Paulding Light

Reports of the light have appeared since the 1960s, with popular folklore providing such explanations as ghosts, geologic activity, or swamp gas.

[2] According to John Carlisle of the Detroit Free Press, one legend is that it is a "grandparent looking for a lost grandchild with a lantern that needs constant relighting, the reason the light seems to come and go".

[4] While popular folklore attributes paranormal or supernatural explanations for the light, scientific investigations show that it is due to car headlights on the north–south stretch of US 45, approximately five miles (8.0 km) north of the observation area.

They also recreated other observations related to the light, such as multicolored patterns (police flashers) and variations in intensity (high and low beams).

They hypothesized that the stability of an inversion layer allowed the lights to be visible from the stretch of highway 4.5 miles (7.2 km) away.