Ghost Road: The Big Thicket Light

The light drew wide attention in 1960. That summer Archer Fullingim, editor and publisher of the Kountze News, ran front-page stories about it, and metropolitan papers in Texas and elsewhere picked them up. Hundreds of light seers came to Bragg Road, and the Handbook of Texas says their accounts disagreed about the light's color and character but agreed that something ghostly appeared. One legend in its collection concerns a man who sold his farm to brake on the Saratoga line, lost his job when Santa Fe cut its runs, and now walks the roadbed with a lantern.

What the plaque says

Ghost Road: The Big Thicket Light Ghost Road runs arrow straight through territory that was once thicket, cypress brake, baygalls and lobolly pines. It began as the bed of a branch rail line of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe that ran between the towns of Bragg and Saratoga to provide access to the timberlands of the area. At the southern end of the line was the McShane Lumber Company operation at Dearborn. Tales of a ghostly light began even as the line was in service, before automobiles ran through the area. The stories continued after the line was converted to a county road in the 1930s. Arthur Fullingim, outspoken editor of the Kountze News, published accounts of ghost light sightings, which brought widespread attention and interest. The road became a popular site for travelers, young couples and others interested in the phenomenon, known as the Ghost, Bragg, Big Thicket or Saratoga Light. Explanations over the years have included the natural -- swamp gas or reflection of phosphoric foxfire; the historical -- gold hidden by Spanish soldiers and explorers; as well as the supernatural -- the spirits of a rail worker searching for his lost head, a groom looking for his murdered bride, a lost hunter, disgruntled rail workers or jayhawkers. In addition to its place in popular lore, the road's once dense timber stands attracted development and lumber interests. For decades, county officials disagreed with others, including noted Big Thicket conservationist R.E. Jackson, over the road's importance. In the late 1990s, it finally became a protected resource. Today, it draws visitors enticed by its flora and fauna, as well as by its mythic, ghostly lights. (2005)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Big Thicket National Preserve — 14 mi
  Start at the Kountze visitor center, where rangers sort the preserve's scattered units for you, and learn why Congress made this 1974 string of pearls the country's first national preserve.
• Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center — 19 mi
  A state archives and museum north of Liberty with an exhibit on Southeast Texas history and a campus of historic buildings, including an 1848 house and an 1898 church.
• Village Creek State Park — 23 mi
  A 2,466-acre state park on one of the few free-flowing creeks in Texas, with a launch for the Village Creek Paddling Trail, boat rentals and sandy-upland trails in the Big Thicket.
• McFaddin-Ward House — 30 mi
  A Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival mansion finished in 1906 and lived in by one family for 75 years, with free guided tours of three furnished floors, the carriage house and gardens.

More markers nearby

• Lance Rosier — 1.7 mi
• Batson Prairie School & Church and Guedry Cemetery — 7.2 mi
• Old Hardin — 12 mi
• Hugh B. Johnston — 13 mi