In the mid forties, a southeast Missouri woman and a friend were driving home in late evening when they noticed a light in the back seat of the car. Believing the glow to be moonlight, they weren’t concerned until one of them realized that the position of the moon in the night sky didn’t correlate well with the position of the passenger light. The glow behind them was self-contained and apparently comfortable. They could have abandoned the car, but they drove on and the light eventually departed through an open rear window and floated away. They decided it was likely just a meandering ball of swamp gas or marsh light, a common sight in many parts of the country (and perhaps in the world). The scientific name for the phenomenon is Ignis Fatuus, a light associated with methane (an odorless, combustible gas created by the decomposition of organic matter). To the lay person, the light is marsh light, swamp light, will-o-the-wisp, will- with-the-wisp, jack o’lantern. The lighted, grotesque pumpkin faces that decorate Halloween are a reflection of this ghostly flame, one that supposedly lures travelers off their paths. For the Bootheel couple, the manifestation was more like a hitchhiker--if not to the galaxy, then down a country road. Maybe the true nature of Marsh Light is more complex than science has discovered.

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