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Mysterious lights of Brown Mountain create legends |
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Tuesday, 30 October 2007 |
by KATIE EASTER
Intern Lifestyles Reporter
In our neighboring county of Burke, there is a low-lying mountain with an elevation of 2,600 ft.
Looking at this mountain on a clear night one can see lights that one might assume come from cars, railroads, or communities.
Accounts of these lights were recorded as early as 1200 by Cherokee Indians.
These are the famous Brown Mountain Lights.
Scientists, tourists, and locals alike have been puzzled by these lights for years.
Three overlooks allow visitors to see the lights of Brown Mountain,
Brown Mountain Overlook, Wiseman’s Cliff Overlook, and Lost Cove Cliffs
Overlook.
In 1913, scientists decided the lights were caused by locomotives traveling around the mountain.
However, in 1916, a great flood knocked out the railroad’s bridges so
that the locomotives could not run and the lights remained.
The lights are of various sizes, shapes, and colors and appear in different forms from night to night.
Several legends surround these lights.
One story says that it is the spirits of Cherokee and Catawba maidens
searching for the dead and wounded warriors who died in battle.
A battle was fought between the Cherokee and Catawba Indians near Brown
Mountain. And many believe the lights are from the spirits of the
warriors themselves.
In another legend, a man named Jim was having an affair with a young
girl named Susie. Jim’s wife, Belinda, was pregnant with his child.
Belinda went missing, and the neighbors began to question Jim.
Jim told the suspicious neighbors that she went to visit her family.
They later found bloodstains on the floor of the cabin, and saw a stranger drive off with Jim’s wagon.
This is when the lights appeared, supposedly guiding the people to Belinda’s grave.
The lights led the villagers directly to a pile of stones in a deep
ravine where they found the decomposed skulls of a woman and baby.
By this time Jim had left, but the lights are said to remain to remind everyone that justice will be served.
The third legend surrounding the Brown Mountain Lights is a love story.
A young girl lived on Brown Mountain with her father.
Her beloved would travel up the mountain and visit her every night and
she would leave a lamp on the porch so that he could find the house.
The night before they were to be wed she left the lamp as she had done before, but her lover never came.
It is said that she spent the next nights searching for him with her lamp.
She did this every night until her death.
It is said that the lights are her spirit still darting from place to place in search of her lost love.
The information for these legends came from the book, “North Carolina Legends,” and www.westernncattractions.com.
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