About: Brown Mountain lights

The Brown Mountain lights are purported ghost lights near Brown Mountain in North Carolina. The earliest published references to strange lights there are from around 1910, at about the same time electric lighting was becoming widespread in the area. In 1922, a USGS scientist, George R. Mansfield, used a map and an alidade telescope to prove that the lights that were being seen were trains, car headlights, and brush fires, which ended widespread public concern. With the original sightings of the early 20th century having been explained, storytellers have been creating imaginary pre-electrification histories of the lights ever since, and the nature of claimed encounters with the lights appears to have changed over the years to suit changing cultural expectations.