Brown mountain, in NC's Pisgah National Forest, has been one of the South's greatest mysteries for centuries. There is no argument on the existence of the lights; the debate begins when you start asking about their origin.
I took a ride out to the popular overlook on hwy 181 one fall afternoon with my wife Marii and my sister Carole. I don't believe any of us actually expected to see anything other than a mountain and a mess of trees, but it was something to do.
We parked my old F-150 with the tailgate facing Brown Mtn. right as the sun gave up the day. The night was just plain cold. Carole started playing with my video camera's night vision as Marii and I pretended to enjoy some mighty chilly pork-n-beans.
Much to our surprise we started to see a couple of lights over the summit. We all thought they were airplanes. Carole and I started filming and pretending (for the camera's sake) that the lights were THE Brown Mtn. Lights. The redneck comedy voice overs continued until one of the lights bobbled its way slowly down the face of the mountain as the other zigged and zagged about in the tree tops. We were actually filming the famous orbs of legend. (hillbilly's will catch on even if it takes us a bit longer).
The lights were gone as quick as they appeared and we were left wondering just how lucky we were to witness them. We didn't wonder this long for just as I was settling back down on the tailgate with my frozen Van de Camps a car pulled up. We watched as the man in the car set up a tri-pod for his very impressive camera. We exchanged hellos and he then informed us that he had spent many nights watching for the lights. "How many times have you seen them?" Carole asked.
"None, and you?" he replied. I started to feel a bit guilty as Carole told him we saw them about a minute before he arrived. Turns out the man was a photographer for a magazine and knew alot about the lights and what to look for. I showed him our clownish footage on our camera. He confirmed that we had captured on film (in our first 10 minutes) what he had been trying to catch for quite some time.
pics here are actual vidcaps of our trip to Brown Mtn
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