Marfa Lights
Marfa vicinity, Presidio County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Marfa Lights, mysterious and unexplained lights that have been reported in the area for over one hundred years, have been the subject of many theories. The first recorded sighting of the lights was by rancher Robert Ellison in 1883. Variously explained as campfires, phosphorescent minerals, swamp gas, static electricity, St. Elmo's fire, and "ghost lights", the lights reportedly change colors, move about, and change in intensity. Scholars have reported over seventy-five local folk tales dealing with the unexplained phenomenon. (1988)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
For well over a century, unexplained lights have been reported flickering across the desert near Marfa, first noted by rancher Robert Ellison in 1883. Observers describe them shifting color, drifting, and pulsing in intensity, and generations have tried to explain them as campfires, swamp gas, static electricity, St. Elmo's fire, or simple ghost lights. Scholars have collected more than seventy-five local folk tales spun around the mystery, which endures unsolved to this day.
Why it matters
The Marfa Lights show how an unexplained natural phenomenon can become a genuine piece of regional folklore, binding a remote community to a story shared for generations.
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Related people
- · Robert Ellison
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Paisano Pass
Marfa vicinity, TX
According to legend, this mountain pass took its name from two Spaniards who met and greeted each other "Mi Paisano"—my countryman. It first entered the historical record when Juan Dominguez de Mendoza camped here in January 1684, and after 1850 it became a well-known point on the Chihuahua Trail, an emigrant road carrying travelers toward California. The pass links Spanish exploration to the great mid-century westward migrations.
Presidio County
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Presidio County, carved from vast Bexar County in 1850 and organized in 1875, takes its name from the Spanish word for a fortified garrison — the presidios once raised to protect the missions of the Big Bend. Its seat of government moved from Fort Davis to Marfa in 1885 as settlement and the railroad reshaped the region.
Humphris-Humphreys House
Marfa, TX
Built in 1883 by local craftsman Saturnino Naborette, this Marfa home belonged to rancher and merchant John Humphris and his wife Mary, its central hall flanked by four rooms on each side in the plain, sturdy style of early West Texas. In 1915 schoolteacher Sally Humphreys bought the house and ran it as a boardinghouse until 1937. Recognized as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1996, it survives as an example of frontier building methods.
Presidio County Courthouse
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