The Cohoke Light is a reported ghost light in King William County, Virginia near West Point. The light has been frequently sighted along a stretch of

Virginia State Route 632 State Route 632 (SR 632) in the U.S. state of Virginia is a secondary route designation applied to multiple discontinuous road segments among the many counties. The list below describes the sections in each county that are designated SR 632. Li ...

, where Mt. Olive Cohoke Road crosses the

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...

. The light typically appears a distance of several hundred yards from the railroad crossing, approaching noiselessly while increasing in brightness. Its presence attracted large numbers of spectators from around the state throughout the 1960s and 1970s hoping to catch a glimpse of the light. Several paranormal theories have been advanced for the origin of the Cohoke Light. In one legend, a train loaded with wounded

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

soldiers departed from

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

after an 1864 battle, intending to evacuate its passengers to West Point, but never arrived. Another story describes the light as the lantern of a railroad worker decapitated in a nineteenth-century train accident as he searches for his missing head. These fanciful legends are likely not based in fact; there are no records of railroad decapitations near West Point, and during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

Confederate forces in the area retreated away from West Point in the direction of Richmond, the opposite of what was described in the legend. Furthermore, the earliest accounts of the Cohoke Light date to the 1950s, long after the commonly-accepted origin stories. By 2014, appearances of the Cohoke Light had become extremely rare.

References

External links

* – Recollections of the Cohoke Light, collected circa 2001. Reportedly haunted locations in Virginia Atmospheric ghost lights Weather lore Environment of Virginia UFO-related phenomena Unexplained phenomena {{Virginia-stub