A fascinating account of ghost lights over ranches in Nebraska as well as mention of strange lights over Japan before a big earthquake.
Internal Earth Disturbance Now Thought Cause of “Ghostly Lights”
September 12, 1923 – Professor Rigge of Creighton University, professors of the state university and savants of other institutions of learning in Nebraska may be asked to investigate the “ghostly lights” which nightly appear on the ranches of James Connolley and Thomas Gallagher in the northwest part of Shields Township, north of O-Neill.
A material increase in the number, intensity and brilliancy of the lights since just preceding the Japan earthquake lead local authorities to believe that some internal disturbance of the earth may be responsible.
Incidentally, the only rocky section of Holt county is along another branch of Eagle creek, a few miles north of the scene of the lights, and Rock Falls on Eagle creek, the only waterfall in the county, is composed of a ledge of lava rock.
No other volcanic matter is known to exist in the county except on the ranch of L.E. Skidmore, near Ewing, more than 30 miles from the district of the “ghost lights.”
Ranchmen Gallagher and Connolley, estimates that more than 5,000 people from O’Neill and neighboring towns have visited their ranches in the last two weeks to see the phenomenon. Some remail until early morning on nights when the ghostly visitations are more prominent than usual. An average of 50 automobile parties a night visit the scene.
“Being the owners of a ‘ghost graveyard’ is not all one round of joy and pleasure,” declared Mr. Connolley. “It has its drawbacks. Only recently my son, Thomas, and his chum, Lloyd Gallagher, left one evening after dark to go to the home of a neighbor, whose house light can be seen from our ranch house. They cut across the big pasture and in some way confused one of the ghost lights with the lamp light of the place for which they were bound. They rode and rode toward the light until finally they came out on the ranch of Wallace Johnson, six miles north and several miles beyond their original destination. Last winter an old lady of the neighborhood confused a ghost light with the light from her own house while bringing in the cattle, and wandered about in the extreme cold for several hours before her rescue by other members of her family who became alarmed by her long absence.”
Source: The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]), 13 Sept. 1923.
