Most of the lore surrounding this mystery light attributes the manifestation to a ghost train, primarily because the light appears near the railroad tracks at Cohoke Crossing near the York River. Thousands of residents claim to have seen the light appear and vanish.

The legend says that the light isn't from the train itself, but from the railroad worker who died in a horrible accident. In 1864 after the battle of Cold Harbor, so the story goes, a train carrying dozens of wounded Confederate soldiers was on its way to West Point.

However the signalman, who was supposed to switch the tracks for the train had fallen asleep (hence the term "asleep at the switch").

He awoke too late when he heard the steam locomotive approaching, and he tried to wave it down with his lantern. However, the train could not stop and ran off the tracks, killing all aboard and decapitating the signalman. The ghost light we see today, they say, is the ghost of that signalman, still waving his lantern in an effort to save the train.