A centuries-old mystery about the widow of a train conductor who allegedly haunts a country road in rural South Carolina may have been solved!
WCBD is reporting on the mystery which involves sightings of strange balls of light floating above abandoned railroad tracks in Summerville, South Carolina. Commonly referred to by the locals as “Summerville Light”, the phenomena got its name from Light Road, the street that runs parallel to the old tracks.
In the 1800’s, the railroad used to run through Summerville. Local legend says the wife of a conductor used to walk up Light Road with a lantern every night at midnight to meet her husband and give him dinner.
However, one night, the train never arrived. The woman waited for hours, only to learn that the train had derailed and her husband had been killed. Some accounts say he was decapitated in the wreckage.
Heartbroken, the woman never recovered from the loss of her husband and would walk to the station every night and wait at the same spot, hoping he would return.
Apparently, this habit continued even after her death.
“Legend says if you travel down the road late at night you would hear the typical sounds of forest — crickets chirping, leaves rustling in the nighttime breeze, and frogs croaking in the distance,” WCBD reports. “Stop on the road, flash your car lights and the sounds would suddenly stop. Then a small ball of light would appear, resembling a lantern moving from side to side.”
Some claim if you attempt to walk toward the light, it will suddenly chase you.
Even though the area is now developed, a geologist named Susan Hough of the U.S. Geological Survey published a possible explanation for the Summerville Light phenomena in a recent article appearing in Seismological Research Letters.
Apparently, there was a very destructive 7.3 magnitude earthquake in 1886 in Charleston, South Carolina, which is 25 miles southeast of Summerville. Hough was studying the area’s seismology which led to the discovery that many of the local Summerville Light “ghost sightings” actually coincided with periods of seismic activity in the area.
“People said their cars would shakе violently. Well, that’s an earthquake,” she told Science’s Richard Stone. “They heard noises upstairs, whispers. Or doors would swing. Seismic events we may not perceive as earthquakes fit some of these accounts. And glowing orbs that would hang in the air along a former railroad track. Well, that makes you think earthquake lights.”
What is an earthquake light?
According to Smithsonian Magazine, “Earthquake lights are mysterious phenomena that have been observed around the world, but scientists still don’t have a clear idea of what causes them. Some have proposed that seismic activity deforms minerals in the Earth, creating an electrical charge that can lead air molecules to glow. Another theory is that they’re related to the release of gases like radon or methane, which can ignite when they’re exposed to a spark of static electricity.”
Hough believes the railroad tracks, in particular, are the key to Summerville’s ghosts.
“Historically, when [rail companies] replaced tracks, they didn’t always haul the old track away. So, you’ve got heaps of steel out there. Sparks may be part of the story,” Hough explained to Science. “And maybe the railroads are important for another reason. They may naturally follow fault lines that have carved corridors through the landscape.”
This could be why there are so many ghost stories similar to Summerville Light that involved ghostly lights appearing over railways.
“Maybe those ‘ghosts’ are illuminating shallow active faults. They’re impossible to study, because you can’t catch them in the act. But there are plausible theories that might explain them.”
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