Paulding Light
Encyclopedia
Paulding, Michigan
Paulding is an unincorporated community in Ontonagon County, Michigan, United States. Paulding is located in Haight Township along U.S. Route 45, southeast of Ontonagon. The Paulding Light, part of the area's folklore, is visible in a valley near Paulding....
. Reports of the light have appeared since the 1960s, with popular folklore providing such explanations as ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
s, geologic activity, or swamp gas
Will-o'-the-wisp
A will-o'-the-wisp or ignis fatuus , also called a "will-o'-wisp", "jack-o'-lantern" , "hinkypunk", "corpse candle", "ghost-light", "spook-light", "fairy light", "friar's lantern", "hobby lantern", "ghost orb", or simply "wisp", is a ghostly light or lights sometimes seen at night or twilight over...
. In 2010, Syfy Channel's Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files
Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files
-Reviews:The show has been described as Mythbusters meets Destination Truth. A Variety magazine review says – "Now we know what Fox Mulder would have done after leaving "The X-Files" unit: Get his own reality-TV show!"-Criticism:...
conducted a paranormal investigation and concluded that the Paulding Light was unexplained. Michigan Tech
Michigan Technological University
Michigan Technological University is a public research university located in Houghton, Michigan, United States. Its main campus sits on on a bluff overlooking Portage Lake...
students conducting a scientific investigation of the light in 2010 were able to see automobile headlights and tail lights when viewing the light through a telescope, and were able to recreate it by driving a car through a specific stretch of US 45.
Location
The light appears in a valley outside of Paulding, Michigan, in the Upper PeninsulaUpper Peninsula of Michigan
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is the northern of the two major land masses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan. It is commonly referred to as the Upper Peninsula, the U.P., or Upper Michigan. It is also known as the land "above the Bridge" linking the two peninsulas. The peninsula is bounded...
, near Watersmeet
Watersmeet Township, Michigan
Watersmeet Township is a civil township of Gogebic County in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,472 at the 2000 census....
off US Highway 45
U.S. Route 45 in Michigan
US Highway 45 is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that runs from Mobile, Alabama, to the Upper Peninsula of the US state of Michigan. The highway forms a part of the state trunkline highway system that is maintained by the Michigan Department of Transportation . It enters the...
(US 45) on Robins Pond Road/Old US 45.
The viewing location for the Paulding Light is located at approximately 46°21′08"N 89°10′43.5"W.
Local folklore
The first recorded sighting of the Paulding Light came in 1966 when a group of teenagers reported the light to a local sheriff. Since then, a number of other individuals have reported seeing the mysterious light that is said to appear nearly every night at the site.Although stories of the light vary, the most popular legend involves the death of a railroad brakeman. The legend states that the valley once contained railroad tracks and the light is the lantern of the brakeman who was killed while attempting to stop an oncoming train from colliding with railway cars stopped on the tracks. Another story claims the light is the ghost of a slain mail courier, while another says that it is the ghost of an Indian dancing on the power lines that run through the valley.
Scientific investigation
While popular folklore attributes paranormalParanormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
or supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
explanations for the light, it may be more parsimoniously explained as car headlights on the north/south stretch of US 45, approximately five miles north of the observation area.
In 2010, students from the Michigan Tech
Michigan Technological University
Michigan Technological University is a public research university located in Houghton, Michigan, United States. Its main campus sits on on a bluff overlooking Portage Lake...
chapter of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) used a telescope
Telescope
A telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation . The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s , using glass lenses...
to examine the light, and were able to clearly see vehicles on a highway, including a specific Adopt a Highway
Adopt a Highway
The Adopt-a-Highway program, also known as Sponsor-a-Highway , is a promotional campaign undertaken by U.S. states, Provinces and Territories of Canada, and national governments outside North America to encourage volunteers to keep a section of a highway free from litter...
sign. They were allegedly able to recreate the Paulding Light by driving a car through a specific location on US 45 as well as other observations related to the light, such as multicolored patterns (police flashers) and variations in intensity (high and low beams). They theorized that the stability of an inversion layer
Inversion (meteorology)
In meteorology, an inversion is a deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude. It almost always refers to a temperature inversion, i.e...
allowed the lights to be visible from the stretch of highway 4.5 miles away.
Media coverage
In 2010, the Paulding Light was featured on the SyFySyfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
television show Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files
Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files
-Reviews:The show has been described as Mythbusters meets Destination Truth. A Variety magazine review says – "Now we know what Fox Mulder would have done after leaving "The X-Files" unit: Get his own reality-TV show!"-Criticism:...
. The investigators were depicted trying several experiments in an unsuccessful attempt to recreate the light, including using car headlights from a nearby road and a flyover by an airplane with a spotlight. Other sequences depicted them conducting an EVP
Electronic voice phenomenon
Electronic voice phenomena are electronically generated noises that resemble speech, but are not the result of intentional voice recordings or renderings. Common sources of EVP include static, stray radio transmissions, and background noise...
session in the area and testing for methane gas and abnormal electromagnetic fields – all of which were inconclusive.
See also
- Hessdalen lightHessdalen lightThe Hessdalen Light is unexplained light usually seen in the Hessdalen valley in the municipality of Holtålen in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway.-History and description:Unusual lights have been reported here since 1940s or earlier...
- Gurdon LightGurdon LightThe Gurdon Light is an unexplained light located near railroad tracks in a wooded area of Gurdon, Arkansas. It is the subject of local folklore and has been featured in local media and on Unsolved Mysteries. The location is still in use by the railroad and is one of the most popular Halloween...
- Marfa LightsMarfa lightsThe Marfa lights, also known as the Marfa ghost lights, have been observed near U.S. Route 67 on Mitchell Flat east of Marfa, Texas, in the United States...
- The Spooklight
- Brown Mountain LightsBrown Mountain LightsThe Brown Mountain Lights are a series of ghost lights reported near Brown Mountain in North Carolina. The lights can be seen from the Blue Ridge Parkway overlooks at mile posts 310 and 301 and from the Brown Mountain Overlook on NC Highway 181 between Morganton, NC and Linville, NC...
- St. Elmo's fireSt. Elmo's fireSt. Elmo's fire is a weather phenomenon in which luminous plasma is created by a coronal discharge from a grounded object in an electric field in the atmosphere St. Elmo's fire is named after St. Erasmus of Formiae St. Elmo's fire (also St. Elmo's light) is a weather phenomenon in which luminous...
- Will-o'-the-wispWill-o'-the-wispA will-o'-the-wisp or ignis fatuus , also called a "will-o'-wisp", "jack-o'-lantern" , "hinkypunk", "corpse candle", "ghost-light", "spook-light", "fairy light", "friar's lantern", "hobby lantern", "ghost orb", or simply "wisp", is a ghostly light or lights sometimes seen at night or twilight over...