Music

Hi, everyone. It's time for another story from

2001 Heroes, Legends, Histories, and Mysteries podcast. This is your host, John

Hagdorn, and I have a legend and a mystery for you today. Tonight's story, the

other Friday Night Lights takes place in Texas, and involves a story about a very

unusual Texas phenomenon called the Marful Lights, M-A-R-F-A, which were first

witnessed by a rancher back in 1883, and they still continue today. The story of

the Marful Lights is full of urban legend and accounts, and makes great subject

matter for some storytelling here. Meanwhile, my title, The Other Friday Night

Lights, was inspired by the title of H.G. Bissinger's book, Friday Night Lights,

A Town, A Team, and A Dream. A monster bestseller that inspired an Academy of

World-winning movie, followed by a very popular television series. The story

centers around the economically depressed town of Odessa, Texas, and their

heroic high school football team, The Panthers, and what a story it is. If you

drive south west from Odessa, which is about a two-hour and forty-five minute

drive, you'll reach Marfa, a small desert town in West Texas, not far from the

Mexican border. Population around 2000, and it's known best for what is commonly

called the Marful Lights phenomenon, which you can watch most nights from a viewing

platform that was built nine miles east of town, on the south side of

around 90 near an abandoned air base. Watching from here, you're looking

across the Mitchell flats to the Chinatown Mountains about about fifty miles

distant, and it's from here that thousands of curious watchers are able to

...