The Marfa lights are a mysterious light show that people often see near Marfa, Texas, in the United States. Visitors can view the lights from a nearby area that the community has made public to help attract tourists. Scientists who studied the lights between the years 2000 and 2008 determined that the lights are caused by car headlights being bent by warmer air in the desert.

Overview

According to Judith Brueske, the best location to see the lights is a widened area on Highway 90, about nine miles east of Marfa. The lights are often described as distant bright spots that can be distinguished from ranch lights and car headlights on Highway 67 (between Marfa and Presidio, to the south) mainly by their unusual movements.

Robert and Judy Wagers define "Classic Marfa Lights" as appearing south-southwest of the Marfa Lights Viewing Center (MLVC). They describe the left edge of the viewing area as lined up with the Big Bend Telephone Company tower when viewed from the MLVC, and the right edge as Chinati Peak when viewed from the MLVC.

James Bunnell, referring to the Marfa Lights View Park east of Marfa, describes the lights as "orbs of light" that change in brightness and color. These orbs may move or stay still, splitting apart or coming together. He notes that the lights are usually yellow-orange but sometimes appear in other colors, such as green, blue, or red. He also states that the lights typically hover above desert plants but remain below the mesas in the background.

History

The first known record of the Marfa lights was in 1883. A young cowhand named Robert Reed Ellison saw a flickering light while driving cattle through Paisano Pass. He wondered if it was a campfire from the Apache. Other settlers said they had also seen the lights, but when they looked for evidence, they found no ashes or signs of a campsite. In 1885, Joe and Anne Humphreys reported seeing the lights as well.

The first published account of the lights appeared in the July 1957 issue of Coronet magazine. In 1976, a book called Tales of the Big Bend by Elton Miles included stories about the lights from the 19th century and a photograph of the Marfa lights taken by a local rancher.

A person named Bunnell recorded 34 sightings of the Marfa lights between 1945 and 2008. Monitoring equipment was set up in 2003 to study the lights. Bunnell found that, on average, 9.5 lights are seen over 5.25 nights each year. He thinks the monitoring equipment might only be finding half of the lights in Mitchell Flat.

Explanations

Skeptic Brian Dunning points out that the area called "View Park," where the lights are often seen, is a roadside park located on the south side of U.S. Route 90, about 9 miles (14 km) east of Marfa. This location was once the site of Marfa Army Airfield, where many thousands of people lived between 1942 and 1947. These individuals trained American and Allied pilots. After the war, the large field was used for many years as a regional airport, offering daily airline service. Because Marfa Army Airfield and its satellite fields are always watched by guards, it is unlikely that any unusual events would go unnoticed or unreported. According to Dunning, the most likely explanation for the lights is that they are a type of mirage caused by large differences in temperature between cold and warm layers of air. Marfa is located at an elevation of about 4,688 feet (1,429 meters) above sea level. It is common for daily high and low temperatures in the area to differ by 40 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit (22 to 28 degrees Celsius).

In May 2004, a group from the Society of Physics Students at the University of Texas at Dallas spent four days studying lights seen southwest of the view park. They used tools to measure traffic, video cameras, binoculars, and cars to track the lights. Their report concluded that all the lights observed over four nights southwest of the view park could be clearly explained as car headlights traveling along U.S. 67 between Marfa and Presidio, Texas.

In May 2008, scientists from Texas State University used special equipment to study light patterns from the Marfa lights viewing station for 20 nights. They recorded several lights that "could have been mistaken for lights of unknown origin." However, in every case, the movement of the lights and data from their equipment could be easily explained as car headlights or small fires. The scientists concluded that because "genuine" Marfa lights—those with strange behavior that cannot be explained by car lights—are rarely seen, more research is needed to understand their nature.

In popular media

The Marfa Lights have been shown and talked about in several media sources. They appeared on the television show Unsolved Mysteries and in an episode of King of the Hill titled "Of Mice and Little Green Men." They were also featured in an episode of the Disney Channel Original Series So Weird. A book titled The Shimmer, written by David Morrell in 2009, was based on the lights. The Rolling Stones mentioned the "lights of Marfa" in the song "No Spare Parts" from the 2011 re-release of their 1978 album Some Girls. Country music artist Paul Cauthen wrote a song called "Marfa Lights," which is a love song inspired by the lights, for his 2016 album My Gospel. In the 2019 Simpsons episode "Mad About the Toy," the Simpson family visits Marfa. Lisa tries to explain the lights, but Marge stops her. The band The Union Trade included a song called "Marfa Lights" on their 2015 album A Place of Long Years. Mark McGuire released a song titled "The Marfa Lights" on his 2009 album A Pocket Full of Rain, and it was later included in his 2011 compilation A Young Person's Guide to Mark McGuire by Editions Mego.