No one knows the answer to the mountain’s mystery, including C.W. Smith, who has probably spent as much time around fabled Brown Mountain as anyone alive.
Smith, 67, spent 33 years with the U.S. Forest Service, patrolling the Pisgah National Forest as a federal law enforcement agent beginning in 1966.
He knows every fold of the ridge and is familiar with its marquee mystery, the so-called Brown Mountain Lights.
He grew up in nearby McDowell County in western North Carolina and never much believed the stories about nocturnal flickerings. Then while working one night, he caught sight of what looked like a bonfire on the mountain, but in a place where there were no trails.
“It started going up the mountain, too fast for someone to be using mountain-climbing equipment. It went up to the ridge line and disappeared.”
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