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Car Lights
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Car lights on Highway 67 have proven to be an almost irresistible attraction for skeptics and amateur investigators. That is understandable when you consider that car lights negotiating that mountain highway do look plenty mysterious and are available nightly in contrast to 'real' mystery lights that appear only about 10 to 30 times a year (some years are better than others for reasons we do not yet understand). Time after time some group or individual sets out to discover the truth about Marfa's mystery lights. They use instrumented aircraft and/or jeeps and/or lanterns and/or walkie-talkies, and/or lasers, etc. to conduct a quote "scientific study" that lasts anywhere from one night to one week. The only thing they ever see is car lights on the Presidio highway and experience little difficulty in proving they are car lights. Regrettably, these pseudo-scientific efforts never conclude that the lights didn't show or that their efforts were in vain. Instead they announce that they have established hard evidence proving that Marfa's fabled mystery lights are nothing more than ordinary automobiles. In doing so they contribute to a growing myth that Marfa's mystery lights are actually car lights. Following is a brief list of some of the better known claims:
Who: Dr. Donald Witt, Sul Ross college professor. When: Mid-70s With what: Students, jeeps, radios, triangulation. Conclusion: Ranch lights and automobile lights. Comment: It has been reported that Dr. Witt was surprised later in life when he was lucky enough to actually see an ML.
Who: Alto Technologies. When: August 25, 2000 (1 night). With what: Aircraft instrumented with hyperspectral detection sensors. Conclusion: Hyperspectral soil (what else would you expect given their equipment) was reflecting car lights and causing them to appear mysterious when viewed from the View Park. Comment: Their ground person could see car lights turning on and off and varying in intensity but from the airplane they looked like normal car lights. Alto Technologies failed to understand that the variable intensity and On and Off states of car lights observed from the View Park were due to terrain obstructions and changes in road direction. They incorrectly concluded that what their ground observer was seeing was reflected car lights when he was actually seeing car lights directly. It was a misunderstanding of facts leading to incorrect conclusions concerning visible automobile traffic on Highway 67. Skeptics frequently refer to Alto Technology's report as "scientific revelation" that Marfa Lights are reflected car lights but the only thing mysterious that night was their misunderstanding of observed vehicle lights.
Who: University of Texas Society of Physics Students. When: May 2004 (4 nights). With what: Video cameras, traffic volume monitoring equipment, chase cars, binoculars, many students, etc. Conclusions: Marfa's mystery lights can be safely attributed to car light traffic on US 67. Comment: A four night effort is not sufficient to study and draw conclusions regarding a phenomena that appears (usually in a different location than the direction they observed) no more frequently than once or twice a month. That they undertook this investigation with a device to monitor car traffic and focused their attention on Highway 67 is more revealing than their study results.
There have been many other similar efforts but reporting all them would fill many pages. All of them have chosen to focus on simple explanations like car lights or mirages or ranch lights. None of them have ever taken the time, trouble and expense necessary to locate and study the very real, and ever fascinating, Marfa Lights phenomena. That is the reason for my project and this website.