The first confirmed report of the Marfa Lights dates to a 1957 magazine article. Earlier oral reports of the Marfa Lights have been attributed to Robert Reed Ellison in 1883.
According to the historian Cecilia Thompson, writing in 'History of Marfa and Presidio County', Mr Ellison did not record the Marfa Lights in his memoirs written in 1937 but told his family about them and this information was orally relayed by them.
No verifiable written sources for the Marfa Lights predate the 1950's.
Reports of evidently similar strange nocturnal lights in this area have persisted all through the twentieth century, and they continue today. These reports often describe brightly glowing balls floating above the ground, or sometimes high in the air. Colors are usually described as white, yellow, orange or red, but green and blue are sometimes reported.
The balls are said to hover at about shoulder height, or to move laterally at low speeds, or sometimes to shoot around rapidly in any direction. They often appear in pairs or groups, according to reports, to divide into pairs or merge together, to disappear and reappear, and sometimes to move in seemingly regular patterns. Their sizes are typically said to resemble footballs.
The Marfa Lights are elusive but not genuinely rare. They appear occasionally and unpredictably, perhaps once in about two weeks, averaged over time. There are no reliable reports of daytime sightings. The Marfa Lights seem to be a nocturnal phenomenon only.
They may appear at any time of night, typically south of Route 90, five to fifteen miles east of Marfa, at unpredictable directions and apparent distances. They can persist from a fraction of a second to several hours. There is evidently no connection between appearances of the Marfa Lights and anything else besides night time hours.
They appear in all seasons of the year and in any weather, seemingly uninfluenced by such factors. They sometimes have been observed during late dusk and early dawn, when the landscape is dimly illuminated.
It is extremely difficult to approach an ongoing display of the Marfa Lights, mainly due to the difficult and dangerous terrain of Mitchell Flat. Also, all of the land where the Marfa Lights are observed is private property, and access is prohibited without explicit permission from the owners. There are only a very few accounts of successful attempts to move very close to observed Marfa Lights. Still, there are multiple accounts of the Marfa Lights observed at close range, where the phenomenon happened to arise near the observer. These generally describe objects resembling fireworks, except lacking both smoke and sound.
Less frequent accounts of seemingly similar anomalous nocturnal lights have arisen along a broad and elongated region within west Texas, stretching generally from El Paso southeastward along the Rio Grande valley, past Big Bend National Park and farther southeastward into Mexico.
Also, repeated appearances of apparently similar lights have been reported worldwide. Some of these emerge, and then seem to fade over time, and finally disappear. Others persist over many years. Undoubtedly the most renown among the latter are the Hessdalen lights, of Hessdalen, Norway. A similar, less well recognized, persistent phenomenon are the Min Min lights of northeastern Australia, and a number of other like cases are known.
Skeptics discount paranormal sources for the lights, attributing them to mistaken sightings of ordinary night time lights, such as distant vehicle lights, ranch lights, or insects.
A number of projects carried out by nonresident investigators, over several decades, have generally confirmed the appearance of the anomalous lights often with photographic and video evidence.
Many suggestions have been offered to explain the reported observations, but no consensus has been reached.
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david hobbs
They look very much like lights that I have seen in Rendlesham Forest.
I must find our where this place is. I take it that it is in The USA.
Raymond
Yes Mr. Hobbs.
david hobbs
The small ranching community of Marfa is located on a Chihuahuan Desert plateau in the Trans-Pecos area of west Texas. Supported mostly by ranching, and more recently by tourism, it is surrounded by vast mountains and is Texas' highest incorporated city.
Basicaly it's in the middle of nowhere. Population just over 2000.
