Halloween Countdown, Day 3

[eldritchhobbit]

I have a spooky tale for you today, straight from my own backyard!

Brown Mountain, which is found in the county next to ours in the Blue Ridge Mountains, has long been the home of ghostly lights. Called the "Brown Mountain Lights," these mysterious glowing lights - most prevalent in September, October, and November - have been the source of

Comments

[travels_in_time]

Oooh! Sounds like the excellent book "Escape to Witch Mountain" by Alexander H. Key (not the reasonable-ish 70s Disney movie, not the in-name-only 1995 movie, and certainly not the awful 2009 movie starring The Rock). The lights and the music that come from the mountain are never explained--well, they are, but only in the broadest of terms--which is slightly disappointing, but works to give a sense that there is a whole area of mystery there that most of us aren't privy to.

ETA: I just went and looked on Wikipedia, and the Blue Ridge mountain area is specifically mentioned in the book, so I'm thinking it is related. I'm going to go look at all the links you've posted now, as this was one of my favorite books back in the day, so I'm going to go pretend that it's all true. :D

[eldritchhobbit]

Oh WOW - I hadn't made this connection at all, but now that you say it, I can see it! I'm sorry to say I've never read the book (though it sounds like I really need to do so), but I did see the '70s Disney movie when I was little, and I really enjoyed it. It stuck in my mind. I'm so tickled to hear that the book mentions the Blue Ridge Mountains specifically. Thank you for connecting the dots! This is such a fascinating (and cool) link!

[eldritchhobbit]

PS. I just looked up Alexander Key and the Brown Mountain Lights, and several sources argue that he intentionally made Brown Mountain the original "Witch Mountain." This is so cool! Thanks again for pointing this out to me. This makes my day!

[travels_in_time]

Now that I'm back home, I'm going to do some reading up on it! Nobody in my family had TV or went to movies when I was a kid, so the first movie I ever saw was this one, in a library, when I was six years old. I came upstairs in a complete daze and tried to tell my mom ALLLLLLL about it, and of course made no sense at all. I found the book a couple of years later, and spent the next several years hoping that some other library or school would show that film. I bought it on DVD the moment it came out. :D I definitely think the story was instrumental in the development of my deep interest in fantasy/sci-fi.

[internet_sampo]

Charles Fort approves this post!

[eldritchhobbit]

Brilliant! :D I'm doing the Fortean dance now!

[ext_1452293]

So, uh... will Dr. Amy be investigating then??

[eldritchhobbit]

Ha! The hubby and I made a daytime trip to the three most (in)famous viewing sites (the photos above are some of the ones I took) to get a sense of the area. We intend to go back at night - though we may wait until my parents come and visit, because they would hate to miss an x-file! ;)

[witchcat07]

The Brown Mountain lights sound intriguing.

[ext_1452293]

I just have to tell you that I love your icon! I have that on a shirt!

[witchcat07]

Thank'ee!

[eldritchhobbit]

Yes! The more we hear about them, the more fascinated we are.

[anonymous]

I wrote a different story about the Brown Mountain lights for The X-Files comic book series. It was under the title "Night Lights" and was in issues # 18 and #19 for anyone interested in checking it out.

-- John Rozum

[eldritchhobbit]

Fantastic! I must read these now. Thanks so much for the heads up!