Some say the phenomenon has been around since the late 1800s, but the first reported documentation of the light is in a 1935 newspaper. The Army Corps of Engineers supposedly investigated the Spooklight in 1946 and couldn't find an explanation.A local TV station broadcast footage of the light in 2012.Donnelly: For a long time, there was a Spooklight museum on Spooklight Road where visitors could look at the light through a telescope. Reports say it was run by a guy named Arthur "Spooky" Meadows and then by Garland "Spooky" Middleton. The museum walls were reportedly covered in articles about Spooklight sightings and theories. Lora Nall says she's always wondered about the light.Nall: There has to be an explanation. I just don't know what it is.Allen Rice: I thought that it might be swamp gas.Donnelly: Allen Rice is an English professor at the University of Central Oklahoma. He and a group of his family members and friends try to solve unusual mysteries. They call themselves "The Boomers."Rice: Our last, three exp--four expeditions were looking for Forrest Fenn's hidden treasure in the Rocky Mountains. We've gone three times looking for the Loch Ness monster, we've been to Roswell...Donnelly: A few years ago, they went to the Devil's Promenade. Rice says they weren't really expecting to see anything. But they did.Rice: You're looking straight down a road to the west and it looks like at the top of the road is this sort of glowing basketball. And we're like, "what the monkey?!" And we were shocked and we were, you know, we're really seeing this. Is this happening? We kept saying, "What is happening? What is happening?"Donnelly: They wanted to figure out where it was coming from. So they tried to get as close to it as they could.Rice: We get in the car and we drive forward and we slam into this giant forest. So the Spooklight Road, if you go west, it dead ends into a forest.Donnelly: Rice says on the other side of the forest is another road that also dead ends into the trees. And the two roads line up.Rice: So I said, "I think what's happening is cars are coming down--if you keep going that way, it's a highway--I think they're coming down the long highway and we're seeing headlights five miles away. Or tail lights."Donnelly: The Boomers tested this theory with an unscientific experiment which they documented in a YouTube video.Rice and one group took a car to Spooklight Road and parked in the best possible viewing place. Another group drove to the road on the other side of the forest. That group flashed their headlights. Rice says he soon started seeing the Spook Light. They'd ask for it to be brighter, the guy in the other car would turn on his brights and the Spook Light would get brighter. They'd ask for it to be red, the guy in the other car would put red filters over his headlights.Rice: Everyone on YouTube hates our guts.Donnelly: Here are a few of the video comments-- and I'm quoting: "You, sir, aren't very smart." "This is the absolute worst explanation ever!" "What a load of total bull."Rice says the experiment wasn't perfect but the results make sense. And in 1965 the magazine "Popular Mechanics" looked into the Spooklight and came up with basically the same explanation.Rice: You could literally go to where we want you to go, take your binoculars. During the day, you can see the cars where the Spooklight is supposed to be emanating from.Donnelly: But what about people who claim to have seen the light before cars existed? Rice says he's not sure it did exist before cars because it's not well documented. But if it did he says it could have been created by campfires or torches causing a similar effect.So yes, the internet can be a terrible and mean place. But Rice says he thinks there's another reason people were so upset with the Boomers' mundane explanation.Rice: We all want awesome. I mean, we all want to see a dimension to another world. You know, I mean when you go to Loch Ness, you're looking in the water because you want Nessie to be there.Donnelly: Maybe some mysteries are meant to be left unsolved. How Curious is a production of KGOU Radio. It's produced by Claire Donnelly and edited by Jacob McCleland. David Graey composed the theme music. Email your questions about Oklahoma to [email protected]. Subscribe to the How Curious podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcast app. As a community-supported news organization, KGOU relies on contributions from readers and listeners to fulfill its mission of public service to Oklahoma and beyond. Donate online, or by contacting our Membership department. Tags Oklahoma News oklahomaQuapawAllen RiceHow CuriousSpooklightdevil's promenadespook lightozark spooklight Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Claire Donnelly Claire has previously worked at KGOU, where she helped create a podcast, How Curious, and hosted local news during Morning Edition. Previously, she was an intern on the city desk at WBEZ in Chicago. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School. Claire has reported on street performers, temp workers, criminal court cases, police dogs, Christmas tree recycling and more. See stories by Claire Donnelly More News Oklahoma News Central Oklahoma communities receive $43.7 million in federal funding for transportation projects 13 hours ago Oklahoma News What to know about State Question 820 and legalizing recreational marijuana in Oklahoma March 2, 2023 Oklahoma News Norman residents asked to conserve water following pump failure July 8, 2022 Oklahoma News Oklahoma State Fair Won’t Enforce Masks, But Will Have Vaccination Booth September 7, 2021 Stay Connected twitter instagram facebook © 2023 KGOU Terms of Use Key Information Public Files Privacy Listening Options Support our work Contact Us Thanks for signing up! You can unsubscribe at any time using the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of every email. Don't miss our deepest reporting. Sign up for a weekly update from KGOU and NPR in your email inbox: Email Sorry, we could not complete your sign-up. Please contact us to resolve this. Operation timed out, please try again. 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