The Mysterious and Controversial Lights in the Big Thicket
This is a story that was written in the book written by Rob Riggs titled In the Big Thicket on the Trail of the Wild Man published in 2001.
‘’ Like most kids from the area, Jim had heard of the Ghost Light stories for about as long as he could remember. The fame of the mysterious lights, said to appear on Bragg Road just north of Saratoga, had long been established in the small towns and rural communities around Beaumont and near the Louisiana border and East Texas. Going to search for the light was almost a rite of passage for teenagers in the area, so it was almost inevitable that Jim would eventually make his personal pilgrimage to the ghost road.
One Saturday night when faced with the uninteresting prospect of spending the evening cruising 11th Street in Beaumont or maybe hanging out in a shopping Center Parking lot, Jim and some buddy’s decided instead to make their first trip to search for the lights.
They made their way out onto Highway 105 and into the heart of the Big Thicket country. The ghost road is surrounded by gloomy impenetrable woods where even the bravest and most cynical are reluctant to venture at night. A spookier place is hard to imagine.
The boys arrived at about midnight and drove directly up about 5-miles of the ghost roads straight shot 8 -Mile length. They stopped the car, turned off the lights and left the engine running. Just as they were trying to decide whether to sit and wait, or turn back, they were greeted by an eerie, diffused orange glow.
It issued from the pitch black-woods to their right. Jim described it as being ‘like what would proceed a lantern entering a dark room.’ The glow emitted from a 6-in ball of brilliant orangish light that came to Hoover less than 20 ft in front of them. Their astonishment turned to terror as the light approached with movements that seemed conscious and deliberate. It stopped just to the right of the car that was still idling. slowly, it moved across the hood, causing the engine to stall. Frantically, the boys were able to restart the engine as the light came to rest to the left of their car. they took off down Bragg Road just as fast as its unpaved sandy surface would allow. The light pursued them and easily kept pace with the car at speeds approaching 50 miles-per hour. After about 2-miles, and without slowing down, the light made an Abrupt 90° turn to the left, ascending above the treetops, and disappearing in a streak of unimaginable speed. the entire episode lasted for over 5 minutes.’’
The Big Thicket is a vast Forest more Woodland than swamp and it can be found over much of the southeast corner of Texas. It has held mysterious legends for all of time.
It has been said that throughout its history humans have sought to hide in this vast impenetrable wilderness where, for instance, men who didn’t want to fight in World War 1,or World War II, or the Civil War would disappear to live out the war years.
Bragg Road, also known as the Ghost Road, is an 8-mile dirt road in the Big Thicket National Preserve, known for the mysterious Saratoga Light. It was originally a railroad bed built by the Santa Fe Railroad in 1901, connecting Bragg Station to Saratoga. The rails were removed in 1934, but the road remained, becoming a popular spot for those seeking the eerie light phenomenon.
