Our forefathers were far more familiar with the night sky than most of us in modern times.

There was a brilliance to behold that we rarely find today. “Light pollution” produced by our towns and cities diminish the glory of the heavens above. Nevertheless, the dazzling display that stretched across the earth’s atmosphere the evening of Sept. 1, 1859, propelled an unusual sense of wonder in everyone who chanced to look up that night.

The ethereal presentation that danced from the distant northern horizon to the very edge of space was surly a wonder to behold.

The exhibition inspired “the poet” in journalists across the country. The editor of the Weekly Atchison Champion noted that the moon “with a new coat of silver, rode high in the west, while in the north and northeast pure, pearly white overlaid the blue — then deepened to an orange — then turned to a crimson till it looked like the pillar of fire in the wilderness, or a daguerreotype (photograph) of sunset.”

The wonder of the experience left all who witnessed it astonished.

The Atchison editor marveled, “What they were doing up aloft, is more than we know; whether rehearsing sunset or sunrise, “shifting scenes” for the never before performed drama of “Tomorrow,” or spreading out rainbows on the upper decks to dry is a mystery”

The editor continued, “Now and then, white, silvery looking spars (poles) were lifted up from the northern horizon, and converted in the zenith; and it occurred to us, that, may be, they were repairing this great blue tent we live under, and that we saw the bare spars and the red linings of the curtains that were thrown up to keep them out of the way of aerial craftsman.”

The writer wondered i perhaps someone “we once knew and loved” had opened “Heaven’s painted window ... giving us, without the walls, a glimpse of the glory within.” He could not contain his admiration. “How beautiful and how calm lay that earth beneath the great Argus sky!”

The editor of the rival Atchison Union related the midair performance to a “festive gathering” that was taking place at a saloon in Atchison’s Massasoit House.

“The capacious saloon was crowded with the beauty and fashion ... and all were as ‘merry as a marriage bell.’ The night seemed to have been made for the occasion, for while the gay saloon was lit up by the flashes of beauty, the whole world, was made twi-light by the mysterious rays of the Aurora ...”

The Union editor observed that the revelers “reigned supreme” as the “Merry Dancers” were holding their own revels in the night sky.

All who witnessed that uncommon event recognized the characteristics known universally as the Northern lights, or the Aurora Borealis. But it was also evident that this exhibition was magnified beyond anything ever known. The sky began perfectly clear and as stars sparkled in the stillness “the Northern and Eastern heavens” reddened, filling the air with an awesome electricity.

The occurrence was not limited to Kansas. A telegraph operator in the Harrisburg, Pa. office happened to touch the wire and was thrown by a violent shock across the room. Telegraph systems failed while others operated without their batteries, taking power fro the electrically charged air. Around the world electrical curiosities caused telegraph equipment to shower sparks shock operators, and s papers ablaze. Unbelievably, the phenomenon was seen in both the northern and southern hemispheres with reports coming from Europe and Australia at the same time.

At Fort Scott, Kan., the editor of the Bullet noted that at one time the wondrous display, “had the appearance of vast dome of fire, the flashes of light shining out upon the surrounding darkness, until the sun at noonday became dim in comparison.”

This was no ordinary Aurora Borealis.

The Atchison Champion editor knew he was witnessing a singular event. “It was unlike the Aurora Borealis. The bow was inverted, and the light much stronger. At one o’clock, a person could read by its light.”

The solar superstorm was later explained by Englishman Richard Carrington, an amateur astronomer who, from his observatory near London, witnessed two patches of intense light erupt from the sun the morning of September 1st. Hours later the electrified gas and subatomic particles surged over our entire planet. The solar storm became known as the Carrington Event, a singular event like nothing ever seen by modern man. That wondrous night in 1859 was indeed a night for “Merry Dancers” on The Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, KS. Contact Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st Road, Geneseo, Kan. Phone: (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.