Weird West Texas: What is the story of Lubbock Lights?
On a warm summer evening in 1951, three professors from Texas Technological College witnessed a group of peculiar lights moving in a V-formation across the sky over Lubbock.
In the subsequent weeks, residents from various parts of the city reported similar sightings, describing clusters of luminous lights flying at low altitudes, exhibiting high speeds and making abrupt changes in direction.
This phenomenon, known as the Lubbock Lights, remains unsolved even after more than 70 years, standing as one of the most renowned UFO sightings in our nation's history. And now, it leads as the genesis of hundreds of UFO sightings in West Texas.
As part of the series, we explore some of the most odd, eccentric and just plain weird things in our region — from the state's northernmost town of Hitchland down into the Big Country, eastward to the Rolling Plains and all the way to El Paso.
This week, we’re exploring the story behind one of the nation's most famous UFO sightings, the Lubbock Lights.
Lubbock Lights
After spotting the UFOs, the three Texas Tech professors — who a U.S. Air Force investigator named as A.G. Oberg, chemical engineer; W.L. Ducker, a department head and petroleum engineer; and W.I. Robinson, a geologist — reported the sighting both to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and the federal government, propelling the Lubbock Lights incident into national publicity and its subsequent investigation by the U.S. Air Force.
Nationally published author Jerome Clark, who writes about UFO spottings, reported that three local women, whose names are unknown, also reported "peculiar flashing lights" in the sky on the same night. According to Clark, weeks later in a separate experience, a professor named Grayson Mead shared a similar experience, telling him had tol that the lights "appeared to be about the size of a dinner plate and they were greenish-blue, slightly fluorescent in color."
"They were smaller than the full moon at the horizon," he added. "There were about a dozen to fifteen of these lights... they were absolutely circular... it gave all of us... an extremely eerie feeling."
Ducker's wife had also noted she has observed a "huge soundless flying wing" pass over house. Captain Edward J. Rupert, who spearheaded the investigation and led Project Blue Book, a government initiative focused on unidentified aerial phenomena, believed at least some of the sightings were a "flying wing" jet bomber, though he had no reasoning behind why the wing made no sound as it flew overhead.
Rupert had also initially concluded that the incident involved a flock of mountain plovers in flight, illuminated by the new street lights. Some witnesses supported the claim, including T.E. Snider, who alleged that he had observed birds flying over the drive-in, and their undersides were reflecting in the light.
Mead denied that probability from the beginning, stating that the lights "went over so fast... that we wished we could have had a better look," though it's essential to note that this species' migration through this region coincides with this August-September timeline historically.
Regardless of its origin, the phenomenon known as the Lubbock Lights gained widespread recognition. It was featured in Life Magazine in April 1952, and later covered by KDFW in November 1999. Additionally, it was the subject of documentaries for the Sci Fi Channel in 2002 and the History Channel's Project Blue Book in 2019. The term "Lubbock Lights" also inspired various cultural references, such as the alternative country band Thrift Store Cowboys' song of the same name, and a popular beer at the local Two Docs brewery in the city's arts district.
Heard a different tale about this topic? Send it our way — we'd love to hear it! Or if you're curious about one of our region's many oddities, submit your question via email to BAddison@gannett.com with "Weird West Texas" in the subject line or via text at 806.496.4073
Read other Weird West Texas stories here and find "Weird West Texas: The Podcast" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Omny Studio.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: What is the story of Lubbock Lights?
