Believe It or Not

One of the weird stories I remember from my youth was the story of the Saratoga Light.

Saratoga is a town not far from where I grew up, in the heart of East Texas, the Piney Woods and the Big Thicket. The Big Thicket can be a spooky place all on its own. It is a sparsely populated, thickly wooded area. On an unmooned night, the roads can be as black as a killer's heart. Add to this a good ghost story and a supposed apparition and it can be even spookier.

Just north of Saratoga is Bragg Road. Bragg Road is what we used to call a tram road. A tram road is a road built along what was once a rail bed. These railways were mostly used for logistical purposes of some type of industry (oil or timber), and when their usefulness evaporated, the rail bed could easily be converted to a road. The tram roads that I remember were usually only dirt roads, some more traveled than others. Some of the more heavily traveled roads were county maintained, which meant that the county had cut in ditches and would occasionally resurface the dirt road with a maintainer. In the case of Bragg Road, it had been used to supply the oil industry in the area in the early 1900s and was abandoned in 1934. The rails were later pulled up and it became a regularly traveled road, eventually maintained by Hardin County. 

A phenomenon is said to occur on Bragg Road on occasion:  the Saratoga Light. A mysterious light would appear, often at a distance on the road. At times, attempts to approach or follow the light would be unsuccessful. Other reports have stated that the light would approach vehicles, and on occasion would enter vehicles. The light has been photographed and even appeared in National Geographic's October 1974 article about the Big Thicket. Here is a copy of the image, a 20-minute exposure taken by Blair Pittman (you can see the trail left by a star captured in the photograph over the exposure time).

There are many explanations given for the Saratoga Light. The more practical is that it is swamp gas, a car's light or the reflection of a car's light. The explanations I remember hearing tended toward being more fanciful. Among them are:

1. It was the ghost of a railway worker who had been decapitated by a train. The light was from the lantern he used to look for his missing head.
   
2. It was the ghosts of Spanish men, returning to the area to look for lost gold.
3. It was the ghost of a man, shot by Confederate soldiers.

I remember hearing these stories from my pre-teen years through my high school years. I remember hearing wild tales of personal encounters, most likely complete fabrications based on third-party recollections of things that happened on Bragg Road. I remember poorly laid plans made with friends or cousins to go to Bragg Road to see the light for ourselves, plans that would never materialize.

Do I believe the light exists? Yes. There are many reputable accounts from those who have seen the light--more reputable than any who can claim to have seen Bigfoot. Do I believe it is caused by numbers 1, 2 or 3 above? No. There is some good explanation for the phenomenon that doesn't dip into the realm of the supernatural. But I think these wild explanations are sort of like Santa Claus. Knowing that there is no such thing as Santa doesn't mean its not fun believing in him anyway.