The Bingham Light
Witness: Derrick Farrier
Location: Hamer, South Carolina
Date of Encounter: 2010-2013
I don’t know the true story behind this light because there are so many variations. Supposedly in the 1800s in Bingham, South Carolina, a man named John or Bill was killed by a train one night while carrying a lantern. His spirit is walking around in the area and the light that you see swinging is his lantern. Many people around my region have been talking about this light for years, and I’ve been wanting to go see it for a long time.
The people that see it says that you call out the man’s name, then the light will appear after some time and chase you. So one night I finally went to see for myself. Around 7pm on this night, my two friends and I arrived there. The site we went to (there supposed to be about three points in the area where you can see it) is down a long and very dark dirt road called S. Butler Road, then out in front of a huge corn field (it is so large that the front of the field is about a good mile or two away from the edge of the woods).
First let me tell you about the area. It’s so dark and rural out there that once you turn off your car headlights you can’t see anything. The surrounding woods are dark as coal at night, and being as it was cloudy tonight, it made it unnaturally dark. We got out of my friend’s truck and scanned the area, then after about three minutes I suggested that we do what the legend said and call out his name, “John Bingham.” We did that several times real loud until it echoed out into the woods. About a minute or so later we looked out into the field near the edge of the woods and see a very faint flash. We had to look carefully for several minutes because it wasn’t an ordinary light and it was hard to see. We thought that the dark was playing tricks on our eyes.
The light didn’t glow like a normal light does. It was just a soft, faint blue-cream ball. It showed itself in flashes — like a radio tower light — and moved in an erratic side-to-side motion, which will freak you out in itself because it doesn’t float in a straight line. It flashes in different places, but still in a swinging motion. It’s so faint off in the distance that it will have your eyes playing tricks on you, until it gets closer in view!
Also another point: the light doesn’t just float in the air at random heights. I noticed that it floats at a steady five feet or so, so I’m guessing that is how tall the man was.
When we finally realized what it was, we noticed that it was coming toward us from the edge of the woods to out in the middle of the field. Within seconds it was getting closer and closer. When we see that, we ran back to the truck and were about to drive off, but we decided that we should do it again for the thrill. So we got back out and called his name again. This time it took about five minutes or so before the light came out, and it did the same thing, except moving a little faster this time around. We ran to the truck again and waited about 10 minutes then we decided to see it a third time. However, we saw a truck coming far up the road so we got out of there because we didn’t know who it was.
I mean, what I don’t understand is how a lantern can have a spirit form. I can understand the man’s spirit still roaming, but his lantern having a spirit form too? I just don’t get that, but all I know is that it’s out there. If you just happened to be walking in that area at night- – which I doubt anyone would as dark as it is — and you see that thing coming, it would freak you out. It’s not like some horror film type of thing, but it’s real freaky.
That was my first encounter. I went back and saw it a second time. This time around it was just one friend and I. The moon was full and bright on this particular night. My friend and I stayed out in the area for maybe a half-hour calling it. We even went as far as cussing at it, but it did not come out regardless. I told my friend about this path that is supposed to be in the middle of the field and leads back up into the woods near where the man was supposedly killed. So we finally got the guts to walk the path. We called the light all the while thinking that it would come out being as we were closer, but it still didn’t appear, so we turned around about half-way and walked to the other side of the field at the intersection. When we got about half-way up, we saw the light coming toward us in the middle of the field, but it disappeared and would not come out again. Strange. That was my second encounter.
At this current time of writing this post, I have since been out to there a good 10 times between 2010-2013, but only saw it those first two times.