The Paulding Light
In October of 2006, I visited the location of the Paulding Light in the upper peninsula of Michigan. The light is viewed from Robbins Pond Road, just south of the small town of Paulding. The road is currently blocked by a metal barricade, because the road soon encounters a ravine with a flowing creek, and there is no bridge, although I was able to walk down the road and cross the creek with little difficulty. The photo below shows the view of this "ghost road" as seen from the barricade. The creek is out of sight somewhere near the lowest part of the road. The powerlines on the right continue for a great distance over receding hills, leading directly toward the spot on the horizon where the spooklight is seen. Most eyewitness accounts and photographs reveal that the light appears on the horizon in the general area indicated by the arrow in the photo below, and is not seen elsewhere.
Compare the daytime photo above to this small night-time shot that I found on the internet:
These lights are simply automobile headlights on a road which disappears over the crest of a hill in the distance - I would estimate that the hill is at least five miles away. From the viewing spot near the barricade, the distant hill and its road are not visible to the unaided eye, even during daylight hours, due to the distance involved - this gives the viewer the impression that they are seeing lights where none should occur. But at night, the headlights can be seen from that distance, and are visible only because of the coincidental alignment of an artificial clearing in the trees to accomodate the powerlines.
As shown in the photos below, the true source of the lights is readily discerned by walking down the road beyond the barricade. Within about a quarter of a mile, you'll encounter another road which leads off to the left and right. At this point, the powerline clearing is still visible, as seen below:
In the detail shot below, you can discern a small plateau at the top of a hill in the powerline clearing, and the trace of a dirt road climbing up to the top:
By following the main road to the left, you will shortly arrive at this powerline road branching off to the right. Within a very short distance, it curves uphill to ascend the little plateau:
From the top of the plateau in the powerline clearing, you can see the road leading off over the hills into the distance, eventually disappearing over the horizon where a notch in the treeline reveals the path of the road some miles away:
Zooming in for a closer look. You can even see a trailer parked along the road, and the distant notch in the trees is distinctly visible:
A direct line of sight can be established from the road on the horizon, to the plateau in the powerline clearing, and all the way back to the viewing site at the barricade, where the road climbs another hill to match the elevation of this plateau. As cars emerge over the hill on the horizon, their lights are seen by viewers at the barricade as they look through the powerline clearing. Mystery solved. But none of this can be discerned by the viewer at the barricade, even in broad daylight - and a visitor to the sight after dark, especially, might be forgiven for failing to perceive the topographical alignments that make the viewing possible.
Since viewers are unaware of what they're seeing, the lights can appear to be closer than they really are, especially when viewed in the clear air of a chilly, northern evening. Many viewers believe themselves to be seeing lights that are relatively close at hand - perhaps only "two or three blocks away," by one account.
Eyewitness statements often inadvertently expose the true nature of the lights. Consider this one:
"After watching for an hour, Lent, still skeptical of any supernatural basis for the phenomenon, determined to catch the pranksters responsible. He and Nowak left the car and began walking. As they approached, the lights seemed to disappear down over the next rise but cast a bright glow in the sky. A half mile later, finding nothing that might explain the mystery, the pair turned around and the lights reappeared over the rise."
http://www.backwoodswisconsin.com/paulding_light.htm
It's clear what's happening here. The pair of observers in the story above have walked down the road to get closer to the lights, which they believe to be reasonably close at hand - but, by walking down the road, they've descended in elevation slightly, breaking the essential line of sight which allows the distant cars to be visible. They can still see the glow of the lights in the sky, but can no longer see the lights directly. By returning to their original position, they restore their line of sight to the horizon, and can once again see the lights.
In the same article, notice how the explanation of the plateau is casually dismissed through an additional misinterpretation of the source of the lights:
"Charlie Gumm disagreed. His search led him to a secluded but well-used side road leading up to a plateau. He suspected that teen-agers manipulated the lights from there. Nightly! In temperatures of twenty degrees below zero! At five o'clock in the morning! It seems unlikely."
Indeed, it would seem unlikely, except that the lights are really coming from several miles farther on in the distance, from a source - car headlights - that could occur under any of the conditions listed by the incredulous author above. The skeptic in the story, Mr. Gumm, has found the plateau in the powerline clearing, but fails to make the connection between the lights and the view of the horizon from the plateau. By assuming that the lights really do occur much closer to the viewing sight at the barricade, he suggests that someone must be using the plateau to perpetrate a fraud. But even that simple explanation is unnecesarily complex and vulnerable to objection. Simple automobile headlights can explain the phenomenon quite nicely.
But wait, there's more! Some eyewitness accounts describe behaviors that would seem to be inconsistent with automobile headlights. One witness even admits that headlights are often mistaken for the spooklight, but insists that the real lights are something else altogether, with uniquely strange characteristics. Observe the following accounts:
"When my friends and I went there in the fall of 1999, there was alot to see.... The light was floating up, up, up into the sky above the power lines. And whoever has been there knows that it does not go high very often."
http://www.ghosts.org/ghostlights/pauldinglight7.html
"The light was spectacular. It seemed to be pointing straight at us. My friend and I both witnessed the light change shapes from an octoagon to a multi-pointed star, to a diamond shape, then back to round. It even sort of spun, but didn't seem to be giving off the beam of light it did when we first noticed it. Once over the horizon, the light didn't seem to move laterally, but did move up and down."
http://www.ghosts.org/ghostlights/pauldinglight11.html
"Do not be fooled! ...there is a stretch of U.S. 45 that travels due north of the site, about 6 miles ahead. The head & tail lights are mistaken by many as the earth lights. The real ones bounce, jitter, take on a wide variety of shapes and appear along the powerline right of way to the right (east) of the roadway.. The head/tail lights move only slightly, are white to light blue and yellow to red, and appear in the "V' of the roadway far ahead."
http://www.astronomycafe.net/weird/lights/paulding1.htm
These descriptions present us with lights that seem to change shape, move erratically, and rise above the landscape. None of these characteristics are beyond explanation, however - all are consistent with atmospheric distortions caused by a mirage. Contrary to popular misconception, car headlights can be seen from many miles away, and may be further enhanced or distorted in strange ways by the common effect of the mirage, which can cause a distant light to appear closer and brighter than it really is, and can also cause a light to appear to shimmer or otherwise move erratically. Amazingly, it's even possible for lights out of sight beyond the horizon to become visible in the air above the horizon line, as if floating in space - these refracted images may flash or move just like the source light on the ground, and can appear most perplexing. This phenomenon almost certainly accounts for whatever odd lights have been seen from Robbins Pond Road.
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