The Brown Mountain Lights
Over a low ridge in the Blue Ridge Mountains, glowing lights rise, drift and vanish on certain nights.
What was reported
Since at least the early 1900s, people have watched mysterious lights over Brown Mountain, a long, low ridge in western North Carolina. The lights are described as glowing balls, red, white or blue, that rise above the ridge, hang there and fade. Viewing spots along the roads draw visitors on autumn nights.
Local legends have explained them as lanterns carried by searchers long ago, and the song 'Brown Mountain Light' made them famous.
Explanations offered
The US Geological Survey looked into them in 1913 and 1922 and concluded that many were headlights of trains and cars in the valleys beyond, along with brush fires and stars. Researchers since then have filmed lights they say don't fit those explanations, and some suggest a natural glow from the rocks.
- When
- Reported since the early 1900s
- Where
- Brown Mountain, North Carolina, USA
- Witnesses
- Residents and visitors
- Status
- Disputed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.