The Devil's Promenade: Inside the rural Missouri town haunted by mysterious light that even Army engineers are at a loss to explain

Spooklight Road: Southwest Missouri's West 50 road is famous to area people as where Spook Light, a bright and aptly named anomaly

Waiting for light: The Devil's Promenade is an area of southwest Missouri where the rolling hills of the Ozarks give way to the endless flatness of Kansas and Oklahoma

On E50, also known as Spook Road, there's a gathering south of the town of Joplin each year at Halloween, when hopeful visitors and locals alike seek a chance encounter with the Spook Light.

Meanwhile, the cause of the light--which hovers in the sky and is seen to change colors as it moves towards and away from the viewer--remains a mystery.

Even the Army Corps of Engineers once tried to pinpoint the cause of the floating orb. They traveled to the area outside Joplin, a town now known as the 2011 site of a devastating F5 tornado, to study the Spook Light in the early 1940s.

They were unable to come to any conclusions.

Guesses as to its origins run from everyday expulsions of gas from the areas abundant shale deposits to UFOs.

Missouri Ghost Hunters Society catch the Spook Light on camera

Parallels: The series points toward parallels between the Bible Belt area's haunting anomaly and its denizens' struggles to remain in the light, here on Earth and beyond

SPOOK LIGHT, GHOST LIGHT, OR DEVIL'S JACK-O'-LANTERN: A MYSTERY NO MATTER THE NAME

'An authentic guide by Bob': Called the Tri-State Spook Light by this guide, the phenomenon occurs on a rural stretch where the Ozarks flow into the endless, flat stretches of Kansas and Oklahoma

MANY NAMES

The Spook Light can be found south of Joplin, Missouri, a town now better known as the site of a devastating F5 tornado in 2011.

The anomaly is variously called the Spook Light, Ghost Light, Joplin Ghost Light, Ozark Spook Light, Devil's Jack-O'-Lantern, Hornet Ghost Light, and others.

MANY LEGENDS

Like folklore anywhere, the legend of the Spook Light and its origins varies each time its told. Some maintain the light is the torch of a beheaded Quapaw or Osage Indian in search of his lost head.

According to another origin tale, the orbs are the spectral remains of the mutual murder of a native man and a white farmer in the woods.

Others legends say the light is the ghost of a Confederate soldier or that of a decapitated miner.

NO EXPLANATIONS

Despite an attempt in the 1940s by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study the Spook Light, it's true origins remain a mystery.

Some say the lights are the result of gases emerging from the abundant shales in the area.

Others blame reflected car headlights, though official reports date back to an 1881 publication called Ozark Spook Light, well before motor vehicles began passing through the area.

Luminescence from rotting organic matter has also been fingered, as have UFOs.

ONE FORM

While the name and explanations vary, all those who see the Spook Light report it as an orb or several orbs that float on the horizon and can appear to move quite quickly. It is described as being able to change colors from blue to red to gold.

'Its very spooky,' said local Mary Roundtree. 'It looks like a light way far off, and then its right on you.'

Roundtree said she saw the light as a kid when she and her parents were lured to E50 out of curiosity.

'My heart was just pounding and it was up in my throat and I thought my head was going to explode and my hands got all cold,' she said.

Local legend has it that the first to see the lights were the local Quapaw Indians, and some stories saw the light is actually the tormented spirits of two Quapaw lovers run off a cliff by an angry Chieftan.

Other folklore says the light is the torch of a Quapaw or Osage Indian who was beheaded and is searching for his head. Still others maintain it's the spirit of a decapitated miner or Confederate soldier in search of his lost head.

And for every story behind the lights, there's another name for them. It has been referred to as the Hornet Ghost Light, Devil's Jack-O'-Lantern, Ozark Spook Light, and Joplin Ghost Light.

Regardless of the tale behind it or its proper name, the locals who've seen the phenomenon are adamant it is real.

Roberta Williams from Carthage, Missouri has seen the light and told her story to Mysterious Universe.

Cabin in the woods: Everyone in Newton County has a tale about the light, which some insist is a brilliant red, while others say its a bright blue

Tattooed: A local shows off his devil tattoos. Artists Antone Dolezal and Lara Shipley portray a haunting landscape and the indelible mark it leaves on its inhabitants

‘It was before midnight,’ she said. ‘It was like a big, huge ball with a yellow glow and it went right straight through our car. I just screamed.’

Mary Roundtree, a local historian, told NPR she's seen the light, too.

'Its very spooky,' she said. 'It looks like a light way far off, and then its right on you.'

Roundtree said she saw the light as a kid when she and her parents were lured to E50 out of curiosity.

'My heart was just pounding and it was up in my throat and I thought my head was going to explode and my hands got all cold,' she said.

And like almost everyone else whose seen the bobbing orb, she has her own variation of the tale that's behind it.

According to Roundtree, a old Indian man came across some dead bodies in the woods where the Spook now appears. After he buried them, a white farmer came by carrying a lantern. The two killed one another but the light of the lantern still hangs there as an apparition.

The Devil’s Promenade is as dedicated to the the inhabitants of the rural, impoverished area as it is to the Spook Light. The series paints a vivid picture of both the haunting landscape and the fascinating people who populate it.

'We feel the frequent and mysterious appearance of the Spook Light has come to represent for the people we meet a desire for redemption and the fear of slipping into darkness,' write Shipley and Dolezal. 'Our aim is not to provide documentation, but to suggest a narrative that, in the spirit of the light, is part fixed in this unique region and part afloat in a mysterious, otherworldly realm.'

'We feel the frequent and mysterious appearance of the Spook Light has come to represent for the people we meet a desire for redemption and the fear of slipping into darkness,' write Shipley and Dolezal