OPINION - EDITORIAL

An unsolved mystery

Arkansas has myths and folklore like any of the other several states, and one of the biggest remains a mystery to this day.

The Dover Lights have perplexed thousands of people traveling through the Ozarks, and those fortunate enough to have seen them will swear up and down there was something strange about those lights moving through the valley.

For those unfamiliar with the town of Dover, it rests about 10 miles north of Russellville off Interstate 40 halfway between Little Rock and Fort Smith. With just over 1,000 people, it's small enough to not even have a traffic light (although it used to). The lights aren't actually in Dover, but they're close enough to have the town included in the name.

The lights can sometimes be seen at night from a pull-off spot west of Scenic Highway 7 and north of the Long Pool recreation area. The classic story is that drivers head up Maupin Flat Road at night, pull off, and look west down a valley along a creek. If they're lucky, they see small floating colored lights down in the trees. If they're unlucky, it's just another foggy night north of Dover.

Stories about the origin of the lights range from the supernatural to more mundane. One tale says the lights are spirits of Spanish conquistadors, searching the valley for treasure. Others say the lights are caused by natural gas leaking from local caves or even campers down in the valley. Either way, it seems like something only Agents Mulder and Scully would be able to solve.

The Dover Lights were a big enough story for KATV to look into them in 2015, and catch the lights on camera. People that were interviewed didn't have any plausible explanation for it, ranging from stories we listed above to aliens.

The lights take their place among top Arkansas folklore with tales of the Fouke Monster, who lives near Texarkana, and the haunted Desha County Courthouse. Maybe we'll figure out what they all are someday, but part of us hopes we never do. There's a kind of childlike cuteness to the mystery of it all.

Editorial on 12/15/2018

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