The Gurdon Light is a mysterious floating light above the railroad tracks near Gurdon (Clark County), which was first sighted during the 1930s. Many theories and stories exist to explain the light, including one which connects it the 1931 murder of William McClain, a railroad worker. The popular local legend drew national attention in December 1994, when NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries television show documented the phenomenon.

Gurdon is located approximately eighty-five miles south of Little Rock (Pulaski County) on Interstate 30, just east of the Interstate on Highway 67. The light appears along a stretch of railroad tracks outside of the town. Some people believe the light originates from the reflection of headlights of cars off of Interstate 30. However, the site is more than two miles from the highway, and people began seeing the light several decades before Interstate 30 was built in the 1970s. Others believe that swamp gas creates the light, though the light appears in all kinds of weather. A somewhat popular story is that a railroad worker was working outside of town one night when he accidentally fell into the path of the train and was killed. Since his head was severed from his body, many locals say that the light is the lantern his ghost uses while looking for his head. Still others believe that pressure on the quartz crystal underneath Gurdon causes them to let off electricity and produce the light.

Many trace the Gurdon Light legend to a murder that took place near the railroad tracks in December 1931. William McClain, a foreman with the Missouri-Pacific railroad, was involved in an argument with one of his employees, Louis McBride, regarding how many days McBride was being allowed to work. During the Depression, the company did not have the option of giving McBride more hours on the job. McBride became very angry, hit McClain on the head with a shovel, and beat him to death with a railroad spike maul or a spike hammer. The Gurdon Light was first sighted shortly after this murder, and many have come to believe that the light is actually McClain’s ghostly lantern glowing.

This local legend made the area near Gurdon a very popular place, especially around Halloween. The story became so well known that, in October 1994, NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries television show traveled to the Gurdon area to film a recreation of the 1931 murder. The program aired on December 16, 1994, documenting the phenomenon of the Gurdon Light and describing the legend behind it.

For additional information:

• May, Joe. “Gurdon Light Still a Mystery in County.” Daily Siftings Herald, October 29, 1991, p. 4.

• Pentecost, Tom. “Halloween, Ghosts, Goblins and the Gurdon Light.” Southern Standard, October 31, 1985, p. 1.

• Plott, Nicole. “Gurdon and the Ghost Orb.” Clark County Historical Journal (2014): 99–104.

• Richter, Wendy. “Clark County’s ‘Unsolved Mystery’: The Gurdon Light.” Clark County Historical Journal (2001): 127–166.

• Rowlett, Lara. “Light Remains a Big Mystery.” Daily Siftings Herald, May 17, 1988, pp. 1–2.

Source: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/gurdon-light-1198/

The Gurdon Light always seems to get illuminated during Halloween. It's not the light that's really disputed, as too many people have seen and recorded it. It’s the questions over what's creating it. According to legend, someone died there, but there are so many versions of the story what's true. "Since I was a kid, it's been part of the fabric of the folklore and local family stories, since I can remember," said Marcus Lowe. Lowe was a UA-Little Rock Mass Communications student in 2012 when he was assigned a documentary. "Down there on the tracks, that there is this light some people call it a ghost’s light, a mysterious light, it floats about this high," he said. So, it seems natural he picked the Gurdon Light as his topic. "Everyone I talked to just had this attitude of yeah, it's there, you can take it or leave it."

"In between where I parked the car and where I was sitting, it appeared, there it was," Lowe explained. He started taking pictures and video but it was extremely dark. As for Marcus Lowe, what does he believe it is? "I wasn't scared because obviously at that point if it wanted to scare me if it wanted to devour my soul, it would've done it at that point,” he said jokingly. “It had every opportunity to freak me out or to harm me or whatever, it had every opportunity to do that at that point."Lowe said it's definitely something supernatural and that it had a purpose, it had some intelligence. But beyond that, he doesn’t know. He just said, “It’s the Gurdon Light, that’s all!”

Outside of Crossett (Ashley County), where the old railroad tracks once lay, an unexplained light has become a local legend. It has reportedly been seen consistently since the early 1900s by multitudes of people. 

The light is typically seen floating two to three feet above the ground but also is said to move into the treetops and sometimes side to side. The light reportedly disappears as one walks toward it and then reappears the same distance away, so that one can never get a close look at it. The Crossett Light’s color reportedly ranges from yellow or orange to blue or green.

The Crossett Light is one of many similar phenomena commonly known as “spooklights” in the South. There are other notable “spooklights”—around Joplin, Missouri; Senath, Missouri; and Gurdon (Clark County), to name a few. Like other such “spooklights,” including the Gurdon Light, the Crossett Light is, according to legend, the ghostly lantern of a railroad worker who lost his head in an accident in the early 1900s and who walks the tracks to find it. There seem to be many similar stories explaining this phenomenon, but this seems to be the most common. There are also stories, not widely credited, that the light is related to extraterrestrials.

A commonly expressed scientific theory holds that the Crossett Light could be swamp gas, a natural phenomenon. Some authorities also posit that the light could be an illusion caused by car lights and an incline in the land. This theory is more widely accepted than the swamp gas theory; however, the major drawback for the car light theory lies in the fact that the light was first reported in the early 1900s, before cars were common in the area. The first reports of the light started as the railroads were put in, which may have started the famous railroad worker story. No one knows for sure what the Crossett Light is, but it has entertained many residents and visitors throughout the years who drive down that old road to watch for it.