ity
the light rises in a southeasterly
direction from the point of observa-
tion just over the lower slope of
Brown Mountain, first about 7:30 p.m.
and again at 10 o'clock. It looks much
like a toy fire balloon, a distinct
ball, with no atmosphere about it.
* * * It is much smaller than the
full moon, much larger than any star
and very red. It rises in the far
distance from beyond Brown Mountain,
which is about 6 miles from Rattle-
snake Knob, and after going up a short
distance, wavers and goes out in less
than 1 minute * * *. It does not al-
ways appear in exactly the same place,
but varies what must amount in the
distance to several miles. The light
is visible at all seasons, so Mr.
Anderson Loven, an old and reliable
resident testifies * * *. There seems
to be no doubt that the light rises
from some point in the wide, level
country between Brown Mountain and the
South Mountains, a distance of about
12 miles, though it is possible that
it rises at a still greater distance."
In this article in the Charlotte
Daily Observer, the discovery of the
lights is assigned to a date "more
than 2 years ago," but conversation
with B. S. Gaither, of Morganton, who
participated in the fishing party
mentioned, and who was the one who
first saw the lights, elicited the
fact that they were observed in 1908
or 1909. Rev. C. E. Gregory, who in
1910 built a cottage on the little
knoll near Loven's Hotel at Cold
Spring, presumably the Rattlesnake
Knob referred to, was, according to
local-oral accounts, the first to give
much attention to the lights and to
bring them to public notice.
H. L. Millner, an engineer living at
Morganton, states that he did railroad
surveying all through the mountains
north of Brown Mountain in 1897, 1899
to 1903, and in 1905. He afterward
spent many summer vacations in those
mountains but says that he never saw |
the
lights and never heard of them
until 1910. Similar testimony is
given by Rev. Albert Sherrill, who
served two churches in the country
about Brown Mountain. In a letter to
Dr. W. J. Humphreys dated January 25,
1922 he says:
"For 4 years I traveled the roads to
these churches and visited in the
homes of the people all about this
mountain. I held revival services day
and night, which gave me a chance of
observation at night. This was from
1909 to 1912, inclusive. At no time
in all these years did I see a light
or hear of one * * *. Two years
after I left there was the first I
ever heard of it."
On the other hand, Col. Wade H.
Harris, editor of the Charlotte Daily
Observer, from which the first de-
scription of the light, quoted above,
was taken, states in a letter dated
October 2, 1921, addressed to Senator
Simmons, that "there is a record that
it (the light) has puzzled the people
since and before the days of the
Civil War." R. T. Claywell, of
Morganton, says that people used to
come to Burke County 60 years ago to
see the lights. Joseph Loven, of Cold
Spring, says that he noticed the
lights as early as 1897, when he
moved to his present home by Loven's
Hotel, but that he had heard nothing
about them and paid no attention to
them until Mr. Gregory came, in 1910.
In October 1913, Mr. Sterrett of
the U.S. Geological Survey made his
investigation, as a result of which
he decided that the lights were loco-
motive headlights. He did not visit
Rattlesnake Knob but went unaccom-
panied to the Brown Mountain region,
where he made his observations.
A newspaper article on the lights,
by W. W. Scott, published November
lO, 1915, aroused much local interest
and started newspaper discussions, as
a result of which several expeditions,
made up of local observers. visited
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