Great balls of fire

Great balls of fire
Posted on 10-31-2015 | Location: West Texas

As previously mentioned, many, many events occurred in and around this West Texas ghost town during our 8 year tenure. While I had experienced the same type of events during my childhood, my husband was always skeptical. In my early childhood, the town was like any other small American town with a park, barbershop, hotel (The Youngblood Hotel), two small grocery stores and several cafes and gas stations.

Through the years, especially after the school was consolidated, the town folk began to move away to bigger and better places looking for work. By the time we arrived in 2005, the place was all but abandoned with only a few families remaining. Several of my family members were among them; including my eldest brother whom we had gone to care for as he was very ill. My brother had been responsible for the care of the family ranch and upon his passing we decided to stay and assume those duties. As a Consultant, I travel quite a bit so the work fell on my husband who was happy to be away from the "noise pollution" of big city life.

One winter evening, he decided to camp out on the top of a hill at the ranch, with a nice bonfire, barbecue pork chops, and hot coffee. After his meal, he was sitting back enjoying the cool crisp air and the magnificent view of the stars when suddenly, from the west, six (6) large orbs appeared (about the size of a car). They seemed to be travelling in unison and came quite rapidly in his direction. Knowing that there were no roads and much cacti and mesquite brush all around, it seemed odd that someone could be traversing the landscape so easily. So, as most ranchers do, he grabbed his gun and waited to see if they would make it to the top of the hill. He was watching them moving below and to the west of his location. Almost as if by command, the orbs stopped right at the ranch fence and split into three; moving in two different directions.

Three went north and three went south and then once past the fence line, they completely disappeared as if someone had turned off a switch. Just as he was trying to determine what he had just witnessed, he looked up and realized a large portion of the sky was now obscured by some very large object about a mile in diameter! He heard no sound and had goosebumps running down his body. When he realized that stars were shining on either side of the dark mass, and behind it they were reappearing as it moved, he put out the fire, jumped in his truck and drove home as quickly as possible!

On his way home, he called me at my Dallas hotel room excitedly relating the evening's events. I tried my best to calm him down and he finally settled into the fact that this was just one of the many type of "hauntings" in and around this ghost town. It didn't help that the ranch has three unmarked graves! So, this is just one more story regarding our stay in Toyah, Texas. Once a great little town, it now has more folks in the three graveyards than are living around them!