Swamp Gas?
The sightings were widespread and included credible accounts from senators, law enforcement officials, and governors. Soon, J. Allen Hynek – an astrophysicist from Northwestern University – was sent out to Dexter to investigate.
He concluded that the people had “seen something,” but put the sightings down to rotting vegetation in the marshes creating gases that, when released, could produce light and even sound. But the old man’s tale only got weirder from there.