Mystery Lights of Southwest Texas
Marfa, Texas
Marfa, Texas, Mystery
Brief history of mystery lights
“The Ghost lights of Marfa still
shine as bright as ever, and are still
as mysterious as they were when
they were first seen by early
settlers who drove their herds into
the Marfa area in 1883.”
Another nonfiction book
Flying Predators in Texas?
Bioluminescent Flying Ropens?
What is guaranteed to shock most
Americans who hear about Marfa,
Texas? It’s not stories of the ghost
lights or scientific speculations on
earth lights. A nonfiction book on
living pterosaurs in America—that
is shocking, including the chapter
on Marfa Lights.
The third edition of Whitcomb’s
book Live Pterosaurs in America
says nothing about the biologist
Evelyn Cheesman. But Cheesman
said much about the mystery lights
she observed in the southwest
Pacific; in her book she describes
the strange lights, convinced they
were not of any human origin.
But how do live pterosaurs and
strange lights in the southwest
Pacific relate to the Marfa Lights
in southwest Texas? They all fly
with intelligence, and people have
been reporting glowing flying
creatures in North America for
decades. Eyewitnesses see what
they previously had assumed was
impossible: a living pterodacyl.
Intelligent Ghost Lights?
Light “Splitting” and Dancing
Some of the old timers, ranchers
or others, around Marfa might talk
of “ghost lights” or those “dancing
devils.” They’re not talking about
car headlights (although the night
mirages of headlights can appear
strange). They’re talking about the
apparent intelligence behind some
of the flying-light behavior, and it
has had some scientists perplexed.
Late in 2010, a cryptozoology
author from California, Jonathan
Whitcomb (more recently living in
Murray, Utah), explained that the
light splittings, separations, and
rejoinings may be from a small
group of flying predators that are
nocturnal and bioluminescent.
They may hunt the Big Brown
Bat, common in this part of Texas.
The third edition of his nonfiction
book, Live Pterosaurs in America,
has one chapter on Marfa Lights.
Cryptozoology Book
In daylight, the country around Marfa, Texas, looks like a typical semi-arid countryside. But wait until night.
Third Edition of LPA
Eyewitness sightings of living
pterosaurs in the United States
of America—that sums up this
nonfiction cryptozoology book.
Some of the pterosaur sightings
are in Texas. Consider this one,
quoted here only in part:
“In 2006, I received a report
from a lady I’ll call ‘DF.’ . . .
‘One evening, I was outside my
apartment [San Antonio]. . . We
noticed something flying around
across the road ... [it] was much
too large to be any bat I have
ever seen . . . 6-10 feet across.’”
In addition, Live Pterosaurs in
America has one chapter on the
mysterious Marfa Lights of
southwest Texas:
“... Of course ropens in Texas
might be hunting bats, but how
could dancing help them catch
bats? Insects! Of course lights
attract insects. After two ropens
have glowed in one area long
enough to concentrate insects,
they separate for awhile to allow
the bats to feel safe in catching
those insects. Soon the ropens
return to catch the bats.”
The cryptozoology book Searching
for Ropens and Finding God has
many pages on the Marfa Lights.