"I have been to the overlook myself. The valley in which the lights appear are several hundred feet nearly straight down. The overlook has a high wall that runs its entire length in an effort to protect people from falling. There are no roads or organized recreational areas in the dense growth surrounding the Piney River down in the valley. That's where the mysterious moving lights have appeared and been described by locals since at least the 1800s."
--
Linda Moulton Howe
Reporter and Editor
Earthfiles.com 5/6/04
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My first visit to the Dover Lights location occurred in the spring of 1995 after at least two years of hearing about a public location in the woods of Arkansas where anomalous lights could be seen frequently throughout the year. My delay in visiting the site was only due to the difficulty of obtaining accurate location data from UFO investigators that had themselves visited the site and declared the phenomena to be, in their opinion, genuine (i.e. an event with no conventional explanation) although no explanation of their process for reaching this conclusion was evident. No specific data was supplied, no pictures, no electromagnetic or compass readings were referred to nor was any true investigative process used as a basis for their conclusions, as far as I could tell.

Entering into my own investigation of this site with an open mind, it was a still developing fact that virtually all of the other spook or ghost light public viewing locations I investigated in the mid-90s period turned out to have rather obvious and mundane explanations when the location was mapped using standard measurement equipment.

My overall investigative goal through the nineties was to collect precision mapping and anomalous field measuring equipment to properly investigate anomalous activity that appeared repeatedly at some locations, namely those listed in an article related to the Vestigia Project study of the Hookerman Light seen near Bartley NJ. One of their investigators had put together a list of about seventy locations from around the world where lights have been seen more or less regularly for many years. The location information had been culled from magazines such as Fate and other books, periodicals and personal communications.

While any one sighting of anomalous lights or a UFO would initially be considered random and available for study only after the fact, any location with as little as two sightings to its name would instantly stand out as important because a serious investigator might be able to visit that location and have a slightly better than zero chance of having a sighting of his or her own and be able to document the event in extreme detail for post-event analysis using state-of-the-art equipment. To this end I have studied at specific locations in these states (no particular order): IL (3), IN (3), AR (2), CO (2), NJ (1), NY (1), VA (2), AL (1), NC (1), TN ( 2), MO (5), AZ (1) and WI (1). These are just the locations I've personally visited for investigative purposes. My list of supposed light locations is much larger than the original seventy locations but the difficulty of study has increased also. Many spooklight sites have been destroyed by human development such as taking up railroad rails or the building of houses. In almost every case, local observers said the lights, if seen at all, were certainly much less frequent, so studies become a race against time and the loss of a resource.

So much for how I got involved in what I'm doing and how I'm doing it. At least the reader can be assured that if I do reach a conclusion at Dover or anywhere else, it is because an actual documented investigation or collection of data has taken place.

The "Dover Lights" are viewed from a stone-walled dirt road pull off in the Ozark National Forest Piney Wildlife Management Area located in Pope county. Using a detailed map such as a Ozark NF map, AR Gazetteer map book or a good digital mapping program like DeLorme's Street Atlas or Topo 5 ( but NOT just a highway map - far too little detail to be useful), locate the spot using these instructions:

From the Dover AR SR 7 intersection, travel 12.3 miles N on SR 7 then turn left (W) on Old 7 Hwy.  Drive 1.4 mi.then turn right (NW) on Treat Rd. (Maupin Flat Rd./NF road 1805).  Drive 2.1 mi. following road around curves (past NF 1803/ Pearson Point Rd. at 1.8 mi.) and arrive at The Narrows overlook. (3D map of area.)

The gravel road Narrows pull off gives an expansive view of a horseshoe turn in the Big Piney river which is at this point 1,000' below the observer and in a due west direction. The overlook has a sharp drop off just in front of it so the investigation at this point becomes (daytime) taking pictures of the view, establishing compass readings for landmarks and (nighttime) interviewing observers and taking readings with lighted EM meters and a lighted compass while lights are seen.

Speaking to local observers at the site was easy since this is an area hangout for teenagers as are most other supposed spooklight locations. The view is completely dark except for lights in the distance which match descriptions of most but not all sightings. Some sightings are described to be greenish lights seen just a hundred or so feet out from the stone wall and floating slowly for extended periods of time. No pictures, to my knowledge,  have been taken of the lights since most cameras are too insensitive to light at the distances involved (Ted's picture discussed later was taken at dusk).

The lights, seen when I arrived at the location my first night, were of three distinct types: 1) one or more boiling, flickering orange fixed location lights seen originating from somewhere in the distance, 2) a flickering bluish mercury vapor-like fixed location light seen in the distance, and, 3) greenish lights with a bright center and a greenish surrounding glow seen in the same general location as the other two types of lights. I took lighted compass readings to establish a map position for plotting on map printouts I had prepared prior to my visit.

The nighttime field of view is virtually black unless a moon is present and no other fixed position lights are seen to compare with the peculiar and at this point anomalous lights I saw. When I got back to the motel I was staying at and plotted my sight direction compass readings, my high hopes of finally identifying a sighting spot with legitimate unknown phenomena sunk beneath my shoes. The sighting lines for all three types of lights shot westward to intercept a campground map symbol in the 5,300' distance below. For the 600 mile drive and time/money resources spent, this was not looking good.

A daytime trip and pictures, (Dover1b ,view at stone wall pulloff looking toward West, and Dover2b ,view at stone wall pulloff looking toward WestNorthWest, form a panorama of the Narrows pulloff view) confirm what I was already guessing: the orange light(s) were campfires seen through trees over the Long Pool campground; the bluish light was from a yard light mounted near the bathrooms and the greenish lights were from fisherman in boats on the pooled water just below the campground area who were using lanterns to attract fish. (See Dover3c, daylight closeup of river area that appears to match; campground in trees at upper left). All this was personally confirmed when I navigated a day visit to the NF campground (six sites so it is pretty small but scenic) and watched from the overlook at nightfall to see the light sources turn on as expected the next night. Match the pictures with a map of the immediate area. (See 60e51e,  map of area viewed by Dover1b showing campground LMH denied exists.)

The local observers confirmed these were the lights most commonly seen. Other UFO/anomaly investigators have argued to this day that I'm wrong about these findings but they provide no proof of any kind to back up their claims that ALL lights seen here are anomalous. Ted Phillips and Linda Moulton Howe are two of the better known persons I'm referring to but others have rejected the documented facts as we know them so far out-of-hand. Most recently, Linda Howe posted a Dover Lights picture taken by Ted Phillips to her website April a year ago (2004). (See DoverLightsHeadline picture.)  Since I'm not one of her website members, I could not convince her to allow me a view of the article to confirm or reject the claims that the picture represented legitimate anomalous phenomena.

An AR friend of mine reached the same conclusions I have reached about the Dover Lights by independent means. He recently stated he thought that Ted's picture had been flipped or mis-positioned on LMH's website. On looking at my area pictures, my own opinion is that the picture is correctly oriented and represents the headlights of ATVs since they can reach the northern river bank by using trails running down from the western Waldo Mtn. ridge. My area reconnaissance included trying to find all the far side river access points so I could reach light generation sites for more direct measurements if the sightings proved legitimate. I navigated all the way around the area and found all the access points noted on my detailed topographic maps. ATVs were travelling the trails while I was there so their access to the river from both sides, as shown in Ted's picture, was obvious.

My personal communication with Linda did not elicit any useful or pertinent data since her comment was simply the one quoted at the beginning of this investigation summary.

My conclusion is that none of the light sources I saw turned out to be anomalous though I cannot explain what was not seen at the time I was there so the case remains somewhat open. If some sightings are indeed legitimate, one possible cause could be the seismic stress built up on a mineralized area fault that slices directly from the overlook right down due west to the river level, one of the interesting facts about the area no one else has bothered to look up.

Proper investigation takes work and the proper equipment. Short cuts do not exist here. If a person claims to be an investigator, then makes a claim concerning a case, there is a responsibility to have actually gathered measured data to prove the claims made. True investigation is the gathering of data with an open mind, then the drawing of a conclusion based on the data finishes the process. The quality of the data collected will then be subject to scrutiny by others and rightly so. This is how investigative methods improve and advance for future investigations. In any case, now you know how to get to the Dover Lights. Have a look for yourself!

Gary Hart