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Oriflamme Mountain (4 miles West of the Butterfield Ranch on Hwy S2)

On dark desert nights, mysterious "ghost lights" often play over the slopes
of Oriflamme ("golden flame") Mountain.

These strange lights have been seen in other parts of the Borrego Desert
as well. Back in th 1880s, miners said that "burning balls" often lit up
the night sky like fireworks over the Vallecito Mountains, in the center
of the park. A "spirit light" that bobbed along nearby San Felipe Creek
in the 1930s was written up in the American Society for Psychical Research's
journal.

For a long time, it was thought that the Oriflamme's lights were signals from
bootleggers. But the mountain is an exposed, barren ridge of little use to
moonshiners, and its glowing balls have long outlived Prohibition.

Others have said that the lights are caused by natural processes. They maintain
that dry desert winds blow sand against quartz outcroppings on the mountain,
and this produces static electricity that lights the dark slopes with
bright flashes. It's a good theory, but it hasn't been proven yet.

Die-hard romantics take a third position. They claim that the glowing orbs
on Oriflamme are "money lights." These are the legendary luminous balls,
most famous in South America, that mark gold veins and buried treasure.
The Borrego desert is probably hiding a few major ore deposits, but nobody's
ever followed the lights to them.

Until somebody does, or until an alternative explanation is proven, the
strange "ghost lights" will remain a mystery.
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