Though it's not technically in the Balsam Mountain region, the Brown Mountain Lights are an important part of the paranormal history of North Carolina, so I'll touch on them briefly. There are lots of great resources available if you want to explore this topic in more depth. In particular, I would direct you to this excellent resource provide by L.E.M.U.R.
The lights at Brown Mountain have been seen for generations; one of the first published accounts is from 1913, but native beliefs incorporated the lights long before European settlers entered the area. The US Geological Survey undertook a study in 1922 to attempt to solve the riddle of the Brown Mountain lights; the report indicated that people were simply seeing common terrestrial lights including trains and automobiles. A flood shortly after forced the temporary closure of the railroads and washed out several bridges, greatly reducing automobile traffic. But the Brown Mountain lights did not cease, and the explanation provided by the USGS was proven to be incomplete at best.
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| A still from the LEMUR video linked below |
The lights have been described in numerous ways; white or yellow, sometimes rising slowly in the night sky, other times spinning and darting away. Likewise, there are numerous explanations for the supposed cause of the lights, ranging from geophysical anomalies to lost a Indian maiden in search of her true love. L.E.M.U.R. investigator Brian Irish captured some pretty remarkable footage of the lights in late 2000. That video is available on YouTube here. There are several vantage points if you wish to experience the lights for yourself. The Brown Mountain Lights site that I mentioned earlier can fill in the details; even Wikipedia lists good spots to see the ghost lights.
Thomas Divide Lights
This is a lesser known story concerning inexplicable lights in the mountains. The Thomas Divide Overlook is on the Blue Ridge Parkway and provides an incredible view of Cherokee, NC. It's named for William Thomas, the white chief of the Cherokee who, in the 1830s and '40s, helped create the Qualla Boundary that allowed some Cherokee to stay here in the mountains.
The story goes that if one parks at the overlook so that you are looking over the Thomas Divide Ridge and either blink your lights or honk your horn, inexplicable lights will appear in the darkness. One report states that the lights "appeared as balls of lights that shot up vertically in the air like a bottle rocket, but then circled around to drop back to earth only to shoot up again to follow the same route."
This video on Vimeo shows a different phenomenon: Two lights seem to appear and the disappear on the ridge facing the overlook. This YouTube video depicts lights, but there is no visible ridge line or anything else to give scale or context to them.
It's difficult to determine the source of these lights, especially considering the various ways that the atmosphere can bend and distort lights. Its certainly feasible that there is a totally normal explanation for the lights seen both at Thomas Divide and at Brown Mountain. It could be something slightly more exotic, like ball lightning. Or the lights could emanate from some paranormal realm, where we have yet to delve. Whatever the case, ghost lights in the mountains have a long history and hopefully will continue to befuddle and amaze us for years to come.
Resources
http://www.brownmountainlights.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98ss17HFKKU
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Mountain_Lights
http://southernspiritguide.blogspot.com/2010/09/thomas-divide-lights.html
http://vimeo.com/27979481
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqRXmMaGRGw
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