Ok so i was there this past weekend on sunday night. It was the first time i went there. Ive heard about it and have been always very interested in it. I saw the light. there is no way it was a cars light considering i saw it follow the trail down to the creek. Besides the light, is what else is out there. Me and my 4 friends decided to walk down the trail. we got right before the creek there. we sat down in the middle of the trail and tried to watch for the light. there was nothing. but as i was staring i kept seeing shadows move very quickly right in front of us. i thought i was just trippin out and my eyes were playing tricks on me. but everyone i was with saw them. i also saw red flickers everywhere as did everyone else. it was very cold down there. As i was sitting there, out of the corner of my eye i saw a cloudy figure come past me. we turned back and went to the observers spot at the guardrail. We started taking pictures with our camera all around us. within the first few pictures there was a face screaming at us. it was very detailed. it was pissed off. you could see his teeth the pupils of his eyes, his hairline, his shoulders, and his nose. it was very creepy. we took many pictures and we also saw faces in some but not nearly detailed as that one. As we were leaving we took one more picture standing on the back bumper of our vehicle. when the flash went off and went away there were many white people looking figures all around us. As if all the shadow people absorbed the light and just illuminated in the dark. We stopped talking instantly and asked eachother if we all seen that. everyone did. We then never got back into a car as fast as we did. By far one of the most crazy experiences for me and i cant wait to go back to get more pictures. Just one more thing if you do go there be respectful it was very irritating of how annoying some people were. and dont efin litter!!

i have seen the light and it is real. i went with my dad because i have a cabin near eagal river. it is creepy. i walked up as close as i could before it disapeerd then once i started walking away. i even filmed it but the video was low quality because it was just after midnight. but for those who say its fake. IT’S REAL!!!!

Went to paulding with my three kids and wife in july of 2008. The light varied in intensity and color from bright white to a hazy yellow hue. Our family was there over one hour. The light appeared approximately thirty times lasting from 10 seconds to 2 minutes . the light also appeared close about one half mile and distant almost three miles away.It was a strange and eerie sensation the sky was starry the air was warm and humid . The memories of seeing the light will last me the rest of my life.

I live near Grand Rapids and was going to check the lights out during my annual vacation in the UP until I read this investigation and debunking of the mystery.. Makes sense and the author says anyone can do the simple tests themselves.. Oh well, it was a fun story!

Here’s the article:

“A Ghost Light Debunked” because here we were able to find a natural explanation to a ghostlight which has mystified people for nearly 20 years. I would like to begin by quoting from the Watersmeet Business Directory, “While in Watersmeet you should see ‘The Mystery Light’. The ‘light’ has defied explanation since it was first sighted about a dozen years ago, although theories abound.
“To observe the phenomenon, one must drive north from Watersmeet on US 45 for 4 miles toward the neighboring village of Paulding, and take Robbins Lake Road for a short distance west – an umimproved rural lane once part of a military road authorized by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War in anticipation of a British attack through Canada.
“By tramping through dense woods to the summit of nearby hills, the mysterious light can be observed almost every night once darkness has descended on the northern wilderness.
“It appears to rise slowly out of the forest and then hovers low in the sky for varying intervals – ranging from a couple of minutes to over a quarter of an hour. Often described as looking like a ‘bright star’ it first seems to be a campfire ember, reaching an intense reddish glow, then becoming a haze and finally receding to a mere spark before disappearing into the night.
“Explanations vary from fanciful to factual. Some say it’s the spirit of a long dead mail carrier ambushed by Indians over a century ago; others insist it is the ghost of an engineer killed in a nearby railroad accident in years gone by. One woman thinks it’s a mystical sign of religious significance. In the meantime, ‘The Mystery Light’ continues to baffle, intrigue and mystify the visitor.”
I first learned about the Watersmeet ghost light several years ago at lecture in Chicago. The speaker said that this light was visible every night with very few exceptions and was a valid phenomenon.
The next time the light was brought up to me was from a member of the GRS, (Ghost Research Society, PO Box 205, Oaklawn, Il. 60454-0205, (312)425-5163), Bill Kingsley, who wrote an article about his encounters with the light and included photographs, (see Vol. 4, No. 4 – Oct. 1985, Ghost Trackers Newsletter).
He was quoted as saying, “My impression was that these lights were alive… I feel that these lights are definately not reflections from auto headlights or reflected light off of power line insulators. I feel that there is a natural explanation to these lights; but what?”
Along with his article and photographs, he supplied with two newspaper articles about the light. One from the Detroit News dated 1-26-82 and the other from the Milwaukee Journal dated 11-30-80.
James L. Kerwin, who writes for the Detroit News, said in his article, “Some suspect the mystery lights have something to do with UFOs. A New Jersey UFO club checked it out but failed to confirm its suspicions.”
Chris Roberts, a former Hazel Park resident who operates a small general store at nearby Paulding, was quoted as saying, “People have made tests by having a friend blink their lights, on and off, going up the highway. But the mystery lights appear above the blinking headlights.”
Bob Zelinski, who operates a canoe rental livery in neighboring Watersmeet, says, “Some say it’s a ghost conductor killed in a train wreck many years ago, searching the tracks. Others think it may be a lost miner, looking for his claim. Then, the site near old Military Road, to Fort Wilkins, where robbers killed a man delivering mail in 1870. They say the victim is looking for his dead sled dogs.”
Harry Pease of the Milwaukee Journal writes, “The snow was thinning. Zelinski got out a topographic map and pointed out the lay of the land. Sure enough, the mysterious lights in the woods are auto headlights and taillights on Highway 45. You pick them up on the long hill at Maple Grove Cemetery, 11 miles from Dingman’s Rock. The cemetery lies about 1,315 feet above sea level. Paulding is down in a hole between there and the lookout points. The village puts a little glow in the sky – just enough to give the onlooker a false horizon.”
With all this conflicting information and testimony, we decided to check out the reports ourselves. Two other members of the GRS, Richard Locke and Richard Kerscher, of Evanston and Glenview, Illinois respectively, volunteered to act as our guides and help with our investigations since they had both been to Watersmeet several times before and had seen the lights. Their conclusions were that the lights were simply auto headlights and taillights seen from a distance and nothing supernatural in nature.
I still had to see for myself and be open-minded since I have observed many different ghost lights around the country and no two lights looked the same and no two areas were topographically similiar. The only item that is usually nearby is railroad tracks and, given that, there is always the legend concerning an engineer losing his head! The light that is seen is supposed to be his lantern carried by his headless ghost and he is looking for his disembodied head! Historically and legendarily interesting, but seldom true.
We traveled to Watersmeet the week of September 13 – 21st of 1986. We stayed in Ironwood, Michigan which is about an hours drive west of Watersmeet. Our two other helpers were stationed in Land O’ Lakes, Wisconsin about a half-hour south. Our first full day was spent trying to collect newspaper articles, interview witnesses and talk to various media personell who might know something about the light. Most of our efforts were fruitless. Even larger towns like Bessemer, Wakefield, Paulding and Bruce Crossing did not have any information about the light or it’s possible origins.
Our first nights viewing was somewhat obscurred by drizzle and haze but the light did make an appearance several times! We saw both the white and red lights as reported by Mr. Kingsley and many other reliable witnesses, but could not really determine what the cause of the lights were that particular evening.
The next day was spent collecting topographic maps of the area and interviewing forest rangers who knew the area well. We were trying to locate Dingman’s Rock, which was supposed to be the ideal vantage point. We did not find this area until the day before our departure. The name “Dingman’s Rock” is apparently local in origin and not on any of the geographic survey maps of the area. That evening, we, again saw the light and were able to capture it through high-power binoculars. It diffused quite nicely into a pair of automobile headlights with an occasional taillight also coming into view. This wasn’t positive proof yet, to me.
The next morning we traveled north beyond the viewing points along US 45, toward Paulding and Bruce Crossing. We found the small cemetery mentioned in the Journal article and carefully plotted mileage from that point back to the observation points at Dingman’s Rock and Robbins Pond Road. We found out that the mileage is close to 11 miles as reported but perhaps less because the point where the lights are first picked up are at the top of a large hill, elevation over 1,500 feet above sea level and nearly 200 feet higher than the elevation at Maple Grove Cemetery. From that point, it’s exactly 8.3 miles to Robbins Pond Road which is old highway 45 and also points almost due north. What you are actually seeing is carlights topping the hill, occasionally dimming their bright lights for oncoming cars, taillights of those oncoming cars passing the first cars, their bright lights coming on again and then the cars disappearing into a deep slope in the road. If you could time when the car lights vanished from sight and then wait until those same cars pass behind you on US 45 at an average speed of 55 mph, it would be approximately 7 minutes!
We conducted stopwatch tests to calculate the average amount of time the lights were in view at an average speed of 55 mph and found this to be 90.2 seconds. These tests were performed on the evening of September 17th between the hours of 9-10 pm. The next morning we arrived at the crest of the large hill, (already traveling at 55 mph), and drove for 90 seconds. We were relatively sure of the exact point on US 45 where the mysterious lights vanished from view. It was nearly three-quarters of the way down the large hill. You could no longer see the observation point from this area!
The last evening was the final test or coup de grace, as I like to call it. We set up a video camera and pointed it in the direction of the lights, with generous help from Mr. Locke and Mr. Kerscher! My brother, Wayne, (a research director for the GRS), then drove my car to the top of the large hill with the four-way flashers going; which we quite easily picked up through binoculars. His instructions were to start back down at precisely 8:30 pm and to blink the bright lights every 5 seconds. The results were conclusive! We captured the oncoming car on video tape with the lights blinking every 5 seconds on cue. The view through binoculars was even more convincing because you could nearly see the outline of the car! This was proof enough for me!
This is the only ghost light to date that has been debunked by myself and my assistants; others are and have been more difficult, if not impossible, to disprove. The standard “headlight theory” seems to fit this light but none of the others that we have investigated. There are some readers that will read this article and still shake their heads, not wanting to believe, but the proof is in the pudding and all you have to do is to duplicate these very simple experiments yourselves if you are ever in the area and see for yourself. The mystique of this light is over but many others still lie waiting for future experimenters to puzzle over!
STATISTICS

From crest of large hill to: Dingman’ Rock is 6.1 miles and to Robbins Pond Road is 8.3 miles.
Average amount of time that lights were in view was 90.2 seconds.
Distance lights traveled in 90.2 seconds at an average speed of 55 mph is 7,275.32 feet or 1.377941666 miles.
A car traveling at 55 mph travels approximately 80.66 feet per second.
We can therefore conclude that the lights disappear approximately 4.73 miles from Dingman’s Rock and 6.93 miles from Robbins Pond Road. This would be the closet approach that an observer could get to the lights. This would effectively put the disappearance of the lights very close to the town of Paulding which lies in a slope between two large hills.

INVESTIGATING TEAM

Great stories. But I think some people go to a place like this and let their imaginations take over.

You can do the investigator’s tests outlined in the earlier post and see for yourself that it’s actually headlights and tail lights from vehicles in the distant hills that are creating the lights.

i seen the light tonight, we walked down the trail and it seemed like there were shadows moving everywhere, the light was kinda boring but the shadows were kinda creepy, i looked at a map and there are no roads where headlights and tail lights could been seen

The U.P. could very easily disprove randy marsh’s theory by stopping all traffic on Hwy. 45 in the stretch that randy talks about. I would like randy to come that night n see for himself!! : )) How about it, randy??

I used to live in Marquette, went there three times. there may be some headlights and taillights you can see from there. but unless the lights are going through some weird gas or prism, those weren’t car lights i saw. If you are seeing car lights from one road going the same direction every time, why would the lights we see go left to right, and appear to get closer and dance around. doesn’t seem like a good answer.

I was there a few times. The first time I thought I had seen something but wasn’t sure. The second time I went I went with my boyfriend. It was my birthday and I wanted to go check it out even though it’s the middle of February. We Seen the light and my boyfriend decided to tak off after it. He said that it would retreat and disappear a while but come back a different color farther away because he kept advancing towards it. We went back again but we went the back way so we were closer but the light wasn’t there that time. I believe that it’s there as long as no one goes the back way in their vehicles.

I went to see it in the early spring, snow was still on the ground and it was raining, I could see car headlights in the distance and assumed they were what was causing all the commotion, but suddenly a very bright light appeared in the trees to the left of the car lights, It rose up into the air, above the horizon line and appeared to be moving toward us. It was very bright and seemed to be spinning, although that may have been an optical illusion. If it was headlights distorted by some sort of strange atmospheric effect I could not say. But it was strange. And I am going back next week with a video camera and some good binoculars, I will let you know what I find.

The Paulding Lights are absolutely real, and unexplainable. I’ve seen them many times, and the explanation that they’re car headlights is impossible. What the “headlight” theory proponents don’t realize is that they’re aren’t many cars up there, especially at night. It’s simply not headlights.

Yeah, I don’t see how people could think that something which has been going on 24-7 for decades and observed by thousands could be a hoax. I’ve heard people saying everything from its teenagers (perpetually?) to headlights (of a silent car which never needs to refuel, driven by a man who never needs to sleep). Or people testing their headlight theories and calling it conclusive (if it were conclusive, then you would see the outline of cars when you look at the lights through binoculars the same way you did when you had your brother drive the car, randy marsh). What kind of person makes it a goal to destroy the beliefs of others?

I finally got a chance to view the ‘Mysterious Paulding Lights’ Sept 6th while on my annual trip to the UP.. Spent an hour there with a growing and sometimes annoying crowd of spectators, many with their folding chairs, beer coolers full of booze, and snack food sometimes and thoughtlessly left behind as litter.. Earlier that day I drove over to the site to see what it looked like in daylight and ended up picking up beer and soda cans and junk food wrappers people had thoughtlessly left behind.. Back to the lights; I spent almost an hour watching the lights randomly appear and disappear through my binoculars at the top of the hill and am convinced they are merely headlights from vehicles.. Could see the headlights very clearly and occasionally another vehicle would be coming up behind the ‘mysterious headlights’ and the light intensity occasionally varied according to whether the vehicles had the brights or low beams on. After about an hour of watching the same repetition of lights I got bored and drove to my destination near Munising.

Believe what you will. I saw nothing but headlights. Will maybe go again during a time when there are not as many tourists and ‘party people’..

Realized after reading my post that I had mentioned ‘thoughtlessly left behind litter’ twice in my comment and there is no editing option once you post. Guess it’s because I’ll never understand how some people can just ignorantly leave their trash behind on the beautiful beaches and landscapes of our state and with no conscience. On my vacation I must have picked up a truckload of trash in the UP which wasn’t my intention!

Yoopers get really bugged with thoughtless littering.. Dig it, if you bring it in, take it back out with you. Every recreation area, rest area, and gas station has trash containers.

Definitely real. Also grew up in Bessemer, and saw it many times. Much less exciting than one would expect, but very much there!