City Lights visible from Wiseman's View

Photography from the popular Wiseman's View observation site on December 1, 2012 clearly shows some city lights of Lenoir, NC.

Brown Mountain is the distant flat-top mountain in the center of the image
The prominent ridge in the foreground is the east rim of Linville Gorge with Hawskbill Mtn to the left edge of the image and Table Rock Mtn to the right edge of the image
Canon EOS REBEL T3i DSLR camera, f/9, 1/200 second, ISO-100

 

City lights of Lenoir, NC
The single white light above the ridgeline in the center of the image is a lighted tower atop Hibriten Mtn
The adjacent orange light is Lenoir's Christmas Star which is only lighted during the holidays each year
The dark profile of Brown Mountain comprises the foreground of the image
Canon EOS REBEL T3i DSLR camera, f/98 3 second, ISO-800

 

City lights of Lenoir, NC
A wide-angle view of Lenoir
 The lighted tower & Christmas Star atop Hibriten Mtn are visible
The Google Data Center is the row of orange lights near the right edge of the image
The dark profile of Brown Mountain comprises the foreground of the image
Canon EOS REBEL T3i DSLR camera, f/6.3, 3 second, ISO-100

 

Google Data Center, Lenoir, NC
 This is the same building visible in the daytime from our Jonas Ridge BML Cam1 site
Canon EOS REBEL T3i DSLR camera, f/0, 10 second, ISO-800

Wiseman's View, named for the spot where Fate Wiseman first saw the Brown Mountain Lights (BMLs), lies on the western rim of Linville Gorge and may have been the site of the very first BML sightings.  As an old man, Fate Wiseman told his nephew, Scotty Wiseman, about seeing mysterious lights atop Brown Mountain when he (Fate Wiseman) was a very young man----this would have been about 1854, +- 10 years .  Although not proven, this is the earliest 'verifiable' report of the BMLs.   The sightings of mysterious lights seen over the top of Brown Mountain from Loven's Hotel at Cold Springs, NC weren't reported until the late 1890s and early 1900s.  It was the sightings from Cold Springs, popularized by newspaper articles, that first ignited the public's imagination and initiated the legend of the BMLs.

 

Since Fate Wiseman's sightings, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of others have reported seeing similar lights from his observation spot. 

 

Note that although a vast expanse of Linville Gorge is clearly visible from Wiseman's View, no one at the time, including Fate Wiseman, reported seeing mysterious lights down in the gorge itself.  However, since about the 1950s, mystery lights down in Linville Gorge have been reportedly seen from Wiseman's View and elsewhere along the rim of the gorge.  These lights, called the Linville Gorge Lights (LGLs), are not the same thing as the BMLs; and the two should not be confused with each other.  The lights that gave rise to the legends of the BMLs were seen over the top of Brown Mountain when viewed from distant observation sites, like Wiseman's View and Cold Springs, that are located in the higher mountains west and north of Brown Mountain.  The sightings of mystery lights in Linville Gorge itself are a more-recent phenomenon and undoubtablely have a different source than the BMLs.

Views From Brown Mountain

These three images were taken from rock clifts near the top of the north end of Brown Mountain on January 5, 2013.  The first two views look northwest and west toward the popular viewing sites on NC Highway 181, Jonas Ridge & Wiseman's View.  Our BML Cam1 is located on Jonas Ridge.  The third image looks northeast toward Grandfather Mountain.

Canon EOS REBEL T3i DSLR camera, f/7.1, 1/400 sec, ISO-100, 50 mm; 3:09 pm

Canon EOS REBEL T3i DSLR camera, f/8, 1/640 sec, ISO-100, 50 mm

Canon EOS REBEL T3i DSLR camera, f/7.1, 1/400 sec, ISO-100

Due to the dense forest covering Brown Mountain, there are very few places with open views.  No open views to the south toward the Catawba River Valley or east toward the Yadkin River Valley are present.  Thus city lights in these valleys are not visible from Brown Mountain; which may explain the lack of distant BML sightings reported from the mountain itself---a preplexing fact mentioned in many published BML documents.  However, a small number of individuals have reported close encounters with unexplained nighttime lights while visiting the mountain; some of these reports are currently being investigated by our BML research team.  These upclose lights are reported to be too small and too faint to be visible from more than a few hundred feet away.

BML Time Line Updated

Updated 06Mar13.  The following time line of critical events in the history of the BMLs is based on our review of more than 180 published & unpublished documents.

BML Time Line

Dates of Significant Events in the History of the Brown Mountain Lights

1765   Lenoir, NC (Catawba Valley) first settled---Incorporated in 1841
1777   Morganton, NC (Catawba Valley) first settled---Incorporated in 1784
1850   Hickory, NC (Catawba Valley) first settled---Incorporated in 1860
1854   Lafayette Wiseman camped at Wiseman’s View & reportedly saw Mystery Lights
1858   First Railroad constructed in Catawba Valley---WNC RR, 84 mi from Salisbury to near Morganton
1870   First train arrived in Marion, NC---WNC RR; 1873 Old Fort, NC; 1880 Asheville, NC
1882   Mystery Lights reportedly seen by J. Stokes Penland of Linville Falls, NC
1888   Electricity first available to Hickory, NC residents; Electric Street Lights installed 1889
1889   Statesville, NC gets Electricity for first time
1897   Mystery Light reportedly seen by Joseph Loven of Cold Springs, NC
1898   Automobiles first appeared in NC; First mass produced car in US was Ford Model T (1908-1927)
1908-9 Mystery Lights reportedly seen by B.S. Gaither of Morganton, NC
1910   Rev. C.E. Gregory built cottage near Cold Springs, NC & reportedly saw Mystery Lights
1911   Mystery Lights reportedly seen by numerous members of the Morganton Fishing Club
1913   September---First written account----Light rises in Catawba Valley over top of Brown Mountain
1913   October---USGS Geologist D.B. Sterrett visit----Locomotive headlight
1915   Dr. C.L. Wilson saw lights of Joy, Lenoir, Connelly Springs, & Rutherford College from Cold Springs
1916   April---H.C. Martin’s camping parties see lights from Adams Mtn & Brown Mountain---Fireflies?
1916   July---Historic Flood, Catawba River reached +25’ above flood level
1916   Joseph Loven and Lafayette Wiseman reportedly saw Mystery Lights after the flood
1917   C.H. Hite publishes First Story of Ghosts (Bird Carroll) on Brown Mountain
1917   US Forest Service buys Brown Mountain
1919   US Weather Bureau & Smithsonian Institute issue Brush Lightning statement
1921   National Geographic Society bulletin----Brush Lighting, similar to St Elmo’s fire & Andes Light
1922   USGS Geologist G.R. Mansfield research----90% reflected electric lights and 10% brush fires
1927   R.K. Babington publishes First Reference to de Brahm’s 1771 Document of Nitrous Vapors
1928  J.B. Derieux & A.A. Dixon, NC State College---binocular & transit study---Hudson Town Lights
1929   E.M. Bell---first BML photo---4 hr Exposure, Moon Streak & lights above crest of Brown Mountain
1932   F.D. Ruggles reported 100s of lights like city street lights---concluded they were burning gasses
1936  S.M. Dugger publishes First  Legend of a Murdered Wife
1937   Hickory Municipal Airport constructed
1940   H.A. Whitman’s research----transit triangulation---BML photo---reflected city lights
1941   W.J. Humpheries & H. Lyman (US Weather Bureau) report----Andes Light
1941   L. Weir publishes First Legend of Indian Maidens searching for their braves lost in battle
1946   US Highway 70 constructed in Catawba Valley
1948   First published story of Lost Lover Legend
1958   Bob Brown---BML photos---reflected city lights
1959   N. Alexander publishes first report of a Swamp atop Brown Mountain
1961   S. Wiseman publishes first reference to Legend of Faithful Slave Searching for Lost Master
1962   P. Rose---Tower construction---close encounters
1962   S. Rowe & C. Holler, Jr.---Transit survey & site visits---refracted city lights
1965   R. Lael publishes first stories of Aliens---Alien abduction---close encounters
1968   H. Bailey first published reference to UFOs flying over Brown Mountain
1975   Interstate I-40 completed in Catawba Valley
1977   ORION’s 500,000 candlepower light test in Lenoir (22 mi away)---seen at 181 Overlook
1978   First joint Enigma/ORION investigation began
1980   First published sighting of lights in Linville Gorge?---published in 1995
1981   ORION detonated dynamite atop BM---no lights seen at 181 Overlook
1982   First published Legend of Revolutionary War Solider searching for Missing Family
1999   LEMUR---The X-Files segment---aired May 9, 1999
2000   LEMUR--- Brian Irish’s video of suspected BMLs
2002   LEMUR---Travel Channel segment on BMLs---aired March 2002
2003   Dr. Greg Little of Alternate Perceptions Magazine videotaped BMLs
2009   Dean Warsing’s night vision video of suspected BMLs
2012   First and Second Brown Mountain Light Symposium, Burke Co Dept of Tourism
2012   S. Nicholson published First Reference to ghosts of Civil War Soldiers
2012   BMLs Research Team---BML Cam1 setup, staged light tests, telephoto photography, Lit research
2013   BMLs Research Team---BML Cam1, geologic Investigations, lit research, telephoto photography

Campfire Stories---Pseudo-Scientific Explanations

In more recent times, explanations masquerading as scientific are being proposed by misinformed individuals and/or groups, generally with economic ties to furthering the mystique of the BMLs.  Videos of questionable BMLs can be found on the Internet while web pages posting questionable, misleading, undocumented, and even disproven BML explanations abound.  Authors often fail to distinguish between fact and fiction and elaborate extensively on their favorite ghost story---references are conveniently omitted.  In addition, theories such as stresses on geologic faults, earth lights, earth currents, ionized plasmas, luminescent gases, radioactive minerals, and even glimpses of parallel universes are proposed, but with no logical evidence to back them up.
 

unexplained lights

 Of course, a small number of reported BMLs are not easily explained as manmade lights.  Some personal stories, especially those of close encounters, continue to defy this logical explanation.  Investigations of these phenomena are ongoing by the Brown Mountain Light Research Team BMLRT).

December 30, 2012 Observations

Last night's photography from the highway 181 overlook produced some more interesting images of city lights around Brown Mountain.

North Chestnut Mountain Gap

Looking northeast (43^O azimuth) from 181 Overlook toward Blowing Rock only a minute after sunset

A small orange light can be seen on the distant ridgeline just above the trees in the center of the image

The light is the reflection of the fading sun off a glass window at one of the houses on the distant skyline
The low point along the foreground ridge is the gap north of Chestnut Mountain

The Mountain –To-Sea Trail (# 440) and Forest Service Road # 198 pass through this gap

Canon EOS Rebel DSLR with 119 mm lens at f/5.6, 1/125 second exposure & ISO-400

 

Baker’s Mountain, Catawba County, Azimuth 129^O, 31.7 miles away

Buildings and water tanks can be seen in this late afternoon image (33 minutes before sunset)

The tree-covered ridge of Brown Mountain can be seen in the foreground

Canon EOS Rebel DSLR with 420 mm lens, f/14, 1/1000 second exposure & ISO-2000

Baker’s Mountain, Catawba County, Azimuth 129^O, 31.7 miles away

City lights in the surrounding area can be seen in this image taken 18 minutes after sunset

The tree-covered ridge of Brown Mountain can be seen in the foreground

Canon EOS Rebel DSLR with 420 mm lens at f/8, 1/15 second exposure & ISO-1600

Brown Mountain, Catawba Valley and the South Mountains

Buildings and water tanks in Catawba Valley can be seen in this late afternoon image (133^O azimuth)

 Brown Mountain is the tree-covered ridge in the middle of the image

The South Mountains can be seen on the skyline

Canon EOS Rebel DSLR with 420 mm lens at f/14, 1/800 second exposure & ISO-2500

Brown Mountain, Catawba Valley and the South Mountains

Two prominent water tanks in Catawba Valley can be seen in this late afternoon image

 Brown Mountain is the tree-covered ridge in the middle of the image

The South Mountains can be seen on the skyline

Canon EOS Rebel DSLR with 420 mm lens at f/13, 1/800 second exposure & ISO-2000

It was Really, Really Cold Last Night!

Out of focus city lights in Catawba Valley

The single white light above the skyline is a lighted tower atop High Peak in the South Mountains

The cluster of multicolored lights on the skyline at the left side of the image

are the Valdese Houses on Rocky Ridge Road seen in previous images

Canon EOS Rebel DSLR with 420 mm lens, f/8, 3-second exposure & ISO-1600

 

Scientific Explanations---Updated

scientific explanations

 At least fourteen separate scientific, or somewhat scientific, investigations over the past 100 years have near-unanimously concluded that the observed BMLs are manmade electric lights.  Only the 1921 U.S. Weather Bureau (Brush Lighting) and a 1977 Geologist (uranium ore) concluded otherwise---but neither actually visited Brown Mountain.   Although highly unpopular with the local residents, the manmade electric light explanation has withstood the test of time and the repeated review of scientific investigators.  These studies include the following:
 

1913  US Geological Survey D.B. Sterrett---Locomotive Headlights

            c1917 Staged Car Headlights at Lawndale (40 mi SE) seen at Loven’s Hotel at Cold Springs
            1921  Nat’l Geographic Soc & US Weather Bureau---Brush Lighting (St. Elmo’s fire/Andes Lighting)
            1922 US Geological Survey R.G. Mansfield---90% Refracted Manmade Lights & 10% Brush Fires
            1928  NC State College Physics professors---Binoculars & Transit Surveys---Hudson town lights
            1929 E.M. Bell---First BML Photo---City Lights
            1940 H.A. Whitman---Transit Triangulation Survey---BML photo---Refracted City Lights
            1958 B. Brown---BML photos---Refracted City Lights
            1962 S. Rowe & C. Holler, Jr.---Transit Surveys & site visits---Reflected City Lights
            1977  Geologist Francois Schumacher---Uranium ore may the source of the lights
            1977-81 ORION---Staged Lenoir Spotlight & Explosives on BM---Refracted Manmade Lights
            1978 Enigma Project---Refracted Manmade Lights
            2005 Astrophysicist Daniel B. Caton---Camera, Binoculars, Telescope---Refracted City Lights
            2012-13 BML Research Team---BMLCam1; Staged Light Tests; Telephoto Photography

The possibility that the lights seen over the top of Brown Mountain were manmade lights reflected and/or refracted by air layers was first mentioned in H.C. Martin’s 1916 article in the Morganton News Herald.  Martin specifically noted the presence of warm and cold air layers that he thought were due to the recent forest clear-cutting on the mountainous terrains.  He felt that the density variations in these layers caused reflection and refraction of visible manmade lights.  US Geological Survey Geologist G.R. Mansfield expanded on this observation in 1922.  In fact, it is the refraction of the city lights by rising heat waves (mirages) that causes the observed lights to dance, wiggle, wobble, vibrate, change colors, and fade in and out.  Aggravatingly, this minor but very noticeable movement of the lights results in out-of-focus photographic time-exposure images of the lights; thus producing the ‘circular orbs of light’ reported by most observers.

Extended horizontal or vertical movement of the lights, which is often reported by distant observers, is due to the tiring of one’s eye muscles while focusing on individual bright lights in a dark setting.  This lack of movement is easily demonstrated by viewing the suspected light through the viewfinder of a stationary tripod-mounted camera, binoculars, or telescope and was first reported by J.B. Derieux and A.A. Dixon in 1928.  Likewise repeated photography of the lights by tripod-mounted cameras re-set in the same spot hours, days or even weeks later also shows that the lights are stationary and do not change location (Brown Mountain Lights Research Team, 2012).

The report of mystery lights appearing immediately after the July 1916 flood that destroyed the Catawba Valley railroads is often quoted as proof that the lights were not locomotive headlights as previously proposed by U.S. Geological Survey Geologist D.B. Sterrett in 1913.  In his August 29, 1916 letter to the Lenoir News (September 8), G.A. Loven, owner of Loven’s Hotel in Cold Springs states:
 

“The light still appears every night now, for six years since it was first seen.  It shows to be some four or five miles beyond the top of Brown Mountain.

            It was supposed by some that it was a train headlight; the recent floods stopped the trains from running, but it did not stop the
                    light from showing.  We watched close and it showed every night just the same.

It is not confined to one place; it varies sometimes from two to three miles either east or west.  It seems to go up over the treetops from fifty to sixty feet.”

Note that Loven refers to a single light and fails to mention the presence of the numerous city lights which were reported to be visible from his hotel the previous year by Dr. C.L. Wilson (1915).  And based on 1922 interviews with eyewitnesses, U.S. Geological Survey Geologist G.R. Mansfield reported that moving lights seen from Cold Springs immediately after the 1916 flood were automobile headlights on the roadways not washed away by the flood.  Presumably these and other car headlights were also visible before the flood.  If so many lights were visible from Cold Springs both before and after the flood, why did Loven mention only one?  As revealed by other newspaper articles of the time, Loven’s Hotel was experiencing increased visitation due to patrons wishing to see the BMLs; thus Loven may have been simply perpetuating the legend of the lights to enrich his income.   

Reported BML sightings before the era of electric lights are also often mentioned in post-1900 published documents as proof that the BMLs existed before the time of manmade lights.  However, these reports are not based on confirmed facts and no such light sightings have been found in any document actually published before 1900.   

Slowly at first, and then with ever increasing certainty, manmade electric lights were reported to be visible over the top of Brown Mountain.  In 1915, Dr. C.L. Wilson, identified the community lights of Joy, Lenoir, Connelly Springs, and Rutherford College while observing from Loven’s Hotel at Cold Springs.  Oddly enough, no one else of this early-BML era mentioned being able to see city lights over the top of Brown Mountain; instead they apparently interpreted all of the visible lights to be the mysterious BMLs.

 

In the most comprehensive and detailed scientific study ever conducted on the BMLs, Geologist G.R. Mansfield reports (1922):

“In summary it may be said that the Brown Mountain lights are clearly not of unusual nature or origin.  About 47 percent of the lights that the writer was able to study instrumentally were due to automobile headlights, 33 percent to locomotive headlights, 10 percent to stationary lights, and 10 percent to brush fires.”

In his 1923 report, F.J. Haskin wrote: “Somewhere in the broad Catawba valley or beyond was the origin of the light.”  In the same year, the Statesville Landmark reported a light (presumably a town light) visible to the east from Brown Mountain itself and located midway between the towns of Drexel and Lenoir.  In 1928, Professors J.B. Derieaux & A.A. Dixon, using survey equipment, identified the town lights of Hudson in the Catawba Valley visible directly over the top of Brown Mountain.    E.M. Bell’s 1929 ‘first ever’ photograph of BMLs resembles today’s photographs and highly suggests city lights in the valley beyond Brown Mountain.  In 1932, F.D. Ruggles reported seeing hundreds of city street lights along a 35-mile length, but concluded they were burning gases instead.  H.A. Whitman’s 1940 transit triangulation survey concluded that the lights were refracted city lights.  And so it goes right on through all subsequent scientific surveys.

Over time, as the increasingly electrically-lit population (i.e., light pollution) increased in the Catawba and Yadkin Valleys south and east of Brown Mountain, the realization began to set in that the BMLs were simply manmade lights.  In the early days of the BML legends (c1854-c1920), these distant lights were a new and mysterious phenomenon that sparked the imagination of the residents in the mountains to the east and north of Brown Mountain who probably lagged behind the town and city residents in the use and understanding of electric lights.  While today the manmade lights are obvious to most observers, some still mistake them for mystery or spook lights.

Campfire Stories---Space Aliens/UFOs

Space travel captured most of the world’s attention during the Great Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s.  It was an exciting time with the Soviet Union taking an early lead but the United States finally winning:

1957, October 4--------First Satellite in Earth Orbit---Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1

            1959, September 13---First Spacecraft on the Moon---Soviet Union’s Luna 2
            1961, April 12-----------First man in Earth Orbit---Soviet Union’s Yuri Gagarin
            1961, May 5-------------First American in Space (Sub-Orbital)---Alan Shepard
            1962, February 20------First American in Earth Orbit---John Glenn
            1962, April 26-----------First American Spacecraft on Moon---Ranger IV
            1965, June 3-------------First American Space Walk---Ed White in Gemini 4
            1969, July 20------------First Manned Moon Landing---US's Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin in Apollo 11

Our preoccupation with space travel during the '60s also had a direct impact on the BML beliefs and myths of that time.  Ralph Lael’s 1965 alien abduction story caused a lot of excitement, while Herbert Bailey’s 1968 article in Argosy magazine describing large squadrons of UFOs appearing nigthly over Brown Mountain proved to be the height of the ‘aliens among us’ craze.  Since no proof of space aliens or UFOs has surfaced anywhere in the world in the ensuing 45 years, the public’s interest in extraterrestrials has greatly subsided; althought stories of other dimensions, time travelers, and benevolent beings are still heard.

Campfire Stories---Faithful Slave Searching for Lost Master

Perhaps the most enduring legend of the BMLs has to do with the spirit of a faithful slave searching for his lost master.  The legend first appeared in print in 1961 with Scotty Wiseman’s folksong, the Ballad of the Brown Mountain Light.  Over the next few years the song became very popular and was recorded by various groups, while local newspaper reporter John Parris wrote the full story of Scotty’s Great Uncle, Josiah Lafayette “Fate” Wiseman (1842-1932) in 1966, 1971 and 1972 articles.  According to Parris:

About 1854, Fate Wiseman, then a young boy, camped on the rim of Linville Gorge and saw the BMLs---long before electric lights.  Fate Wiseman bacame a veteran of the Civil War and he  kept cattle on his land below the cliffs in Connally’s Cove in Linville Gorge.  On a return trip with his father to sell goods in Salisbury, they camped at today’s Wiseman’s View and he could see the lights over BM.  Later he would often watch the lights from the same spot and it came to be called Wiseman’s View.  Fate told of a faithful slave with a lantern searching for his missing low-country hunter master. The spirit of the salve and his lantern still wander the mountain today.

 

In 2002, J. Baldwin elaborated on the story:

                “Brown Mountain was named after a Brown family, who owned a lot of land during the 19^th century
                  that included this mountain.  The family owned slaves, and enjoyed the reputation of treating
                  them well.

“During the Civil War, one of the men in the Brown family fought in the Confederate army as a colonel.  He was wounded in 1863 and came home.  When he was well enough, he went for a day’s hike and hunting on Brown Mountain, a place he knew well.  He took a little food and water, and two lanterns.

“Midnight came and the colonel had not returned.  His faithful slave Jim took a lantern and went to Brown Mountain to look for him.  Neither Jim nor the colonel ever returned.  The family and their slaves searched the entire surface of Brown Mountain, but no trace of either of them has ever been found.

 “Shortly after the colonel and Jim disappeared, bobbing lights appeared on the mountain.  The lights had never been seen before, and the family believed the lights were from the lanterns the colonel and Jim carried.  They are trying to find their way home.”

In 2012, J. Betts reported the following words of the popular song:

The Legend of the Brown Mountain Light by Scotty Wiseman

Way out on the old Linville Mountain,

                Where the bear and the catamount reign;

There’s a strange ghostly light, can be seen every night,

Which no scientists nor hunter can explain.

Chorus 

In the days of the old covered wagons,

Where they camped on the flats for the night;

With the moon shining dim on the old highboard rim,

They watched for that Brown Mountain light. 

Chorus 

Many years ago a southern planter

Came hunting in this wild world alone.

It was then so they say that the planter lost his way

And never returned to his home.

His trusting old slave brought a lantern

And searched day and night but in vain.

Now the old slave is gone but his spirit lingers on,

And the lantern still casts its light. 

Chorus:

High, high on the mountain, and deep in the canyon below

It shines like the crown of an angel, and fades as the mists comes and go.

Way over yonder, night after night until dawn,

A lonely old slave comes back from the grave,

Searching, searching, searching, for his master who’s long gone on.

Campfire Stories---Revolutionary War Soldier

This legend is relatively recent and only first appeared in a 1982 article in the Watauga Democrat.  As the story goes:

“A family settled in the Brown Mountain area in the 1700s.  When the Revolutionary War began, the father enlisted, leaving behind his wife and three children.  The war over, he returned home to find his homestead in ruins.  Desperately he took to the nearby mountain range searching for his missing loved ones.  Finally, he died alone and in despair atop Brown Mountain, and today his spirit continues the search.”

The Revolutionary War ended in 1783, presumably the year the soldier returned home to find his family missing.  A children’s book by Carol Crane in 2012 retells the story. 

 

As with all legends, myths and folklore stories, no references were given for the sources of the information.

Campfire Stories---Lost Lover

The lost lover legend first appears in published documents in 1948 (Unknown Author) and is again mentioned in J. Baldwin’s 2002 document.  Unfortunately neither author references where their information came from.  According to the 1948 article:

“A young man fell in love with a mountain girl who lived with her father on Brown Mountain.  He visited her nightly, coming through the dangerous woods from his village.  They agreed to marry.  On the evening of their departure she lit a pine torch and went to greet him.  He never returned and she took a torch out every night crossing back and forth on Brown Mountain to look for him.”

According to the 2002 article, Amanda lived on Brown Mountain with her widowed father about 1775.  She fell in love with young Caleb who lived in a nearby valley.  On the evening he was to come and take her away to marry, she lit a pine torch to signal him, but he never came.  Her spirit still searches Brown Mountain for him.

Campfire Stories----Murdered Wife & Baby

The legends of a murdered wife from the Jonas Ridge community may have predated the BMLs.  However, ties to the BMLs appear in the writings of S.M. Dugger (1936-1938), R. Russell and J. Barnett (1988) and J. Baldwin (2002).  The details of the story vary greatly, but apparently a husband, known to be mean, murdered his wife and buried her body on either Cold Mountain or Brown Mountain.  She was either pregnant or had recently given birth to their baby.  It was years before the bodies were found.  The BMLs supposedly are the spirits of the wife and baby.  The dates of the murder vary from before the Civil War to the late 1880s.  Unfortunately none of the authors cite references for their information.

Campfire Stories---Civil War Soldiers

A reference to the legend of spirits of Civil War soldiers appears only twice in the published literature.  First on S. Nicholson’s 2012 website at hauntedcomputer.com where he mentions Civil War soldiers wandering the mountain with candles.  Unfortunately, Nicholson does not properly cite where this information comes from.

In his 2002 document, J. Baldwin ties the ‘Faithfull Slave Searching for Lost Master’ legend to the Civil War:

 “Brown Mountain was named after a Brown family, who owned a lot of land during the 19^th century that included this mountain.  The family owned slaves, and enjoyed the reputation of treating them well.

“During the Civil War, one of the men in the Brown family fought in the Confederate army as a colonel.  He was wounded in 1863 and came home.  When he was well enough, he went for a day’s hike and hunting on Brown Mountain, a place he knew well.  He took a little food and water, and two lanterns.

“Midnight came and the colonel had not returned.  His faithful slave Jim took a lantern and went to Brown Mountain to look for him.  Neither Jim nor the colonel ever returned.  The family and their slaves searched the entire surface of Brown Mountain, but no trace of either of them has ever been found.

“Shortly after the colonel and Jim disappeared, bobbing lights appeared on the mountain.  The lights had never been seen before, and the family believed the lights were from the lanterns the colonel and Jim carried.  They are trying to find their way home.”

However, we have been unable to find any actual written documentation of BMLs sightings during or immediately after the Civil War.  Instead, the monumental, 555-page book on the history of Burke County (Phifer, Jr., 1977, revised 1982) details all of the Civil War military actions in the area, including those on and near Brown Mountain, without noting any BML sightings.  In fact, on page 12, Phifer specifically states that no BMLs were seen prior to the twentieth century.

Campfire Stories---Slave Protecting Buried Treasure

The earliest published account linking the BMLs to ghosts/spirits is C.H. Hites’ 1917 article in the Charlotte Observer (reprinted in The News-Herald of Morganton).   Even though the mysterious BMLs had been known for many years already and they had created great excitement due to numerous newspaper stories in 1913 and 1915, they were not attributed to ghosts or spirits until Hites’ story of Negro slave superstitions.

Hites reports being told stories by Negro slaves who saw a light on BM, presumably in the years following the Civil War, that they thought was the ghost of Bird Carroll.  Apparently Bird, a Negro slave himself, buried his life savings under a large pine tree on BM, but died in 1865 serving in the Civil War at Wilmington, NC before he could return and retrieve it. 

While Bird Carroll’s story itself was seldom if ever retold, the connection between the BMLs and ghosts/spirits was destined to become a common theme in later published reports.  S.M. Dugger's story of the ghost of a murdered wife and Ashton Chapman's story of Native American ghosts would not be published until 1936 and 1942, respectively.  Afterwards, nearly every published author included his/her own version of a ghost legend.

Campfire Stories---De Brahm's 1771 Report

1771 De Brahm Sightings

This is one of my favorite BML myths!

 

The following paragraph from the 1771 De Brahm’s Report of the General Survey in the Southern District of North America is often refenced as the definitive earliest written European document verifying the existence of the BMLs. 

"Although these Mountains transpire through their Tops sulphurueaous and arsenical Sublimations, yet they are too light, as to precipitate so near their Sublimitories, but are carried away by the Winds to distant Regions. In a heavy Atmosphere, the nitrous Vapours are swallowed up through the Spiraculs of the Mountains, and thus the Country is cleared from their Corrosion; when the Atmosphere is light, these nitrous Vapours rise up to the arsenical and sulphureous (subliming through the Expiraculs of the Mountains), and when they meet with each other in Contact, the Niter inflames, vulgurates and detonates, whence the frequent Thunders, in which a most votalized Spirit of Niter ascends to purify and inspire the upper Air, and a phlogiston Regeneratum (the metallic Seed) descends to impregnate the Bowels  the Earth; and as all these Mountains form so many warm Athanors which draw and absorb, especially in foggy Seasons, all corrosive Effluvia along with the heavy Air through the Registers (Spiracles) and thus cease not from that Perpetual Circulation of the Air, corroding Vapours are no sooner raised, than that they are immediately disposed of, consequently the Air in the Appalachian Mountains in extreamely pure and healthy."

References to this passage are misguided, misquoted and/or taken out of context.  In this passage, De Brahm was writing about the origin of thunder and lightning and the health benefits of breathing the pure ‘Mountain Vapors’ of upstate South Carolina!  The passage occurs in the South Carolina chapter of his book and De Brahm does not even describe North Carolina anywhere in his 325 page book---he may have never even visited North Carolina!  The influence on the health of the local inhabitants by breathing good air versus bad air is a repeated theme throughout De Brahm’s book, and elsewhere he describes, with similar floury words, the poor health effects of breathing ‘Pond Vapors’ (p. 79) and ‘Swamp Vapors’ (p. 160) and even goes on to suggest “a prudent and moderate use of Spirits” to offset the effects of living in an area where one is constantly breathing bad air.

 
The first reference to De Brahm’s 1771 report can be found in R.K. Babington's 1927 article in The Gastonia Daily Gazette; however Babington failed to reference his source--so it is unclear if he was quoting someone else or if he had actually read De Brahm's report, which in 1927 was still a very-difficult to read hand-written document.  It also appears that many later authors picked up the story without properly checking their references either.

Refreshingly, Brian Dunning, in his 2010 podcast on Skeptoid.com comments:
"Taken in context, it's clear that de Brahm's quote has nothing wahtsoever to do with the Brown Mountain Lights.  This leaves us with no documentary evidence that the Lights existed prior to the arrival of electric lights and people in the area in the early 1900's."