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The Anson Lights Highway Ghost

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In the quiet Texan town of Anson, a local legend has taken form after small lights no one could explain appeared. Is it the lantern of a ghost or is the Anson lights simply the lights from the cars on the highway?

There is something about the highway, especially along those monotone dusty roads that goes on for hours. The highway can make the mind wander, it takes you down a road, not only geographically, but something happens with the mind as well on long stretches of nothingness. Time passes differently when you are behind the wheel. Perhaps that is what happens along the highway in Anson? Where does the ghostly lights come from then?

Near Abilene, Texas is the quaint town of Anson, that may or may not have been the inspiration for the movie Footloose as they too had an actual no dancing law in the 80s. And although living in that movie sounds cool, living in the real town before Kevin Bacon, does not.

The Anson Lights: According to the local legend, If you drive by the cemetery and flick your light, supposedly the Anson lights will flick back. Is it a ghost? Is the strange light phenomenon because it’s a haunted place? Photo: Paul Cameron on Pexels.com

The landscape around this ghost town by the highway is flat and dusty. Nothing in the horizon except blue sky, red if the dust swirls in the air. The few growing things there is sparse, revealing everything in a spartanic landscape.

Read Also: Check out all of our ghost stories from USA

They don’t really like the fuzz down there, and they certainly don’t like the fuzz the legend the highway ghost had provided them with. “For a long time people were embarrassed by the Anson light,” then mayor (2000) Tom Isbell said in a great article in the Texas Monthly. “Anson has stories to tell, but for some reason we just don’t tell them.”

And for the time being, the town of Anson, is known for the Anson lights.

Where to See the Anson Lights?

The Anson lights have attracted many curious spectators, paranormal investigators and mediums to this town. But perhaps mostly, it is high school students with nothing to do in this no dance town on a Saturday evening. It can be a pretty scary sight in the dead of night, with only nearby coyotes howling and screaming.

Read also: Check out The Palatine Light and the Ghost Ship Behind it for another ghost story behind a strange light phenomenon.

To see the Anson lights, you must drive by the local cemetery, Mount Hope, just outside of the town. Then you follow a dirt road along the graveyard until you reach a crossroad. There you turn, facing the road again and stop your car and flash your lights at the end of the road. If you are lucky, you will see them, something will shine a light back. From the other side at an distance a flickering light can be seen.

The Lantern of a Grieving Mother

But what really is the Anson lights? Surely they are there as numerous Youtube videos and pictures have showed us them, so we do know the phenomenon is a real one, but is it a paranormal one as well? One of the most appealing explanation is of course the supernatural ones. Because a ghost town has its ghost stories as well.

The Haunted Lantern: Many of the ghost stories claim that the Anson Lights are actually the light of a ghost carrying a lantern.

One of the local legend behind the strange lights is the story of a grieving mother looking for her son on winter night. According to the story the mother went out looking for her son with a small lantern in her hand. It was a cold night in the snowy Texas winter and the wind was howling, the night grew darker. She never found him. Or… she hasn’t found him, yet.

It is said that even after her death, she kept on looking for her long lost son who disappeared that one cold fateful night.

This is what is told in The Big Book of Texas Ghost Stories by Alan Brown and in this book there is more than one legend of just who is flickering the lights back by the graveyard.

Read Also: Check out all of our stories about Haunted Cemeteries

In another version of the legend, the mother told her two sons to run to the store to pick up a few things. The mother gave them a lantern that they would flash three times with, if they got into trouble. And they did.

According to this story, the two little boys were killed by an oncoming train on their way home. They are now roaming the nearby area as ghosts, still flashing their light, trying to signal their mother for help.

Debunking the Legend of the Haunted Anson Lights

Who is to say that this ghost story didn’t happen? Perhaps no historic records in any case that we have found. And with every unconfirmed record, there is this voice saying, well… doesn’t really prove it didn’t happen though. What is proven though, is that there is a more logical than paranormal explanation to it.

At Abilene Christian University, a professor brought along his students to prove that the lights were actually coming from traffic lights from a nearby highway than from a ghostly mother with a lantern. With GPS trackers and binoculars, his students were able to document that the light were just lights from cars going south on a nearby road. A thing the Southwestern Ghost Hunters Association had already claimed a long time ago as they didn’t find anything paranormal about the Anson lights either.

Read Also: Another ghost story that got debunked was the hauntings in The Haunted H House

So, everyone happy then? Perhaps not the kids of Anson. The professor issued an apology for the reveal and to the locals of the town felt this was the story they could have fun with. What now? What now for fun?

The Anson lights is the approaching car lights from southbound traffic on US-277. Perhaps that is the true haunting, the cars going away. As the little town of Anson is closing up, boarding up their shops and the cars are streaming passed our out of the town, perhaps that is the true ghost of Anson.

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The Hook-Man

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A Moonmausoleum original based on the well known Urban Legend

A couple parks their car on the local lovers lane. It’s in a small clearing in the forest, overlooking the small town. The guy insisted to drive around for a while as he manged to borrow his dad’s old veteran car for the evening. It’s supposed to be the date. They are slurping the remains of the soda and eating the popcorn from the movie.

“Did you like the movie?” the girl asks, engulfed in the movie they just saw, having some of the popcorn. It had been her choice, and the boy fell asleep halfway through.

“Sure,” the boy said, leaning into her. She pushes him playfully away.

“Yeah right, I noticed you fell asleep,” the girl says, throwing a popcorn at him playfully. He throws it back at her, just hearing her laughter.

“I’m awake now,” the guy says, kissing her.

The song from the radio ends, the news broadcaster taking over. It is a terrible radio station, local, but the only one they get a signal from her in this small town. The guy turns to the radio speaking in its slow and monotone voice.

“We report about the manhunt still ongoing for the convicted murderer and rapist, escaping from the mental institution. There are still no leads to his whereabouts. Noticeable features is his hook hand. Listeners are asked to report-“

“Enough of that,” the boys says as the news kills the mood, turning the radio off, putting on a playlist instead. The girl look around, uneasy after listening. She buttons one of her blouse button.

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“Hey, maybe we should just-“

“Come here,” the boy says, pulling her closer, kissing her, his hands trailing down her side. But she’s had it. The moment is passed.

“No, come on. Let’s just drive home.”

“But I only borrowed the car for this evening. I don’t know if he-“

“Don’t care! It’s creepy here.”

“It’s romantic.”

The girl crosses her arms over her chest. She’s made up her mind. The boy accepts defeat.

“Fine, fine.”

“We can ask your father again for the car another time,” the girls tries to negotiate with. The boy is not biting to her offer.

“Sure,” the boy mutters, trying to get the engine to work. It doesn’t. He tries again: Same result. The girl starts to get a creepy feeling, an uneasiness as if the darkness around them swells.

“Do you need any help?”

“What? No! It just has this special way to get it started. Just give me a second.”

Still, the car won’t start. The night is coming to life. The nightlife is starting to wake, to howl. The girl inhales, trying not to intervene. The boy tried the key, but the engine just gave a small puff, not wanting to start. The headlight flickering weak before dying.

“It doesn’t work,” the girl says. The boy ignores her.

“Maybe you should just try to-“

“I know how to start a car,” the boy says, loosing his patient and snapping back at her. She raises her hand, leaving him to it.

The car finally stars and the girl leans in to fix her lipstick. She turns when a shadow glides over the mirror.

He pushed the pedals to the floor, car screeching as they bailed out from the lane, leaving their date in a pile of dust. The girl clutched the handle above her head.

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“Did you just drive onto something?”

“No”

“Didn’t you hear it right now? It was like the car pulled on something?”

“Jesus, can you at least not whine about my driving? I’m taking you home, as you demanded, alright? Can you just not?”

They drive away out from the woods onto the highway. He turns back to the news on the radio, but it’s over. Just a slow ballad to fill the awkward silence is heard.

After driving for a while, both notices something is wrong. The boy curses, knowing this date went horrible wrong.

“Sounds like the tires,” the girl comments as they park the car at the side of the road. It is still far to the town.

“Let me have a look,” the boy says, not knowing much about cars.

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Studying the back tire at the passengers side, he can’t make it out. It is as if it’s slashed. They wont be able to drive it back home. He stands up, looking both ways, no car is out on the roads, the forest on both sides is motionless in the dead wind.

He goes to the passenger door, motioning to open it to tell her they would need to call someone to come get then. That is when he sees it, that is when he freezes.

“What is it?” the girl asked, noticing his face going pale. The boy held out the arm.

“Stay in the car. Don’t come out. Lock the door,” he said, staring at the hook hanging from the car door.

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5 Pandemic Movies to Watch during the Pandemic

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In these times so many of us turn to these horrible movies that reflect our time. Pandemic movies have never been watched so much as now. Why is it so that a real threat leads to a thirst to watch more about it? Is it the feeling of being prepared that makes us seek out these movies? Is it assurance that at least we don’t have it that bad, or is it more the recognition, and that these movies are not as far fetched as they once were? So here are five, non-zombie pandemics to get us through quarantine.

The Crazies (2010)

This is a remake of the classic from 1973 with the same name. It did really well to be a remake of George A. Romero. Starring Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell, it focuses on a fictional Iowa town that becomes afflicted by a military virus that turns those infected into violent killers.

After a strange and insecure plane crash, an unusual toxic virus enters a quaint farming town. A young couple are quarantined, but they fight for survival along with help from a couple of people.

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Children of men (2006)

London, 2027. In this dystopian world, humans have been incapable of reproducing for eighteen years for an unknown reason and been ridden with the flu epidemic. Britain is the one remaining civilized society on the planet, which has resulted in people wanting to immigrate there. As such, it has become a police state in order to handle the immigrants, who are placed into refugee camps. A former activist is tasked to get the only pregnant woman to a safe place.

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Carriers (2009)

Starring Chris Pine and Piper Perabo, this dystopian roadtrip movie has gained new life after the Corona virus put people in quarantine to watch movies.

As a lethal virus spreads globally, four friends seek a reputed plague-free haven. But while avoiding the infected, the travelers turn on one another.

Black death (2010)

This movie stars some Game of Thrones actors, including Sean Bean and Carice van Houten as well as Eddie Redmayne. You can probably guess how well Sean Bean fares in this movie. Set during the time of the first outbreak of bubonic plague in England, a young monk is given the task of learning the truth about reports of people being brought back to life in a small village.

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It comes at night (2017)

This movie was written and directed by Trey Edward Shults. Shults began writing the film after the death of his father as a way of dealing with the pain. And it is mostly about a family. Well, set in an dystopian pandemic ravaged world.

Secure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son. Then a desperate young family arrives seeking refuge.

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