I am a sucker for the odd, the unusual and the unexplainable, and Burke County NC has a doozy to delight in. Haunting globes of light that hover over Brown Mountain in Pisgah National Forest, the Brown Mountain Lights have perplexed locals and dazzled tourists for countless years. Wondering ghosts, freak alien encounters, ignited swamp gasses, naturally occurring electrical discharges or just a reflected headlight from a passing car have all been used to explain these elusive dancing orbs.
Locals have written songs about them. Cherokee Natives have passed down stories for generations of the spirits of ancestors roaming the woods looking for their dead, lost in battle. Adventurers have sat for hours with the excited hopes of, at least spotting the floating spheres if not actually interacting with and photographing the bizarre anomaly.
The Brown Mountain lights have even had their day in Hollywood. In 2014, the World premiere of Alien Abduction was held at Marquee Cinemas in Downtown Morganton. Filmed in and around Burke county the sci-fi thriller highlights the strange, yet fascinating encounters that real people have reported, using a fictional family’s haunting experience. These diverse and imaginative mediums have all been used to capture the essence of the strange and alluring mountain mystery.
Whatever these mysterious lights, a trip to the picturesque area is made even more wonderous by the possible encounter of something out of this world. It triggers the imagination and sparks an overwhelming sense of curiosity that can only be satisfied by a one-on-one close encounter with the unknown. A shot at trying to unravel the mystery that so far few have seen, nobody can explain and guaranteed all will be amazed by.
There are so many extraordinary and magical things in this world and so many places to explore, but sometimes the most phenomenal surprises are right in our own back yard!
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Disclosure: The author was honored to be the guest of Discover Burke County during his stay, but as always, the opinions, reviews, and experiences are her own.