Gates: On this episode of expedition x...
Chobot: Hang on to your hat!
W-w-whoa!
[ laughter ]
...Jess and phil investigate a ghostly phenomenon...
I would swear court of law that I witnessed this thing.
...In the unforgiving swamps of texas.
[ scream ]
Did you see it? A light just shot right past me.
Torres: Frogs over here are going nuts.
Everything's going nuts.
Oh, look at that. Tons of bones over here.
More over here, too.
Mysterious ghost lights that are terrifying residents.
I just wanted to scream, "get me the hell out of here."
Can this 100-year-old mystery
Finally be explained?
Three to one.
Holy crap!
...Or will the team unleash something...
Oh, [bleep] look, look, look, look, look.
...Terrifying and real.
Chobot: Did you see that?
I just saw a light float above the tree.
Hurry up, come over!
Phil: Alright, I'm coming your way.
Oh, my god!
Ghosts in the swamp.
My name is josh gates.
In my travels, I've experienced strange things that defy logic
And made me question everything.
Oh, my god.
Now I've put together a team
To investigate the stranger side of the unknown.
Let's go!
Phil torres is a scientist who hunts for rational explanations.
Jessica chobot's paranormal research
Has made her a true believer.
Phil, do you see that?
I just saw something run across.
Together we're searching for answers...
What is that?
...To the world's most extraordinary mysteries.
This is "expedition x."
-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com
Captions paid for by discovery communications
Okay, phil, you're our resident skeptic.
So what if I told you
That there is a certain lonely stretch of road in texas
Where nearly every single night
You could see an undeniable, unexplained phenomenon?
I'd say, let's go to texas. I want to believe.
Okay, jess, I'm guessing you have heard of these
So-called saratoga ghost lights.
I have. Of course you have.
You are like an encyclopedia of the supernatural.
Thank you very much.
And what are these things supposed to be?
Well, that's the thing, nobody knows.
They're these weird orbs of light that hover over this road.
Some people think they're ghosts,
I've even heard ufos.
Oh, so it's that kind of story?
Yes.
Well, you know where I'm gonna come down on this.
Whenever there is something
That is a physical phenomena like lights,
I'm wondering if there is a natural explanation
That then can lead
To these legends and lore of ghosts or ufos.
I'm guessing this place is pretty creepy. Yeah?
Oh, yeah.
♪♪
[ electronic zooming ]
Gates: Saratoga, texas,
Lies on the edge of 300,000 acres of alligator
And snake infested wilderness.
This imposing swath of land
Is known to locals as the big thicket.
Once the sacred lands of the native atakapa people,
Europeans arrive in the 1850s,
And looked to make their fortune
Plundering the area's valuable resources of lumber and oil,
Encroaching on an uncharted territory
That some say was never meant to be disturbed.
In 1902, the santa fe railroad raises hundreds of acres
To carve tracks from saratoga
To the remote supply outpost of bragg.
Under the command of ruthless production bosses,
Construction of the railroad is deadly business.
While the working conditions are inhumane,
Eventually the rail line is finished.
For decades, business is booming,
But maintaining the tracks through the swamp
Costs countless lives.
Eventually, there's a bust.
When the boom dies down in the 1930s and the oil wells run dry,
The rail line is pulled up and the town is abandoned,
Leaving nothing behind except for this dirt road
And the shallow graves of the dead workers
Who suffered and died here.
It's around this time that people start reporting
Ghostly lights that manifest in strange ways.
Some witnesses describe bizarre floating orbs
That move with an eerie intelligence.
Some reportedly have the power to disable electronics,
Even automobiles.
And while it may sound outlandish, in some cases,
The lights appear to take on the shape of a headless figure
Carrying a lantern.
Just recently, the number of sightings has exploded
And local residents are terrified.
No one, including local law enforcement,
Can explain the glimmering phantoms of the big thicket,
And no one has for 100 years.
Phil, I can see your wheels turning already.
Yeah, alligators and snakes? I'm in.
But this is a giant swamp.
This is a dynamic ecosystem we're talking about here.
So there could be all sorts of explanations there.
Could even be fireflies
Phil, it is not fireflies.
Fireflies don't equate to a headless ghost
Carrying a lantern.
I will say some of the reports
Do sound a little fantastical, jess,
But just the sheer volume of sightings,
I do feel like people are seeing something.
And I'm wondering if there could be multiple explanations
Out there that could actually make this a tricky one to solve.
Right, I actually think the most difficult part
Of investigating this is gonna be the location itself.
The big thicket is no joke.
So your mission is to get to texas,
Find people who have experienced these ghost lights,
And then see if you can experience them for yourselves
And if you can, figure out what the hell they are.
Alright. You had met ghost lights.
We're gonna need to pack some bug spray.
Lots.
The team flies to houston, texas.
From there it's a 70 mile trip northeast
To just outside saratoga
And the infamous bragg road, also known as the ghost road.
What would it take to convince you that there's ghosts?
Well, if I see a floating body with no head,
I will then say you were right.
Alright.
Well, I did a little bit of research
On the big thicket area we're going to
And there looks like there's a lot of stuff that can kill us.
Oh yeah.
I mean, this is one of
The most incredible wildernesses in the united states.
The big thicket is brimming with diversity.
It has eight separate ecosystems side by side,
Including savannah, swamp, forest, and desert.
There are more than 300 species of animals that call it home,
Including alligators,
Bears, venomous snakes, panthers, and red wolves.
It's an inhospitable and deadly environment
That's sure to keep the team on their toes.
I don't understand why...
Like why a ghost can't haunt a spa.
Why does it always have to be in the worst place imaginable?
I think that's kind of part of the mystery here
When nature really fights you back
And it's very tough for humans to survive,
Stories start to form about the region.
Jess and phil arrive at the entrance
To the so-called ghost road
To meet with local resident kari celestine.
Kari claims that during recent passage
Along this stretch of road,
She came face to face with the chilling phenomenon.
She insists on warning the team
Before they start their investigation.
So this is it. The ghost road.
Celestine: Yeah, it is.
So walk me through your experience that night.
It was hot and muggy and we turned down this road,
Went up about, I'll say close to a mile or so,
And all of the sudden I see this green glow.
As it got closer
I just see this outline of a person
Just hovering over the middle of the road.
Could you see his face at all or?
That's what disturbed me the most about it.
He didn't have any -- he had no head.
How close was he at that point?
I say he was about 50 feet away by the end.
What happened?
I just wanted to scream,
But I couldn't speak and I realized that I'm shaking,
And finally he just disappeared and I was just I mean,
"get me the hell out of here."
I said he ain't got no head.
Were there any other details you could glean from him?
He was wearing overalls like the old timey brakesmen
Used to wear.
Have you come out here since then?
No way. One time was enough for me to go up this road.
Well, that's actually our plan.
Yeah. So any advice?
Definitely be careful
Because I know for certain there's something out there.
♪♪
After hearing kari's story, we wait for nightfall,
When most of these glowing phantoms and orbs are reported.
So in pitch darkness,
We begin our journey down the infamous ghost road,
A gloomy stretch of flat dirt track
That has inspired fear for nearly 100 years.
Torres: This place is creepy.
This is kind of spooky.
Like if you're ever gonna see a ghost in the middle of nowhere,
This would be a prime place. Yeah.
There's just more black and more black,
Everything looks the same.
I'm like how much detail can you actually pick up at 50 feet?
But she was clearly terrified.
So she definitely saw something.
I'm not as concerned about running into a ghost
As much as I am coming face-to-face
With one of the many large predators of the big thicket.
There's dense vegetation looming over every inch
Of this dark and narrow road.
There could be a bear
Or a panther 10 feet into the tree line
And we wouldn't see it until it's too late.
Alright, I think we've gone about a mile in here.
Alright.
[ car door opens ]
Wow.
This is the area where she saw it.
Gosh, look at how dense the canopy is up here.
Oh. And big spiders over here.
Big spiders?
No, thank you.
Listen to how much is alive out here.
Or undead.
I want to check for any emf out here.
Okay.
Emf detectors were designed to measure electromagnetic fields,
Often from power lines and other man-made equipment.
Paranormal investigators believe that spirits also release energy
That can be detected with this.
♪♪
Yes, if we get a big rating on this,
That's gonna be super weird because there is literally
Nothing out there that should set this off.
♪♪
We pace up and down the road for well over an hour,
But both the emf reader and the skies are silent.
♪♪
I was hoping to see something,
But I'm getting nothing off this emf reader.
She did see whatever she saw coming from that direction.
Well, that's where bragg, the old train depot was.
Just a few miles down the road,
The bragg train depot was a once bustling hub of industry
And it went belly up almost as fast as it was established.
Some believe the headless apparition
And other mysterious orbs of light seen in the area
Might be the wandering spirit of former laborers
Who died here as a result of the brutal working conditions
During construction of the railroad.
I'm hoping we have better luck at the site of the old depot.
Here we go. I think this is it.
Well, there's not much left.
Well, yeah, it's nothing to brag about,
But we should still explore it, phil.
How long have you been holding on to that joke?
Oh, my gosh. All day. Wow.
Welcome to bragg.
Brag sprang up almost overnight as a supply outpost
For the local oil and lumber companies.
When the rail line was abandoned in the 1930s though,
The town was dismantled and scavenged,
Leaving little evidence that it ever existed at all.
Besides some scattered railroad material, it's completely empty.
There's bones all over the place.
Yeah, tons of bones over here.
Yep, more over here, too.
Look at the snake! Oh, my god.
Oh, look at that.
Oh, alright, stay back.
What is that?
It's a cottonmouth. Definitely venomous snake.
Wow. That is the one we do not want to step on.
Cottonmouths or "water moccasins"
Are a venomous species of pit viper.
Adults can grow up to five feet long
And are capable of delivering a dangerous bite.
If we're not careful out here, any wrong step
Could bring a painful end to this investigation.
Alright, well, then let's go.
I say we go grab our equipment, see what we can find.
Sounds good.
Considering how dark it is,
I'm eager to break out our highly sensitive thermal imager.
Anything that displaces heat, even strange balls of light,
Should show up here.
How's it looking?
Nothing yet.
Not to be outdone by jess,
I've got a pair of military grade night vision goggles
That use the infrared spectrum to help me see in the dark.
Whatever people are witnessing out here,
I'm convinced it's a product of this wild environment.
So anything yet? Nothing.
♪♪
Why don't we leave this area?
I want to go back and check out the ghost road,
That's probably our best bet.
Sounds good.
[ engine running ]
♪♪
Any signs of animals after lighting things up?
Nope, which is surprising 'cause you can obviously hear them.
♪♪
What the hell was that?
Something happening? Yeah, I just saw a light.
It shot right up in to the sky.
♪♪
Stone: Oh, you guys see that?
There's a little phosphorescent ball right there.
Where?
Full flash right down there, went right across.
I thought, that's what you were talking about.
No, I saw something in here go right up.
So you just saw something go up.
You saw something down there?
Same time.
Right when she said that I saw a flash,
It was like a kind of a phosphorescent glow,
Right across about 300 yards down.
That's so weird.
♪♪
Gates: Jess and phil are in the big thicket of texas
Investigating reports of strange, ghostly lights
Haunting an eight mile stretch of country road,
North of saratoga.
What the hell was that?
I just saw something in there
And it flew right up in to the sky.
Oh, you guys see that?
Jess and my trusted cameraman evan
Each saw something they can't explain.
Right when she said that I saw a flash,
It was like a kind of a phosphorescent glow
Right across, about 300 yards down.
Did you get it on your camera?
Yep.
Did you get it on the flir?
Yeah, I think so.
Alright, let's check the flir.
Okay, let me play it back.
See? Right there. Oh, yeah.
Oh, I got it. That was quick.
Did I just film a ghost light?
That was super fast.
When I see that it looks small, fast and hot.
So I'm thinking that's a bat.
No way, I saw it out of the corner of my eyes.
It was glowing.
Evan, you caught yours, right?
Yeah.
Alright, well, let's review evan's footage then.
♪♪
All right. Hold on. Let me get it.
There you go.
What is that? Look at that.
Is that the moon?
Ooh. That was cool.
That was not a bat and that is not what I saw.
It almost looked like a fireball glowing
In the way it like disappeared like that at the end.
We've officially seen some weird lights
And we got on tape.
For my money,
We just encountered the saratoga ghost lights,
Not once, but twice.
And while they didn't appear as a headless apparition,
We're off to one hell of a start.
So we decide to call it a night and get some beauty rest
So we can start fresh first thing in the morning.
♪♪
So I had a bit of a revelation about last night.
Yeah?
I'm thinking, will-o'-the-wisps.
Like the lights people think are fairies from folklore?
Oh, yes.
A lot of people describe them not just as fairies,
But this may sound familiar,
Ghost-like lights over bogs and marshes.
And where we were last night was super boggy.
So then how did the lights actually get made?
Essentially, there's a lot of methane gas
That forms under the water
By rotting and decomposing plants and animals.
When that methane is released,
Can ignite and possibly create a glowing fireball.
So we could just have a case of gassy nature.
So you're telling me that it's earth farts?
Essentially, yeah.
And I feel like this is something
We can actually test out here.
That sounds cool.
Who knew?
Wetlands across the globe
Release nearly 250 million tons of methane per year,
And the ghost road sits right in the middle
Of 35,000 acres of wetlands.
I believe it's possible that large methane bubbles
Are being released from the bogs situated deeper in the swamp,
Away from the road.
Time to get dirty.
♪♪
Hang on to your hat!
Whoa-ha-ho!
W-w-whoa!
Yeah!
[ laughing ]
Whoa, whoa.
Hang on, philip.
Alright, we're through here?
Yeah, keep going.
Alright.
It's pretty beautiful back here.
Yeah, it is.
♪♪
Right here? Yeah.
To conduct my test, I need to find a place
That is deep enough to access the methane,
But safe enough that we won't get ambushed by an alligator.
Alright, let's do it.
Let's see if we can find a good place to get in.
Check it out right here.
Right here? Right here.
This is the spot.
So how do you propose we do this?
Well, we're going to have to get in the water.
So first things first, we should get the waders on.
Fine.
These swamps are filled with nasty bacteria,
Insects, copperheads,
And a lot of things that could put a hurt on us.
So we're going to strap on waterproof waders
For protection.
What is that?
This is the magic gas trapper.
It looks like a beer bong.
Jess, real mature,
But it totally does. It totally does.
But we're gonna use it to trap gas.
How are you going to make that happen?
I'll show you.
All right. Going in.
Alright, I'm coming in.
All right, there's a lot of logs under the water, so be careful.
I don't even know where to put my foot. Ew, it's so gross.
Jess. I don't like this at all.
Here, you got it.
Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew.
Oh, and there's big spiders.
This is all of your favorite things.
This is everything I hate in the world.
Spiders, and you see that log over there?
I can't tell if it's a log or if it's an alligator.
What. No. Then hurry up.
What do you need us to do?
Well, we got rain.
[ thunder rumbles ]
Alright, can we do this?
Yeah, let's do this. Cool.
So here's how it's gonna work,
I'm gonna stick this dome into the water
And then we're going to stomp around.
And as we stop, we're actually going to be releasing
Some of that methane underneath this bog,
And it'll start to displace the water.
Once there's some gas in here, we'll release it
And then we'll light it on this and hopefully we'll get a flame.
Alright.
So what, we just put it down on the water and stomp around?
Yeah.
Oh, look at that. Oh, I'm seeing it.
We're getting some gas here, this is great.
Tons of it.
All right, I think we got some good gas here.
Well, I've got the lighter ready.
Alright, we're gonna test this out.
When I woke up this morning, I might have stayed in bed
Had I known I'd be lighting swamp farts on fire
With mr. Wizard over here.
You ready? Ready.
Fire in the hole.
Three, two, one.
Whoa! Whoa!
Holy crap!
Oh, my gosh. I felt that.
We just lit some swamp gas.
That was amazing. That was really cool.
So can you imagine if there was a big enough pocket of methane
Underneath a bag like this, it all gets released at once,
That would be a big flame floating into the sky,
A saratoga light.
♪♪
So I hate to rain on your parade.
Yeah?
But where are the ones that had to light it?
People are seeing these lights above swamps,
Who's lighting that gas?
There's a few possibilities.
One of them being there's other natural gasses,
One called phosphine
That could form also in an environment like this
That ignites essentially once it touches air.
So if the timing is right, if you get a methane bubble
And some of this other type of gas,
You get that ignition, foof, big flame.
So it's rare, but not impossible?
Exactly.
And if someone sees it in a place like this,
With the lore of a place like this,
They're going to think they're seeing a ghost.
The experiment demonstrates that some of the sightings here
Could be a rare methane fueled fireball,
But there's no way it accounts for hundreds of incidents
And they definitely don't explain what I caught on camera.
So after we leave the swamp and honestly take a long shower,
We want to meet up
With one of the most credible local eyewitnesses in the area,
A man with a badge.
Alright. I think this is him.
We're waiting at the entrance of the ghost road
To meet with former sheriff's deputy, donnie gulley,
A longtime resident of the big thicket,
Gulley's worked with the hardin county sheriff's office
For nearly two decades
And grew up just a few miles from the ghost road.
How you guys doing? Chobot: Good.
Very good.
It's good to see you. Nice to see you.
As law enforcement, not only is he a trained observer,
He was overseeing a prisoner work detail on bragg road
When he encountered a ghostly light in broad daylight.
You had quite the experience out here, so give me the scoop.
I had six inmates with me
And we come out to bragg road to do some cleaning.
And I look past one of my inmates
And I see a glowing oval,
And it shot right across the road
And just melted into the tree line.
It was the most crazy thing I've ever seen in my life.
It was insane.
Wow.
♪♪
Gates: The team is investigating the saratoga ghost lights,
A prolific and ghostly phenomenon.
They're meeting with police officer
And eyewitness don gulley,
Who saw the phenomenon on bragg road,
Aka the ghost road.
It was about 2:30 in the afternoon,
It was overcast.
It was kind of like this, actually.
And I look past one of my inmates
And I see a glowing sort of amber color oval in the road.
It was extremely bright,
And it started from the tree line,
Shot straight across the road into the tree line over here.
That's where I saw it. Wow.
It went so fast it actually left a trail,
Kind of like a sparkler at night,
And I went, "oh, my god!"
I turned to the guys and I said,
"did you just see that?"
One of the guys, I'll never forget,
He's standing there and his jaw was literally hanging open.
The next thing it did, it come up out of the road,
And it did sort of like a horizontal figure 8 looking move
And then went back into the woods,
And that's the last thing it did.
We were just blown away.
We were just sitting there going,
We can't believe we just saw that at 2:30 in the afternoon.
And so you saw it shoot off into the tree line.
So what's down around that area?
You got woods, you got [indistinct] and such as that.
Some more swamps and bogs and things of that nature?
Before you saw what you saw,
Did you believe the rumors of the road?
No, sir, not at all.
So what did you think you were seeing.
This thing, for lack of better terms,
Almost had an intelligence to it.
I can tell you this much,
I would sit in a courtroom with my right hand raised,
My hand on the bible,
And I would swear in a court of law
That I witnessed this thing.
Wow. I'm telling you, it happened.
Not only was this in the middle of the day
With multiple witnesses, including law enforcement,
But the ghost light was performing aerial acrobatics
That would be impossible for a methane fireball.
Sorry, phil.
The light shot off deeper into the swamp,
An area where other people along the ghost road
Have seen lights congregating in the distance.
So to see for ourselves what's out there,
We need to catch a ride.
♪♪
Hi, there!
Captain sallie haynes has agreed to take us deep
Into these dangerous wetlands at night,
When this phenomenon can be seen more easily.
So you're gonna want to keep an eye out
In this low-lying vegetation here for alligators.
Chobot: During construction of the railroad
And the outpost of bragg,
Many workers lost their lives in a myriad of gruesome ways.
Is it possible that the swamp's former residents
Still haunt this place,
Appearing as a glowing apparition
Or a pulsing ball of pure paranormal energy?
And if that isn't enough to worry about,
There's no shortage of other dangers here.
Hey, guys, I want to show you up here,
These are some hog tracks.
We got a lot of wild hogs in this area.
Is that any danger?
Have they ever tried to get onto the boat?
Oh, my gosh, yes.
Sometimes they're 4 or 500 pounds.
So, keep an eye out.
We don't want them in the boat.
♪♪
As darkness falls over the swamp,
We're greeted by a slew of nocturnal hunters
Looking for their next meal,
Alligator.
Where?
Right there, right there.
Wow, look at that.
He looks big. Nice.
Here's one over there hiding.
From large reptilian predators to swarms of insects,
These wetlands are teeming with life.
There's some more down there.
I know jesse believes these lights are paranormal,
But with all this animal activity,
I'm still convinced we'll find a natural explanation.
Alright, so, guys, I want to drop you off here
And let you check it out.
You're not gonna leave us here, right?
I won't leave you, but I'm not getting off.
Alright. Good luck.
Thanks.
♪♪
The sheriff's deputy reported
That the light he witnessed traveled deep into this swamp.
Now, miles from civilization,
I'm hoping this could be ground zero
For the ghost light phenomenon.
Wow, you hear this place?
Yeah.
I feel like I've gone back in time
And I'm in the land of the dinosaurs.
These big palms and everything.
What the [bleep]
Oh [bleep]
Oh [bleep].
Oh, my god, that is a cottonmouth right there.
Oh [bleep].
Look at that.
Right off the boat.
Should probably put on the snake gaiters.
Good idea.
Snakes often hide under ground-level vegetation,
Making our feet and lower legs extremely vulnerable.
By wearing these gaiters,
We can lower the risk of a snake bite piercing our skin.
Alright, I'm gaitered up.
Do you have the child camps get the trail cams?
Got the trail cams.
Alright, why don't we set them up
And see if we can catch some lights.
We're setting up a series of infrared motion sensor
Trail cameras in a cross line detection pattern
To capture a 360 view of this area.
If the saratoga lights do originate anywhere around here,
We should be able to capture them on camera.
Okay, we got the trail cams up.
Kind of feel like we should try to cover as much territory
As possible if split up.
Alright, so what direction do you want to go?
I'll go in. I'll take the deeper forest
If you want to kind of stay on the periphery.
We'll just try to stay in contact.
Mm-hmm. Works for me.
Alright, heading in.
Don't get eaten.
Don't get bit.
I'm looking for anything
That could be responsible for the sightings,
Including fireflies and even glowing click beetles
That are native to this area.
Let's try this way.
Oh, where's my jungle machete when I could use one?
Ooh, check this out, check this out.
Wow, look at all these mushrooms.
While they might not look like goes up close,
Some species of fungi actually glow in the dark.
There are more than 80 varieties of bioluminescent mushrooms
Known around the world.
These contain a compound called oxyluciferin
That emits a glowing green light,
The same eerie green that has been reported
As a headless apparition on the ghost road.
The only way to tell if they're glow in the dark
Is to turn off the lights, so let's try it.
[ click ]
Not these ones.
We'll keep searching.
Got some hot spots in there for sure.
Something's been here recently.
Right now I'm using the flir camera
That can detect thermal signatures in the dead of night.
Whoa, check this out.
♪♪
I don't see anything on the flir.
Did you see that?
Phil.
Yeah, what do you got?
A light just shot right past me into the trees.
And it wasn't a shooting star up in the sky?
It was about five feet off the ground,
It wasn't up in the air.
Did you get on the flare?
I think it did.
Well, keep filming, see if it comes back,
I'm heading your way.
Alright.
♪♪
Did you see that?
Phil! Copy.
A light just shot right past me into the trees.
Did you get on the flir?
I think I did.
Keep filming, see if it comes back, I'm heading your way.
Alright.
♪♪
I don't know how much, but I definitely got some of it.
Alright, let's see it.
See, did you see it?
Yeah, it went sideways.
Yeah. Yeah, that's what I saw.
That went right through the trees.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
You know, I'm gonna ask you the same thing I always ask,
But are you sure it wasn't a firefly,
Wasn't a bad coming by, anything like that?
It was not a firefly or a bat.
It was glowing, just like that light I saw on bragg road.
I'm not convinced that what jess captured on camera
Was a ghost light,
But we continued to search for hours
Just in case the mysterious object reappears.
Eventually, we board the airboat
And head back to civilization.
It seems that for tonight,
At least, the lights of the big thicket have gone dark.
The methane fireballs may explain
A few of the saratoga light encounters on bragg road,
But we still don't know what's behind the bulk
Of these ghostly sightings,
And we're running out of leads.
So we decide to connect with josh and have him weigh in
On the evidence we've captured so far.
Hi. Hi, josh.
Hey, guys. How are you?
See any good ghosts lately?
I mean, I think we certainly did.
Yeah. Turns out the ghost light road kind of earns its name.
I mean, we've been seeing some lights.
Mm-hmm. And speaking of lights, we lit somebody's farts on fire.
Sorry?
To be clear, josh, these are not my farts.
It's the swamp's farts.
Basically, it seems like the swamp is building up
A lot of methane underground.
And if it's somehow naturally ignites,
You got a little fireball.
And I think that could make someone think they're
Seeing the saratoga lights.
So we did a little experiment to see if that's an explanation.
And was the test successful?
Oh, yeah.
Whoa! Holy crap!
Yeah, oh, we let some swamp farts.
Yeah, I was a little concerned about my eyebrows, actually.
Alright, so we've got great balls of fire out there,
I'm sure swamp gas does account
For some of the sightings out there,
But the footage that you sent
Doesn't really feel like that, you know?
We've got this thermal hit that shoots up in the air
And then almost simultaneously,
We've got this really bright ball of light
That evan caught on his camera.
I mean, that's really hard to dismiss.
I mean, phil, I think even you would have to agree
That's probably not a bird flying around up there
And probably not a ball of swamp gas 20 feet off the ground.
My best guess is it could have been like a mirage,
Like a reflection of the moonlight off the road.
But then why does it zip off the way that it does?
It seems like it's moving.
Yeah. Phil, why does it zip off like that?
'cause it's a ghost.
Oh, phil, trouble in paradise out there?
Oh, you could say that.
[ chuckling ]
Jess, you're convinced it's something other.
Yeah, I absolutely do,
But I think that some of them could be unexplainable,
Paranormal orbs of light
That are floating around in that area.
Okay, I think for me, the one thermal hit
That you got out in the swamp,
That's the least conclusive to me, right?
Because, I don't know,
I mean, it looks like something just zipping through the trees.
Who's to say that's not a bat or an owl or something?
But the other two pieces of evidence,
The ones that you recorded out on the road itself
Are the ones that are really worth looking into.
So to help figure this out,
I've sent those videos to a friend of mine,
A guy named ben radford.
He's a friend of mine. He is an author, a researcher,
He's also a serious skeptic, phil,
Which I'm sure you'll love.
He gave us some really insightful information
About the legend of the chupacabra
When we were down in puerto rico.
I think his expertise could be invaluable here.
Sounds great.
So I've sent him the videos, I'm just waiting to hear back.
Hopefully he can shed some light on the situation.
Oh. Oh.
That one's a freebie.
You guys can feel free to use that one out there.
I'll think about it.
But looking forward to connecting with ben.
Alright, good luck, guys.
Thanks. See ya! Thanks.
Bye.
A few hours and a plate of texas barbecue later,
We get a call from josh's contact.
Hey, ben, how are you?
Hi. Hey there.
Ben is the deputy editor of skeptical inquirer.
He spent his entire career debunking alleged
Paranormal phenomenon caught on tape.
And he's all too familiar with these anomalous lights.
Okay, alright. Let me pull it up.
And now he's scrutinizing the flir footage
From our first night on the ghost road.
Wow, that was weird.
You've got that sort of streaking something.
Yeah. Yeah, that's it,
I'm curious, so in the third footage,
We see it coming from the bottom of the screen going up,
But after that, did it like zoom into the sky
Or what happened after?
It kind of went up, over the top of the canopy,
And then back towards the swamp.
Was it glowing? It was.
A really bright, small light in the shape of a circle.
You know, it's not crystal clear what that is.
Something is there,
And I don't know that I can fully explain it.
Still a mystery. Still a mystery.
So the flir hit remains inconclusive,
But what about the bright light that even caught on his camera?
If ben radford, a black belt among skeptics,
Doesn't have a rational explanation,
Well, I think I'm about to catch
A mean case of the I told you so's.
Do you mind taking a look at the second video?
Absolutely. Ok, I'm watching it here.
That's definitely light, I mean, that's not an optical illusion.
That is a legitimate light, whatever the hell it is.
So straight down the ghost road
Happens to be a highway that veers up
And then goes off to the west.
And so I think what you're seeing might be car light,
Like a headlight or something.
In most of the cases that people describe, it's a single light,
Usually white, or red in some cases,
That appears for a while and then vanishes.
It looks to me like a car light.
To me, it doesn't look like two separate headlights
'cause to me it looked like one singular light.
Yeah, well, you're talking about a stretch of road that's,
I think six or eight miles or something.
And so from that distance,
You're not necessarily gonna be able to distinguish
Two separate high beams or even low beams.
They're gonna appear as one single light,
If these are car headlights.
Interesting.
Ben's hypothesis is interesting,
But I'm not fully convinced.
After all, how can two headlights at road level
Appear to be a light in the sky?
♪♪
So tonight, we're heading back to the spot where our cameraman,
Evan, filmed the light to pressure-test ben's theory.
Alright, this is where we were the other night,
So I think this is the perfect spot.
Evan's camera was pointed south down the ghost road
When he filmed the mysterious light.
At that southern tip,
The road merges with highway 787.
The question is, could the lights
Be the result of a car traveling north on this highway
As it passes the ghost road and bears to the left?
It's time to find out.
What I want you to do is take the jeep,
Go to the end of the road,
Take the highway up a little bit,
And then radio me when you're coming,
I'll have this camera pointed that way.
I'll have the team's cameras pointed that way.
When you drive past the road entrance,
Maybe we'll see the same thing.
And that could explain some of the saratoga lights.
Down to the end of the road,
Take a left, spin it around, three, two, one. I'm on my way.
Alright.
Since the ghost road is so straight,
We should see her headlights at a great distance,
But will they look normal or like something otherworldly?
Jess, we're ready for you.
♪♪
Three, two, one.
♪♪
The x team is hunting down the source
Of the saratoga ghost lights, but back in the day,
It's very possible they would have come face-to-face
With something far more dangerous.
Throughout the 19th century,
The big thicket was a safe haven for outlaws,
Cunning criminals like thomas red golemon,
Aka the red fox,
A violent bank robber that evaded capture for years.
The most famous fugitives though,
Were a group known as jayhawkers.
They were texans opposed to slavery,
Hiding to avoid being drafted by the confederacy
During the civil war.
They managed to survive in that alligator infested swamp
For three years
Until a confederate captain finally flushed them out
By setting fire to 3000 acres of forest.
So one has to wonder if any of those notorious outlaws
Encountered the same mysterious lights
That have been terrifying people to this day.
♪♪
Torres: We got two cameras, pointing your way,
We're ready for you.
Gates: My team is attempting to explain the source
Of the saratoga ghost lights and the remarkable footage
Captured by evan several nights ago.
Chobot: What is that?
Is that the moon?
Ooh.
Jess, we're ready for you.
Okay.
Driving towards you.
Copy.
Okay, time to see if we can finally unmask
The saratoga lights.
Ghost road should be straight ahead now.
Alright, we got one light.
We got a light.
That's crazy.
Alright, phil, passing the ghost road in three,
Two...
Come on, come on.
...And one.
I'm passing the ghost road and staying on the highway.
There it goes. There it goes.
Holy [bleep]
It matches exactly and it looks really strange,
Like, it looks like a ghost light.
This confirms that many ghost light sightings
Can be attributed to headlights in the distance,
But even I'll admit, we're far from explaining everything.
Jess, we got it.
No kidding. Alright.
Okay, headed back.
♪♪
Holy [bleep]
Holy [bleep] I just saw a fricking light.
Wait, what?
Phil, do you see that?
Way above the trees. My god.
Wait, you just saw, like, I'm not seeing anything.
Wait. Whoa, whoa,
What, are you kidding me?
Phil?
Hold up, hold up, camera out.
Hurry up, come over.
Alright, I'm coming your way.
What just happened? Wasn't in front of you.
It's so dark. I would say it was right,
Kind of like right at the cusp of the tree line.
And then it just floated
A little bit up and then over the canopy.
Frogs over here going nuts.
Everything's going nuts.
Animals often send out alerts when threatened.
The question is, what made everything in the swamp go crazy
And what made our camera shut down?
One of the cameras went down
Right when you called me on walkie.
Are you serious? That's insane.
Maybe it's coincidence. Maybe it's not. I don't know.
People report that the ghost lights
Have rendered electronics
And even automobiles completely useless.
We may have demonstrated that some of the lights
Could be cars in the distance, but whatever I just saw overhead
Was definitely something else.
Checking for any eye shine right now.
See anything?
Nothing.
So you saw light float into the sky,
Now these frogs are going crazy out here.
Mm-hmm. That's really strange.
Do you really think you saw something weird tonight?
I really do think that I saw the saratoga lights.
Well, I think I saw what people claim to be the saratoga lights,
And I got it on tape.
And it was you driving by earlier,
Making that flash and disappearing.
Why don't we just stay out here? You've got the camera.
Let's collect more evidence and maybe you'll be able
To catch on camera what I caught with my own eyes.
Okay, we'll keep recording.
Point the camera up?
I mean, point the camera anywhere.
I mean, those things could pop up anywhere.
We continue our search on the ghost road into early morning,
Hoping the light that jess saw makes another appearance.
Nothing. Yeah.
But no luck.
The only light we'll be seeing
Is the sun when it breaks over the horizon.
Doing all we can, we get in our car
And say goodbye to the ghost road.
I feel like we definitely proved
That there is such a thing as saratoga lights.
We saw them.
I'm pretty excited that we've been able to
Debunk at least part of the story.
That really intense glow that we got down the road.
Now we know exactly why that happened.
And the lights seen to be methane fireballs.
Yeah, but there's just so many accounts that don't fit in
With those explanations.
And then officer donnie himself said that it moved
At such a distinct, thoughtful way.
What you saw out there definitely was not headlights.
I'm just not willing to jump and say that they're ghosts
Or anything crazy like that.
I mean, I don't know why you always push back
So hard on the possibility
That it's something paranormal could be at work here.
I want to believe that what you saw is something paranormal,
But until we have better evidence,
I'm going to assume that there's some natural explanation for it.
I want to believe, too.
It was my favorite tagline from x files.
I has a poster.
Of course you did.
Gates: The saratoga lights have been haunting
This desolate country road in east texas for over a century,
Manifesting as a glowing orb to some,
And a headless, lantern toting specter to others.
Get me the hell out of here.
He ain't got no head!
This frightening spectacle has left both locals
And law enforcement perplexed and terrified.
But what is it really?
While there are unexplained cases
Where scientific explanations fall short,
Some of which my team experienced firsthand,
I'm still inclined to agree with phil on this one.
A nocturnal experiment
Showed that cars traveling in the distance
Are most certainly responsible for some,
Maybe most of these sightings,
While other reports may have been the byproduct
Of a methane-fueled light show,
Or the abundant wildlife of the big thicket.
The fact is that while the world of the paranormal
Is filled with mystery,
In the case of the saratoga ghost lights,
I think we've illuminated the truth.
For more information on expedition x,
Head to discovery.Com/expeditionx.