Although the quiet zone, might be one of the creepiest places in the 21st century we have experienced.Īfter realizing that Dairy Queen was going to be our only form of food that night, we ate our burgers and ordered ice cream cones to go. We arrived around 7pm at the Marlinton Motor Inn, had a small “birthday celebration” and decided to head into town for dinner a little before 8pm.ĭon’t get us wrong, West Virginia completely surprised both of us with their hospitality and attractions. We were exhausted and hungry by the time we arrived at the motel. We had just come from Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry which was about a total of 6 hours of driving. We were only staying the night as we planned to head on to The Greenbrier and then back north the following day. It has about 3 traffic lights (we didn’t exactly count) and everything but the Dairy Queen closes at 8pm.
There are two major telescopes that are part of this area and the reason for the restrictions. The zone measures over 13,000 square miles and restricts access to radio wave usage. The quiet zone is an area dedicated towards providing protection of the National radio telescope for both government and scientific purposes. That’s what happened to us on our Road Trip through West Virginia when we didn’t realize we were in a quiet zone until we were literally told we were in a quiet zone. That is until you learn there is no wifi in the motel room and the assistant at the front desk of your hotel informs you that it would cost them over $50,000 to do so. The Quiet Zone is a remarkable work of investigative journalism-at once a stirring ode to place, a tautly-wound tale of mystery, and a clarion call to reexamine the role technology plays in our lives.Entering into a “Quite Zone” can feel like just an ordinary day of cell phone frustration. Kurczy asks: Is a less connected life desirable? Is it even possible? Amongst them all are the ordinary citizens seeking a simpler way of living. There is a tech buster patrolling the area for illegal radio waves “electrosensitives” who claim that WiFi is deadly a sheriff’s department with a string of unsolved murder cases dating back decades a camp of neo-Nazis plotting their resurgence from a nearby mountain hollow. In The Quiet Zone, he introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters. He shopped at the town’s general store, attended church services, went target shooting with a seven-year-old, square-danced with the locals, sampled the local moonshine. Stephen Kurczy embedded in Green Bank, making the residents of this small Appalachian village his neighbors. But a community that on the surface seems idyllic is a place of contradictions, where the provincial meets the seemingly supernatural and quiet can serve as a cover for something darker.
RADIO SILENCE ZONE WEST VIRGINIA FREE
With a ban on all devices emanating radio frequencies that might interfere with the observatory’s telescopes, Quiet Zone residents live a life free from constant digital connectivity.
Green Bank, West Virginia, is a place at once futuristic and old-fashioned: It’s home to the Green Bank Observatory, where astronomers search the depths of the universe using the latest technology, while schoolchildren go without WiFi or iPads. “Captivating.” -Kirkus | “Fascinating, deeply reported, and slightly eerie.” -BookPage (Starred Review) | “The Quiet Zone will live on in your memory.” -Bill McKibbenĪ stunning portrait of an Appalachian community, the people who call it home, and the enduring human quest for quietĭeep in the Appalachian Mountains lies the last truly quiet town in America.