The Spook Light Again

Back in September, I attended the annual conference of the Missouri Writers' Guild in Columbia, where Sandy Selby, editor of Missouri Life Magazine, was one of the speakers. I talked briefly with her before her presentation, and I remarked that my very first article for Missouri Life was published many years ago, 1977 to be exact, and that it was about the Tri-State Spook Light. She said that maybe it was time for an update, but I haven't followed through on the suggestion, because I haven't decided how to approach such an article or whether I even want to try. 

My latest book, published in January of this year, was about the Spook Light, and I'm not sure I have much more to say about it at this time. I guess my main hesitation is just that, as I discuss in the book, the Spook Light is no longer the attraction it once was.  

Oh, there are still a steady trickle of curiosity seekers who make their way to the out-of-the-way spot about twelve miles southwest of Joplin where the Spook Light, if conditions are right, makes its nightly appearance. Maybe half a dozen cars, give or take, might find their way to Spook Light Road on any given night, but that is nowhere near the number that used to frequent the road back in the 1970s when I first got interested in the light or even in the 1980s and early 1990s. Sometimes there would be as many as a couple of hundred cars over the course of one night, especially on weekends. 

The light lost some of its allure when both Spook Light Road and State Line Road were paved. Without looking the information up, I'd say that happened in the early nineties. About the same time, law officers, in response to complaints of rowdiness from people living in the area, started patrolling the vicinity more often. Also, Spooky Middleton, who used to run the so-called Spook Light Museum, retired about 1982 and died shortly afterwards, and no one stepped up to take his place. Because of all these factors, a trip to the Spook Light just lost a little of its rustic, magical appeal. 

I think another reason the Spook Light is not the attraction it once was is simply the fact that it's harder to see nowadays than it used to be. At least, that has been my experience. As I mention in the book, I attribute this phenomenon mainly to the fact that the trees on either side of Spook Light Road have been rather drastically cut back, thereby reducing the tunnelling effect that the V those overhanging trees used to create. Looking to the west along Spook Light Road (as almost all viewers did) was almost like looking down the sights of a gun, but that is no longer the case. Everything is more wide-open, which, I think, makes it harder to see the light or distinguish it if and when you do see it.

At any rate, I'm balking on trying to write a new article about the Spook Light, but it's still something I'm mulling over.