BURKE COUNTY, N.C. -- For years we've heard the tales of the mysterious lights seen by people at Brown Mountain in Burke County. But now, two scientists at Appalachian State University have video of the lights caught on camera, flashing one night last month.
Over 10 years of research on the Brown Mountain lights left Dr. Daniel Caton ready to call it quits.
"I was getting beyond skeptical," Caton said. "I was cynical about it."
He and Observatory Engineer Lee Hawkins are scientists at App State who are looking for physical evidence of the lights so many have claimed to see. About three years ago, they installed cameras on the roof of a house, hoping to capture some proof that the legendary lights do exist.
"They take a number of 30-second images every night consistently from dusk until dawn," Hawkins said.
Millions of images with nothing to show-- until the night of July 16.
"Suddenly we had this video that both cameras caught this light over the mountain that direction," Caton said. "It was something we really couldn't explain."
Burke County Director of Tourism Ed Phillips saw the lights in person years ago.
"Yes, finally!" Phillips said. "Finally, we have something."
Finally, there's proof of the lights he and others have claimed to see.
"They're vindicated," Phillips said. "It's given them credibility to what they've seen."
Caton says the next steps are to figure out what they are, what correlation the lights have to this specific place and why they only show up on rare occasions.
"We know there's something," Phillips said, "What is it? We don't know."
Still unsolved, this mystery continues.