The Summerville Light. Anyone who has grown up in the lowcountry of South Carolina has heard of this mysterious phenomenon. And if you are brave and curious, you might have ventured out to Sheep Island Road around midnight, to discover for yourself if the whole thing is fact or fantasy. From what I understand, some have even lived to tell about it :)
According to legend, the whole thing started when a railroad engineer lost his life in a train derailment. His death caused his widow to go a little loco, and she began wandering the tracks at night, lantern in hand, searching for her lost husband. Even after her death, people swear they still see the light of her lantern around midnight, moving eerily up and down the tracks and the roads near them.
Not sure if any of this has its basis in reality, considering the way Lowcountry folks love to spin a good tale that gets taller as the years go by. But one thing is for sure: something is going on in Summerville around Sheep Island Road that defies explanation.
Here’s a first-hand account that I found online of what it’s like to find yourself face to face with the Summerville Light from a former member of the U.S. Air Force:
While stationed at Charleston Air Force Base in 1969, a few of my fellow airmen were sitting around the barracks rec-room watching the local TV. There was a story broadcast about a strange occurrence being reported by some people in the nearby town of Summerville. The reporter called it the Summerville Light.
Five guys with nothing to do and all with a relatively normal sense of curiosity quickly decided to jump in one of the groups GTO and go to Summerville to check out what we all just heard about on the TV.
We followed the brief directions given by the reporter to a dirt logging road that ran parallel to interstate 26 through a stretch of partially cleared pulp wood (yellow Pine) stand. We drove about a half mile down the road (as reported by some of the people interviewed in the broadcast) and waited. We left the car running with the air conditioner blowing because it was still hot and humid. Our attempt to put the windows down while we waited was quickly thwarted by an onslaught of mosquitos.
We waited about 30 minutes but we didn't see a thing and our patience was running thin due to the boredom of just sitting on a dark dirt road in the middle of nowhere. We were about to turn around and leave when we spotted a small dot of light that seemed to be about a mile away.
To our surprise, the small dot rapidly got larger and larger as it appeared to approach our car. As it got closer we could tell it wasn't on the dirt road but seemed to be just off the roadway. We could also begin to distinguish the color as a greenish glow very similar to what you get if you activated one of those chemical light sticks.
Within a few seconds, the green ball of light had approached to about 100 feet of the front of the car. It hoovered off the ground about 3 feet or so and the light pulsated slowly at first, them began to increase the pulsing to 2 or 3 times a second. Suddenly it shot forward and stopped right at the front of the car. At that point we all were about to dirty our pants. I was sitting in the front passengers seat and one of the three in the back yelled to the driver to get the hell out of there now !
About the time my friend put his hand on the gear shift lever, the ball of light moved forward so that it looked as if it was embedded in the hood. Suddenly, the motor stopped running, I remember looking over and seeing the red alternator light on and the "CHECK ENGINE" light. It couldn't have been a half second later and all the electrical power in the car died. No dash lights, no engine warning lights and the radio went silent.
The light edged forward very slowly at first. As it got closer to all of us inside, the cars interior took on the color of the ball and the temperature inside the car began to get very cold. So cold that the moisture that had accumulated on the inside of the windows from having the A/C on began to freeze and within a blink of your eye, all the windows were completely covered over by frost. Not exactly what you'd expect on a hot, muggy South Carolina night in the middle of August.
The ball of light was nearly at the edge of the windshield and still moving forward towards us. I scooted out of it's apparent path down the middle of the car and watched scared stiff as the green pulsating light moved into the passenger compartment. It was extremely bright now that it was just inches from our horrified faces. I don't remember hearing anyone saying anything but I do remember that all my friends looked like they had been painted with glow in the dark paint. Also, it seemed funny that everyones breath was fogging as if we were sitting in the middle of a giant walk in freezer . The ball of light proceeded to pass through the car rather slowly at first. It stopped just aft of the front seat and directly in front of the back seat.
All most immediately after it passed through the car , the frost on the windows vanished and a full display of ignition warning lights and the dashboard lights illuminated. We saw the ball of light stop about three feet from the trunk, and reverse direction, heading right back toward us again. This time as it entered the passenger compartment, the temperature inside the car remained comfortable. The frost on the windows had disappeared and the cars headlights came back on.
As soon as the ball of light exited the car, The engine cranked up without anyone touching the ignition . The ball stopped directly in front of the car again and for no apparent reason, the pulsating light stopped as well. With one last blinding flash of light, the whole thing sped off in the same direction if first appeared from. As soon as it disappeared back into the distant darkness, the radio blared to life again.
It didn't take long for our driver to shift into gear and turn the car around to make a hasty exit! not a word was spoken between us for the entire ride back to the base. For that matter, we didn't tell anyone about our experience except to call that reporter who did the original story to report what we had experienced.
Scientists have tried to explain this phenomenon away by claiming that it is nothing more than swamp gas. Really? I’ve never heard of swamp gas acting the way this person described or the way others have described the Light. So what is really going on here?
All I can do is shrug my shoulders and wonder like the rest of you. And maybe, just maybe, one night when I work up enough courage to venture down Sheep Island Road at midnight, I might have my own personal experience to share with you.
Of course, if anyone else would like to volunteer to give us a first hand account …. well, be my guest. I will be glad to feature an interview with you in one of my future blogs. That is, if you live to tell about it (can you hear Vincent Price’s laughter in the background?)
Have a great week, everyone! And please retweet this blog and share it with your friends on Facebook! Don’t forget that you can receive new blog posts in your email by clicking on the subscribe button at the top of the page!
Wow! I very much liked this story and any other true stories of the paranormal would interest me greatly. Hint, hint.
ReplyDeleteYou're in luck! More spooky tales from the Lowcountry to come!
ReplyDeleteWell, I can tell you this. I was born in Charleston 1n 1961 on February 7th. I never even heard about the Summerville light until I was in my 30's or so. Myself and a few family members along with a couple of friends went to see this so called Summerville light. And I can now say that, I went.....I saw......IT IS TRUE!!! Of course I had my doubts about it! Then it became real! Except, when we were there the light was way off in the distance, a very bright light of clear color that went into a red color. At one point the light was out in the distance and then it seemed to race up close and then back off, race up close and then back off again. Our friend that was with us also was in the Air Force. We didn't stay around to see if our car would shut down......WE GOT OUT OF THERE! And as far as other tales of the Lowcountry, I have a few more!
ReplyDeleteThere is a woman known to walk down a country road, you can pick her up because she is hitch hiking and seems to need help. When you give her a ride she talks with you just as anyone would. Later you realize that she is no longer there when you look into the back seat! Yeah WILD! I have another story.......
The Doctor's Care in West Ashley is very, very, VERY HAUNTED! I know I worked there late at night ALONE! If you want to here more my e-mail.....Catawba_angel@aol.com
ReplyDeleteHUMmmm I have heard and read many stories about the so call Summerville Light. In late 1966 after serving in Viet Nam, I was assigned to Charleston Air Force Base, I used the Savings Bond I had purchased while stationed in Viet Nam to buy a 1967 Mustang right off the lot. I made friends with a fellow Airman, named Clark and we cruised Mamma Kates every night looking to meet up with girls. They used to call us the Bopzie Twins because everytime I bought clothes. Clark bought the same thing.
Having a new Mustang made it easy to pick up the best looking girls in town. Yet, every one of them told us about the so called strange happenings out there and wanted us to go out there to see the Summerville Light. Each time, I was told you had to be making out and it would eventually come hovering down the road. I couldn't begin to tell you how many girls we took out there but never seen anything strange. So, I just wrote it off as a place to go make out because they all told us the cops were too afraid to go out there.
After being stationed there for almost a year, we met a couple of girls who told us they would prove there was a light. I had heard many of stories about the light but these girls told it a different way. They claimed this guy who worked for the rail road, took his dogs and a lantern and walked the tracks to work every evening and his wife always waited for him to come home every night at midnight. One night she heard the dogs barking, saw the lantern swaying back and forth across the tracks but didn't see him or the dogs. All she saw was the Lantern and heard a loud buzzing sound. On that night she died of a Heart Attack out of fear. I responded; hey, if all you girls wanted to do was make out there are places closer and there was no sense of driving all the way out there. Again, they insisted if we took them out there, we would see the light. I finally gave in because they were a couple of real hottie. But I told them if I saw the light, I was going to bring it back as a souvenir. Unlike the other girls, they insisted there would be no making out because we all had to keep an eye open for the light. They also told us we had to leave our head lights on but has to place our light beach jackets over the lights. We followed their instructions and waited.
About a half hour had pasted when one of the girls said; listen! Do you hear the dogs? I must admit, I did hear dogs howling for about a minute or so when all of a sudden there appeared to be a light come bobbing down the road, swaying back and forth. At first it looked light the cigarette lighter of a car. Yet, the closer it got, it grew in size and you could hear the buzzing sound. Before I knew it. The light had grown to an extremely large size, the buzzing got louder and you could feel the heat from the light.
Still I refused the request from the girls to get out of there. I finally decided to back up when I could no longer see the outer edges of the light and the heat was becoming unbearable plus the light was now a Blood Red!!!. Once I had backed to the end of the road, the light disappeared into the Swamp. The girls said; See we told you so. Clark leaned over and said, Hey, man. Take me back to the Barrack,, I wet my pants. We lost our Beach Jackets that night and never did get to make it with the girls.
Anyway, I am not sure what others saw but I know what I saw. I never made it back there again because I received orders to be stationed in Shemya, Alaska. I later read an Article if the Summerville times that Scientist claimed it was Swamp Gases. This I don't believe because I have seen Swamp gases before and what I saw that night was not Swamp Gases! i might also add if I was dreaming all of this. It's the most realistic dream I ever had and Clark must have wet his pants in his sleep because they were hanging over the heater when we woke up! Dusty