Spook Light haunts researchers
By Roger McKinney
Globe Staff Writer

HORNET, Mo. — The mysterious Spook Light that has haunted western Newton County for more than 100 years is still a mystery.

The Ghost Research Society is the latest in a long list of groups to study the phenomena. It also is one in a long line of visitors to find no natural explanation for the curiosity.

Armed with night vision video cameras, a Geiger counter, a negative ion detector and tri-field meter, a team from the society spent three nights recently on and around Spook Light road.

“I don’t believe it’s a natural phenomenon,” said Dale Kaczmarek, president of the society, which is based in Oak Lawn, Ill.

He said the elevation of the land and the trees and other foliage rules out car headlights. He said it’s not swamp gas, because there are no swamps. He said he hasn’t come across any records of mines in the immediate area that might release gases. He said fox fire is caused by decaying wood, but it produces a dull glow that doesn’t move around like the Spook Light.

“What we’re left with is an anomaly, unless we assume it is some sort of spirit,” Kaczmarek said.

He said ghosts don’t always take human form.

“I know from my research that ghosts can often appear as balls of light,” Kaczmarek said. “They don’t always appear as we look.”

Kaczmarek said the high-tech equipment was capable of detecting increased radiation, static electricity or deviations in the magnetic field. The equipment detected nothing; Kaczmarek said the devices have a limited range and the light never got close enough.

He said he may have made a mistake granting a television interview before the first night of study. He said that drew onlookers who sometimes interfered with the work. The full moon also was a distraction, he said.

Documentation of the Spook Light dates back to 1886. Witnesses throughout the decades have described it as a bobbing and weaving ball of light, appearing to be about the size of a basketball. It sometimes splits and divides. Colors of the light may include white, yellow, orange and red.

Jennifer Lunsford is the fourth generation of an American Indian family that has visited the Spook Light regularly. She is a White Mountain and San Carlos Apache and was adopted into the Quapaw Tribe.

She described a kind of ritual she performs to bring out the Spook Light, passed down through her elders.

“Something they taught me is whenever you go where there are spiritual beings, give them something as an offering,” Lunsford said.

She said she usually takes a puff of her cigarette and places the rest on the road. She said nonsmokers may offer food, like part of a hamburger or French fries.

Lunsford said she doesn’t want to encourage littering, though. Beer cans already litter the ditches along Spook Light Road.

“In general, when you go to visit an elder, you take tobacco or food,” she said.

She then reassures the Spook Light, which she said she thinks is male.

“I tell him I’m not here to do any harm, I’m just visiting,” she said.

The Spook Light usually cooperates by making an appearance. She said she usually goes in the winter and tries to plan her visits when there aren’t a lot of other people on the road. She also said later is better.

“Go about 11 o’clock and be prepared to sit,” she said.

Kaczmarek and his team saw nothing on the first night of their visit, he said. The team had better luck on the second night.

“There was a momentary encounter at one of the outposts with what they described as a purplish light,” Kaczmarek said. “Each outpost had two people and both members actually saw the purplish light. It was at treetop level for about 10 to 15 seconds.”

He said the encounter was intriguing because he has never before heard of the light being described as purple.

The third night was payday. He said the team moved further down the road, about a mile and had an encounter with the light 1 a.m.

“In the distance, we observed a pinpoint of light, not on the road, but high above the road,” Kaczmarek said. “It was definitely not on the road. We saw this light approach, lasting no longer than 30 seconds. It was whitish with a tinge of yellow.”

He said the team caught the light on night vision video, which clearly showed the light elevated above the road.

“We watched this light for a number of hours,” Kaczmarek said. “There were several minutes between each sighting.”

It is not the first time Kaczmarek has seen the Spook Light. He said when he visited in 1983, the light seemed brighter and closer. Now he described it as a dim light, but still easily seen.

Kaczmarek will make a presentation on the Spook Light as part of a conference in Alton, Ill. He plans to return with a team from the Ghost Research Society next year.

Neither Lunsford, nor her mother, Barbara Kyser-Collier, said there are any Indian legends that explain the light. Kyser-Collier belongs to the Quapaw tribe.

“I just rack it up as being some kind of unnatural source,” Kyser-Collier said. “I wouldn’t pretend to guess what it is.”

Lunsford said she has heard all the white people’s stories about the source of the Spook Light. She said they include legends that it is the soul of an Indian chief who was murdered, a doctor and his pregnant wife murdered by Indians, a dead miner and a decapitated Civil War soldier.

“Nobody knows what it is,” she said. “There are just things in this world that won’t ever be explained.”