The Incident
On July 14, 2015, at about 10:30 p.m., three people set out in a private car from Wells toward Ely, Nevada, along a straight, dark highway. A few miles from town, they spotted a distant light that at first seemed to come from another vehicle. They initially thought it was an ordinary car, but the light began moving closer and shifted to the left of the road, as if it were hovering above the ground.
The light continued moving from left to right, leaving a glowing trail behind it. At times, it flickered on and off, and its shape changed, shifting from a bright disk to a dark purple, cone-shaped form as wide as a traffic lane. Several times, another vehicle passed near the light. It went out as the vehicle’s headlights fell on it, leaving the observer able to see only the silhouette of the glowing disk.
At one point during the sighting, three lights were seen over the field to the left of the road. Two disappeared, while the third seemed to return toward the road, swaying from side to side just a few yards away. Several more vehicles traveling in the opposite direction appeared to vanish as they drew near the light, while others continued on without interruption.
The incident lasted about 20 minutes. As the group continued toward Ely, the light disappeared completely. They recorded the event on video, but the footage was so dark that it revealed no further details.
Context and Significance
Nevada’s desert is known for its broad, open roads, which offer excellent visibility at night. Unexplained lights over the landscape are not uncommon in the area, but this case stands out for the combination of reported phenomena: the light’s horizontal movement, its changing shape, its persistent trail, and its apparent interaction with other vehicles that seemed to disappear as they approached it.
The report is documented in the NUFORC database, but there is no corroborating evidence, so it remains an unverified eyewitness report. Still, it offers material for research into unexplained lights in open areas and could inform discussion of possible atmospheric phenomena, laser-beam reflections, or other optical effects.
Summary
The account describes in detail a disk-shaped light seen from several points along a desert highway. It left a trail of light and changed in shape and brightness. Despite the uncertainty, it adds to the long record of eyewitness accounts of unexplained lights across the United States.
