Evening star., 1954-04-28
Arizona Has Its Own
'Specter of Broecken'
Tower Reflected on Clouds
With q Rainbow Halo
By Thomos R. Henry

The American Southwest has its own
"specter Of the Broecken."
This strange phenomenon, also re-
ported occasionally by Army flyers in
the Pacific during the war, now is be-
ing seen quite frequently over the
southern part Of the Grand Canyon in
Arizona. according to two communica-
tionS to the American Association for
the Advancement Of Science here.
Hitherto the "specter" generally has
been known only in Thuringia. Tower
ing over the haunted Thuringian forests
is the barren topped Broecken, highest
of the Hartz Mountains. A person look
ing from the summit sees-if condi-
tions are right-a gigantic image of
himself projected on the clouds below
with the head surrounded by rainbow
colored halo.
Naturally this has contributed to
superstition. For centuries after the
introduction of Christianity the old
Teutonic pagan rites were continued
on the Broecken. 1t was the headquar-
ters Of the witchcraft cult through the
Middle Ages. There is placed the Wal
purgis night scene in Faust.
Revival of Rites in War.
There was some revival of these rites
during the last war when Thuringia
was the center of the pagan revival en-
couraged by the Nazis as an offset to
Christianity. Not far away at Bad
Frankenhausen was the weird pagan
temple captured by the American I'd
Division near the end of the war
uyhn IN Mo
had taken place the marriage of Hitler
and Eva Braun.
Numerous efforts have been made to
provide an adequate scientific explana-
ton for the phenomenon but none
has been entirely successful. Pre-
sumably quite complicated optics is
involved. The same is true of the
Arizona "ghoSt." Here the observer
does not see his own greatly magnified
figure surrounded by halo but the
figure of the watch tower at an eleva-
ton of $500 feet projected on clouds
filling the canyon 200 feet below and
nine miles away. The Specter was first
observed two years ago by the watch
tower supervisor, Charles Farmer. Since
then it has been reported by Louis
Shellback and E. T. Christensen, park
naturalistS. It also has been described
by various tourists.
The Specter is described as more i'm
preSSive even than that of the Hartz-
massive and extremely beautiful with
its rainbow halo, yellow on the inside
and shading through red and purple.
The phenomenon can be observed, how
ever. only when conditions are pre-
cisely right and. since the precise cause
is unknown, these never can be pre-
dicted.
Apparently. however, the appearance
requires that the cloud formation in
the canyon be of precisely the right
depth and made up of particles of pre-
cisely the right dimensions. The top
of the cloud bank must be white and
of sufficient thickness to act as a screen
for the shadow.
Sunlight Reflected.
A certain amount of sunlight pene-
trates this cloud and is reflected back
from the inside. This reflected light
is diffracted by the particles near the
surface, if they happen to be of the
right size and in the right pattern.
The diffraction is believed to be re-
sponsible for the strange rainbow halo.
This explanation first was advanced
by the late DR.. William j. Humphreys
of the United States Weather Bureau,
who pointed out that a somewhat sim
liar phenomenon sometimes is seen on
an early summer morning with dew on
the grass. The shadow of ones head
is seen surrounded by halo-by the
person himself and nobody else The
Hbertlne Casanova saw this once, i'm
mediately proclaimed that he had been
made saint, and sent out challenges
for duels to those who expressed some
doubts.
Flyers in the Pacific during the war
occasionally saw the shadows of their
planes surrounded by rainbowlike
halos. and the phenomenon was in
terpreted as prophetic of both good
and bad luck, largely according to the
mood Of the witness.