Subject: Not a car... but may know what it is. 4,711 views

[Squee]

ok I finally saw the Paulding lights. I went twice and stayed for quite a while watching carefully and taking note of how the lights "acted".

Now, I'm going to say up front... I'm a skeptic of all this "paranormal" stuff. So I'm writing this as someone who believes there is an explination for everything. And I feel I've found an explination for this, maybe.

I know however, this is NOT a car. The first day I went there was a lot of traffic. (second day not so much) So here are reasons I do not believe it was a car.

1. The lights would appear, then disappear and be gone from anywhere for a few minutes to several minutes. At this time I heard the sound of cars... so if it were cars, the light should have appeared more frequently, especially when I heard the most cars zooming by.

2. The light was stationary. Both days I went it appeared in the same spot... and never moved. A few times it seemed to get higher like it was elevating... but generally it was in the same place. Cars move. Even if it were an optical illusion caused by the headlights it would not remain stationary and it would not appear in the same place each time every night.

Not to mention... People were driving fast, and people would pass people going to slow. (Like they were passing me. I wasn't about to speed... there were lots of deer out. Wasn't going to get my car dinged.)

with the spuratic speed of the drivers, and the fact that drivers would pass other drivers... the lights would have to be more spuratic if it were car lights.

3. both nights... the light would always start with a small red dot... then grow into a yellow light, followed by a bright star like white light. Each time it did this. Again, cars are suratic. Some come, some go, some speed, some drive slower, some pass... sometimes one car will be coming towards you while another is leaving, sometimes there will be more than 3 cars in a row.

So again, if it were a car, the light would be as spuratic as the cars are. Sometimes it will be a white light, sometimes a red light, sometimes it will appear to be more than one light... or larger than usual because of an optical illusion of more than one car light... it's just not spuratic like that. It's pretty same each time.

4. The majority of cars I know in the area are white head lights, red tail lights. There were times this light turned a christmas green, and orange. Very distinct. Sometimes the white was more yellow. Car lights can appear yellowish sometimes... but I don't know many that are green and orange.

5. when the headlights of a car are facing you, that generally means they're coming towards you. They'll get bigger and bigger and closer and closer then disappear out of sight as it passes your view.

This light did get bigger, and bigger, but then got smaller, and smaller, then faded away like the light of a candle being blown out. for a car do make this effect, it would have to come towards you... then drive in reverse. Even then, when you turn off car lights or when car lights disappear around the corner, it's all of a sudden, not a gradually fading light.

either way... I can not see any real evidence that this is a car. It's too reliable. Cars (and their drivers) are not. For it to be a car, the way the light acted would depend on speed of the cars, amount of traffic. Amount of traffic and speed of cars did not seem to really effect the lights.

So I do not believe it's a car.

However, I do believe it may have something to do with the power lines. I saw something once on tv about lights similar to the paulding lights, that turned out to be an anomoly caused by a power plant nearby or something. Can't remember the exact details...

however, there are power lines running through the area... can't say that's what it is... but I think that's a better option than a car. a power line reaction could explain the stationary nature (if it's isolated to one spot) the fading in and out... the change in size and brightness as well as the change of color.

again, not saying that is really what it is... I personally don't know. I just don't think it's a car... and powerlines would be the next logical explination to me.

I've heard an airplane (which it's not. that was easily debunked on tv), I hear car (which after watching it, I just don't feel it can be.)... but no one has ever mentioned powerlines to my knowledge.

(if it was brought up on this site before, lol sorry... didn't see it.)

[bill]

Where are your pictures to prove it's not car lights?

[Squee]

I don't have a picture, just video. Not sure how to upload it though. I may open a youtube account and get them up there. The vid isn't excellent because it was taken on one of those sony cybershot cameras so it's not a 'video' camera per say... but it has an excellent example of how the light remains stationary and fades out like a dimming candle rather than the sudden disappearance of a car driving away or turning their lights off.

Again, you don't even need a photo. It's obvious to anyone with half a brain that it's not a car.

Cars drive between 55 and 70mph on those streets... some cars go, some cars come, sometimes there is distance between cars, sometimes they're back to back, sometimes people will even pass a slower car.

Drivers are very spuratic... the light isn't. When it appears it doesn't move with the exception of appearing to get higher from time to time...it isn't spuratic like car head lights would be. If a car passed another car right at that moment... the lights should change behavior. The light's behavior is too consistant.

not to mention, like I said before... for it to be a car, the car would have to come towards you slowly when the light slowly becomes bigger, then slowly backup to make the light appear to get smaller, then make the lights appear to fade away as you turn them off rather than turn off all of a sudden as most carlights do... and I'll tell you, my experience in the area is that cars do NOT go slow, so the light should fluctuate from big to small much quicker than it actually does. and with the amount of traffic there was in the area, the light would have been more constant where as even when you heard cars zooming by the area, the light wasn't there.

not to mention... there were a group of people there the times I went to watch it. I didn't say what I saw the first night, I just listened. I didn't want to influence what other people saw. (sometimes when you say you see a purple light... everyone will suddenly see it.)

But when I saw the light turn green... two other people at the same time stated outloud that the light was green, which means they saw it as well... so it wasn't just a trick of my eyes. and as far as I know... most cars do NOT have green head or tail lights.

I mean, 1+1=2 in this case. this is NOT a car.

I am not saying it's not a natural phenomenon... I still think it MAY have something to do with the power lines. It's just not a car. much like you asked me for my pictures (which I am going to try to figure out how to upload as I've never done it before...) I still have yet to see proof of the car theory. I've seen video and photo evidence of the car theory debunked, but I've never seen any actual viable video evidence of the car theory holding up.

Like I said... cars and their drivers are spuratic and inconsistant. The lights are not. the first time I saw them the traffic was heavy. The second night the traffic was pretty light. the lights appearance was not altered by the amount of traffic.

you'd think... higher traffic = more frequent displays, less traffic = more down time between light appearances.

that was not the case. It appeared just as much if not more so on the slow night as on the high traffic night.

I hate to burst your bubble...

it's is NOT a car.

[Squee]

I still say, due to how it remains solitary, how it is consistant on a nightly basis since the 60s, how it changes colors (to colors that cars don't have like green and orange) I still say it has something to do with the powerlines, and I'm still waiting to hear if anyone has looked into the powerlines.

[Squee]

that being said... I've noticed there are people on this board who are so closeminded they refuse to believe it could be anything else no matter how irrational the 'car' theory is. (seeing it's been debunked numerous times.) Sad thing is, no one will be able to give their opinion without being shut down. At least those who believe the lights are paranormal are more willing to hear other points of view.

I will say it again. it is NOT a car. I have tried to look at it through the point of view of it being a car... but for all the reasons stated above, it just can't be. That doesn't mean it's paranormal, it just means it's not a car. Ghosts are a better explination than a car.

[Squee]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCUE3wVsDqc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRpIyebyaCM

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEr9fjIQ2eM

the vid isn't the best. they were taken on a sony cybershot camera. It's a camera that records video, not a video camera... so I did the best I could with what I had.

but it shows how the light remains stationary, gets bigger, then gets smaller (where as a car would get bigger and bigger then disappear as it passes out of the view.)

But this actually gets bigger, then smaller, as if a car is coming towards you, then backing up... which is why car doesn't make sense to me.

not to mention all the other reasons I stated in the first post why I don't think it is a car.

When I buy a video camera I'll get out there and get better photos.

[andy]

cool

[Squee]

Here are a few more valid reasons (with pictures yay!) Why the car theory doesn't hold up for me.

1. People keep saying we're seeing lights from hwy 45. That can't be possible. As displayed on the map below... the lights approximately appear on the part of the map that is circled. hwy 45 is not only to viewer's backs... it at one points veers even farther in the opposite direction, then heads straight. The lights from the cars would not cross paths with where you should look at the paulding lights.



2. There are 2 roads that do cross the path of where the lights are witnessed. One is a dirt road... I'm unsure if it is a private road or not... didn't look highly used... the other main road (not as highly used as 45... but still looked like it had a few cars) was Sleepy Hollow Road, 10.8 miles and about an 18min drive away. But as you can see from the map below... the roads I just mentioned drive horizontally to where the lights are seen. That means, the car lights would not be visible at the junction where the lights are viewed, because the do not come towards us, they drive from side to side, blocking the lighs from our view. The highlighted areas on the map shows the trajectory of which the cars would have to drive for their headlights to match the size, shape and intensities of the paulding lights.



I'm sticking to my powerline theory until someone tells me whether or not the powerlines have been tested for any malfunctions.

[willie]

Looks like the moon? White lights? Could it be a car light in the distance and the light disappears?

[Squee]

wow, you did not even bother reading the entire conversation I just had Willie... Didja.

I just wrote a novel explaining various reasons it couldn't be a car. lol

Here's another reason I don't think it's a car.

1. Robbins Pond Road is only passible up to a barricade. From what I've been told, those who have walked beyond the barricade has stated the barricade is there because of a creek. They say they were easily able to wade through the creek. So if you can't pass from one side... it would only stand to reason because of the same creek and barricade, you wouldn't be able to drive down but to a point on Robbins Pond Road. So basically the road itself is useless.

2. at the end of Robbins Pond Road if you look at my map, it becomes Forest Hwy 5210 and turns into a V.

now this road is also pretty useless. If you take the left arm of the V, you hit a dead end that goes straight into the Ottawa National Forest and hits a dead end. You can't go up Robbins Pond Road for the reasons stated above...

so really... there is no reason for cars to come down Forest Hwy 5210 near Robbins Pond Road unless you have business in the Ottawa national Forest. So it's obviously not a heavily used road.

3. In order to get to the main road... if you pretend Robbins Pond Road goes straight through and had no barricade or creek... you'd have to travel up for at least 2 miles... make a right turn, travel for a mile... make a left turn, go straight for about a half a mile to a full mile, then turn right down another road and hit the main Hwy 45.

by that time you're so far up from where the lights are seen, and in the completely opposite direction. (Old Hwy 45 and main Hwy 45 would be to the backs of light watchers.)

the main drag actually never crosses in front of Robbins Pond Road. The first intersection that would cross Robbin Pond Road's path is Sleepy Hollow Road, and as stated before, Traffic runs horizontally to where you'd see the lights, which would not be the light source. For a car to be the cause... based on the light's shape and size at it's biggest, the cars would have to be coming directly toward you.

for reasons stated in 1 and 2... there's no reason for traffic to be coming towards you.

And based on the frequency of how often the lights appear and how long you can view the lights... the traffic would have to be heavy at all times. Yet the amount of traffic never seems to effect the way the light behaves.

[Willie]

I've never seen a creek there. Take down the barricade. Cars can travel on the other side. You take a side road off of Highway 45. The lights are fake.

[Squee]

wow you totally are not even getting the point.

How far up Robbins Pond Road have you traveled to be sure there is no creek?

Also... again... because of the barricade you can't drive up Robbins Pond Road, you can't drive down Robbins Pond Road. It's a useless road creek or not... because of the barricade.

If you go up where it V's as evident by my maps... the left arm leads to a dead end. So, the left hand of Forest Hwy 5210 useless. Robbins Pond Road, Useless.

The Right hand of the V leads to Forest Hwy 5230. 5230 eventually meets with old hwy 45 which if you travel up it for a while, on the right another road will lead you to the main street which is main Hwy 45.

however, because you can't drive through the barricade... you can't drive to hwy 5210, to get to 5230 to get to 45... and there'd be no reason to turn off of 45 onto 5230 since it leads to two roads to nowhere.

As for 45... again... anyone with any ability to read a map can see there's no way for it to be the source of the lights. hwy 45 never actually crosses the path of the paulding lights.

if you are on Robbins Pond Road facing the barricade. if you're facing the barricade the lights would be in front of you and main hwy 45 would be behind you.

the two never meet.

So car or not it CAN'T be a car from Hwy 45.



you can see from this image where the barricade approximately is... the arrow points in the direction you should be looking. As you can see, Old and Main hwys 45 are behind you, and remain so.

you can not actually get to old hwy 45 but for the above mentioned road. and due to the barricade, you can't even drive up towards forest hwy 5230 to even get there.

I mean, either way... it is NOT a car from 45. You have to have a strong imagination and a weak map reading ability to think it is car lights from 45.

also, the lights are NOT fake.

They happen, everynight. hundreds of people have seen them. So they exist.

the fact that there could be a normal explination like a car, or as I think, powerline malfunctions, or airplanes or whatever, doesn't make them fake... it just makes them non-paranormal.

in order for the lights to be fake... it would need to be a perpetuated hoax... meaning someone would have to be standing there everynight knowingly creating the lights in order to trick people.

There is no evidence to say that is the situation.

thus the lights are not fake.

[Squee]

don't get me wrong though... I'm not trying to prove the lights are paranormal... I don't believe they are... I think it has something to do with the powerlines until I hear otherwise...

I'm just stating that I don't believe the lights could be caused by cars.

Due to the size and frequency... the lights would have to come from a highly traveled road, and the cars would have to be facing towards you.

That would mean the cars would have to travel down Robbins Pond Road to be coming towards us...

Robbins Pond Road is basically a no - through street, so no one would use it as a main road.

Forest Hwy 5210 (that robbins pond road becomes) is a dead end on one side, and leads to Forest Hwy 5230 which leads to a dead end and eventually goes back to Hwy 45 in a round about way.

Hwy 45 remains at your backs and never crosses your line of sight, so the cars can't be from hwy 45 as, unless you have your back turned to the barricade instead of facing the barricade, you wouldn't see cars from 45.

it also can't be from the road Robbin Pond Road branches into past the barricade because it wouldn't be traveled enough for the lights to last that many hours, and appear that frequently.

If you're on old hwy 45... why would you turn onto Forest hwy 5230? it leads to 2 dead ends and a no through street... so it wouldn't be a frequently traveled road.

That's why I think powerlines is a more plausible explination than car. We just had wind knock down a tree which landed on powerlines. Those powerlines not only sparked white, but orange and blue.

the Paulding lights are White, orange Red and at times green. This could be caused by the powerlines.

[joe]

Tourist trap

[Squee]

doubt it's a tourist trap... I don't think it draws THAT many people. the days I was there, there were like... 10 people if you include me (9 if you don't.) the next time there was like 8 people if you include me (7 if you don't.)

I'd say at least a third of them were locals... not tourists. There were some out of towners, but not as many as I'd expect.

I don't know how it is on other days... but my brother was there with his wife once and he said there were about 15 people... most of them yoopers who come to see the lights every so often. Very few were out of towners.

also to Willie...

I contacted Watersmeet because i've never been past the barricade myself, and I asked about that creek. She said...

We had some really rainy weather and the road washed out at least a couple of times. Because of the cost of the repairs and the lack of success to keep it repaired, they just removed that part of the road and barricaded it on both sides. It had nothing to do with the Light as far as I know. You can walk past the barricade with no problem and head down to the stream/river that is at the bottom of the hill.

That's probably what was meant when someone mentioned a creek.