Illustration of the Pointe Coupee light (or the feu follet) near McKneely spur near Fordoche, just north of Livonia on the west side of Pointe Coupee Parish.
If you want to see the light, you'll need to plan a trip to Pointe Coupee Parish's countryside.
Wait, you were thinking about the other light — the light at the end of the tunnel — weren't you? Or maybe the kind found in the enlightenment of truth?
Well, this isn't that kind of light but one that mysteriously appears, then stares at you while you stare back. Some people call them balls of fire, others orbs and yet others believe they are connected to either departed spirits or space aliens.
Sightings of these mysterious lights have been made throughout the country, usually along rural roads or railroad tracks.
Joseph LaPlace III remembers his late brother-in-law's story about seeing such a light near Morganza.
"He said he it would appear when he was out in the woods, and it would sometimes appear on a railroad track," the retired attorney said.
The story has always perplexed LaPlace, which prompted him to ask about the legend behind the mysterious light ball in Pointe Coupee Parish.
Well, first an exact location needs to be pinpointed. Lisa Dalton, clerk for the Village of Morganza, said the light appears at the Union Pacific Railroad's McKneely spur near Fordoche, just north of Livonia on the west side of the parish.
"When I was a teenager, my friends and I would ride out there to see if we could catch it," she said.
And?
"We saw it," she said. "It was a faint light, and it just glowed."
Dalton added that some people speculated that the light was created by phosphorus gas. Marfa, Texas, is also known for its lights. The Texas State Historical Association offers similar explanations for the mysterious lights in Marfa. Marfa's lights have become a tourist destination, complete with a roadside visitors center and viewing platform.
"Over the years many explanations for the lights have been offered, ranging from an electrostatic discharge, swamp gas, or moonlight shining on veins of mica, to ghosts of conquistadors looking for gold," the association states at tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/marfa-lights. "The most plausible explanation is that the lights are an unusual phenomenon similar to a mirage, caused by an atmospheric condition produced by the interaction of cold and warm layers of air that bend light so that it is seen from a distance but not up close."
Still, that doesn't address the legend behind the McKneely spur light. For that, author and Pointe Coupee Parish historian Brian Costello offers a few answers from his research.
"These orbs are a part of Creole mythology," he said. "One of the most common legends in yesteryear Pointe Coupee was that of the feu follet or 'will o’ the wisp,' a dancing light or fireball, which was widely believed to be a spirit."
Costello cited stories about the light in his manuscript, "Death and the Supernatural in Pointe Coupee Parish," including a story told to Pointe Coupee native Thomas Klingler in the book, "If I Could Turn My Tongue Like That: The Creole Language of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana," published by LSU Press in 2003.
Klinger said his informant told him that older people used to tell children that if they misbehaved, the feu follet would catch them at night and "chop off their toes."
Klingler’s informant also stated that inhabitants of 19th and early 20th century Pointe Coupee also believed that the feu follet guarded money hidden under houses.
"Supposedly, if anyone who did not have a 'good heart' dug for the money, the feu follet would move it out of reach or extinguish the digger’s lamp so he could not take the money," Costello wrote.
Costello said Klingler's informant added that there also were stories of the spirits passing through closed doors at night.
In Pointe Coupee, however, if light is, indeed, a spirit, it doesn't stray from McKneely spur.
"When we saw it, it just floated above the railroad track," Dalton said.