Crossett, Arkansas: Crossett Spook Lights

I've heard about the Crossett Light all my life, but only in the last year did I look for it -- and found it! The story goes that decades ago two Missouri Pacific Railroad employees, on opposite sides of a labor union problem, got into a fight and one cut the other's head off. Since then, mysterious lights float, bob, and move along that dark road. The real light appears like an old-fashioned railroad lantern being carried by someone walking, but it can change into several different forms, colors, and movements. I've gone twice now and never been disappointed.

My mother had grown up hearing stories about and going to see the light. Even though she moved more than six hours away she always told me the stories of the Crossett light. At first i thought my mother was crazy, but as I heard more from my family and friends from Crossett I decided I wanted to find out for myself.

I got my chance on July 6, 2012. A big group of us drove out there, and it wasn't long after we'd settled in that a strange glow appeared. It seemed to light the whole roadway! A bright flickery ball made its way out of the glowy haze and grew brighter and brighter, sometimes flickering away and then slowly making its way along the tree line on the road. We heard a car coming in the distance but the light stayed where it was, glowing brighter than any of the "light veterans" with us had ever seen. When the cars headlights became visible, the light vanished. it was very easy to tell that this light was NOT headlights! The headlights made beams and didnt move like the light did!

After the car passed and all was settled and quiet again, the light reappeared within a few minutes. We decided to try walking slowly toward it, but the closer we got the farther away it would float. Finally it went out altogether. We went back to our cars to see if it would come back, and after quite a while it did! This time, instead of glowing a pure white, it glowed an orangy-red.

Going to see this light has made me the most scared and excited I have been since I was a young child. I was, and still am, astonished!

Virtually everyone in the northeastern region of Louisiana and the Southeast area of Arkansas knows about the lights. Until last summer, I was a huge skeptic, but what I saw was startling. My sister, her boyfriend and I, sitting in the car, saw a glowing orb that would slowly turn various colors of blue, red, and green about 1/8th of a mile away. The light would hover over the ground, moving slowly up and down, as well as grow in intensity. I didn't know what to make of this. When one tried to approach, it would dissappear and then reappear at exactly the same distance (it would always keep 1/8th mile space between us. The light would appear and disappear in 5 to 10 minute intervals.

I have no rational explanation for this. Some claim that it is the rare phenomenon of luminescent "swamp gas." Others claim that it is a ghost--the spirit of a conductor or switchman who was decapitated in a freak train accident in the early to mid 1800s. The light is supposedly the lantern swung by the body of the poor fellow who is searching for his head. The railroad has long since been removed, but the poor fellow is still there. All I know is that it is a frightening experience to witness a phenomenon one can't explain.