Investigating the Gurdon light

So I tagged along for another outing with the paranormal group to investigate the Gurdon light in Gurdon Arkansas. This is a well known unexplainable area. Each year the area is walked by several groups of kids and adults, and has become sort of a tourist spot for the town of Gurdon.

There are a few stories of how the Gurdon light came to be. Many trace the Gurdon Light legend to a murder that took place near the railroad tracks in December 1931. William McClain, a foreman with the Missouri-Pacific railroad, was involved in an argument with one of his employees, Louis McBride, regarding how many days McBride was being allowed to work. During the Depression, the company did not have the option of giving McBride more hours on the job. McBride became very angry, hit McClain on the head with a shovel, and beat him to death with a railroad spike maul or a spike hammer. The Gurdon Light was first sighted shortly after this murder, and many have come to believe that the light is actually McClain’s ghostly lantern glowing.

Late last year I was informed that the railroad company had came in and removed the rail line after it had been left abandoned for so many years. This made me interested in returning to the location to determine if the light will still show since one of the more popular explanations is that the rails themselves are giving off static electric discharge. We didn't know what to expect to be left behind from the removal of the track and didn't know if we would still be able to reach the location where we seen the light before.

When we arrived we confirmed that the rails had been removed leaving only the gravel rail bed that had been leveled off to form a small road. The five trestles that we needed to cross were left behind making it easy to cross the now filled creek beds that were dry the last two times we were there.

When we finally reached our normal location past the fifth trestle we stopped for a moment to wait to see if the light would show. A few people that came along were not prepared to be out in the woods, complaints of insect bites were frequent. There were also those that were too inpatient, expecting the light would show immediately and wanted to left when they were told we may have to wait awhile.

While leaving the area I kept looking over my shoulder hoping to see something and get everyone to stop. Once I thought I did but I only had half the group with me and by the time we all stopped to look it was gone. The rest of the group moved a bit quicker and was already halfway back to the vehicles.

Investigating the local Crest Light

Friday night I went with our local paranormal investigation group S.A.P.I.T. to go to Lewisville, Arkansas and investigate the Crest Light. Also called the Lewisville light or Canfield light it shares a similar story to the lore famous Gurdon light that is also located here in south Arkansas.

My two friends that foundered the group led about ten people out for this little nightly adventure. The purpose of the trip was to get the new members a feel of what the group does and how they would react when something unexplainable happens. We took a variety of equipment including a EMF meter, a digital voice recorder, several digital cameras, and a few more pieces of equipment that I cannot recall, hope my friends don't get mad with me for forgetting.

We arrived after dark and spent little over a hour walking up and down the rail line. Those that had the equipment were getting various readings and those with cameras mad several pictures. There were also those that didn't take the trip seriously and tried to be melodramatic later on after we left.

I enjoyed my night with the group, we had a slightly eventful night with the light actually showing up for us. It wasn't as eventful as the light that we seen at Gurdon, Arkansas; but nonetheless it did make an appearance for us.