Marfa Lights appear on calm
nights and during thunder-
storms, often having their pho-
tographs taken with lightning
flashes. They have appeared in
snowy Decembers and on a
Cactus
Health
Services
blistering Fourth of July. They
are more visible on dark, new-
moon nights, but can also be
seen during a full moon.
The earliest recorded men-
tion of the lights in 1883 was by
John Paul Schwartz, D.O. & Raymond DeLille, P.A
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a rancher named Robert
Ellison, many decades before
cars or electricity were com-
mon in the rugged Big Bend
area of Texas. Yet, skeptics
question why there was little
documented mention of the
bizarre lights made during
World War II when a huge
Army Air Base was in the exact
location as the present viewing
site. Thousands of men passed
Maiya’s
through that base from 1942
until 1947. American and
Allied pilots alike were once
stationed by the many thou-
sands in this lonely, sparsely
populated land. One specula-
tion is that such reports were
hushed up by the military so as
not to cause panic during the
war, perhaps as in this century
we are told that military and
civilian pilots are strictly dis-
couraged, or forbidden, from
reporting UFO sightings.
Many reputable and profes-
sional citizens of
the
Marfa/Alpine area, as well as
notable visitors from around
the world, have given creditable
eyewitness accounts of what
they have seen. I occasionally
tell my first-hand encounters to
various people and see them
laugh or roll their eyes.
However, I’ve traveled to
numerous places and have
lived for many years among the
rugged peaks at the southern
end of the Rocky Mountains,
and nowhere else have I seen
dancing lights other than
beside Hwy. 90 in West Texas.
My favorite explanation is that
they are campfires lit by old
Apache Chief Alsate, who
once hid high up in the nearby
Chisos (Ghost) Mountains, as
signal fires to
help his scat-
tered people
find
their
way home.
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