In any event, the orange fire-like ball has reportedly been appearing nightly for well over 100 years. Others have said it sways from side to side, like a lantern being carried by some invisible force. The ball of fire, described as varying from the size of a baseball to a basketball, dances and spins down the center of the road at high speeds, rising and hovering above the treetops, before it retreats and disappears. However, it is most often seen from the east, which is why it has been 'attached” to the tiny hamlet of Hornet, Missouri, and the larger, better-known town of Joplin.Īccording to the legend, the spook light was first seen by Indians along the infamous Trail of Tears in 1836 however, the first 'official” report occurred in 1881 in a publication called the Ozark Spook Light.
The Spook Light, often referred to as the Joplin Spook Light or the Tri-State Spook Light, is actually in Oklahoma near the small town of Quapaw. Described most often as an orange ball of light, the orb travels from east to west along a four-mile gravel road, long called the Devil's Promenade by area locals. Bobbing and bouncing along a dirt road in northeast Oklahoma is the Hornet Spook Light, a paranormal enigma for more than a century.
