As you approach the small town of Green Bank in West Virginia, signs warn that you are entering the ‘Quiet Zone’ - an area where cellphones and Wi-Fi are banned.
It’s one of the few places on Earth where people are not connected 24 hours a day, and has become a Mecca for people tired of the modern worldand ‘electrosensitive’ folks who believe they suffer symptoms caused by Wi-Fi and cellphones.
The reason for the 'silence', electronically speaking, is the enormous satellite dishes at Green Bank, West Virginia, which include the largest steerable radio telescope in the world, the Robert C Byrd Green Bank Telescope.
`Anything which might interfere with the radio telescope is banned.
A new documentary, Small Town Universe, which premiered in New York this week, and a recent book The Quiet Zone explore the town and its mysteries - including local rumors about secrets buried under the mountain .
It’s one of the few places on Earth where people are not connected 24 hours a day, and has become a Mecca for people tired of the modern world and ‘electrosensitive’ folks who believe they suffer symptoms caused by Wi-Fi and cellphones
The town's radio telescopes mean that Wi-Fi is banned
The film's director, Katie Dellamaggiore, said she was inspired to make it after the birth of her second child, feeling that she was relying too much on her cellphone to stay in touch with friends.
She asked her husband if a town without cellphones existed.
She said: 'I did what we all do and Googled it, "Is there a town without cell phones?, and that's how I discovered Green Bank, West Virginia.
'The town's unique, unplugged lifestyle immediately caught my attention.
'It was even more intriguing that scientists use the Green Bank Telescope to explore some of science's biggest mysteries, like how the universe began and whether there's intelligent life beyond Earth.
The reason for the 'silence', electronically speaking, is the enormous satellite dishes at Green Bank, West Virginia
Locals have adapted to the lack of Wi-Fi and cellphones
Wi-Fi and cellphones are banned in the small town
'The residents of this tiny Appalachian town aren't connected in most modern ways, but over time, I observed a more profound connection they shared, bonded by the pursuit of scientific knowledge.'
She said that while making the film she learned to rely less on her cellphone - and now relishes boredom as 'me time'.
The telescopes sit in a four-mile valley surrounded by 4,800-foot mountains which create a natural barrier and shut out the ‘noise’ of the world.
Operating any electrical equipment which causes interference to the telescopes is illegal, punishable by a state fine usually of around $50 per violation.
The area near the telescope (including the 250-inhabitant town of Green Bank) is the most strictly regulated area of the Quiet Zone.
Stores coat their exterior in conductive lead paint in order to be allowed to use wireless inventory scanners.
The telescopes, at the Green Bank Observatory, founded in 1956, pioneered the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).
Dr Frank Drake, the founder of SETI, first began looking for aliens with the Green Bank telescope
In 1959, the Observatory’s ‘Ozma’ project began to search for radio emissions ‘created by intelligent beings on other planets’.
There are other radio ‘quiet zones’ around the world, but Green Bank is a living community of 250 people - locals refer to themselves as ‘mountain people’ while outsiders are ‘flatlanders’ or ‘come-heres’.
Going to Walmart is a 100-mile round trip over some of the area’s tallest peaks.
Within the wider Quiet Zone (a 13,000 square mile area surrounding Green Bank), some electronics are tolerated, but within Green Bank itself Wi-Fi and cellphones are forbidden, and air-conditioning units and microwave ovens have to be shielded.
One employee’s Tesla had to have its autonomous driving disabled, and a plan to install automatic toilet flushers was banned by local authorities.
A local enforcer looks for households that are violating the rules
The Sugar Grove site near Green Bank
Initially enforced by local man Wesley Sizemore, the job of enforcing the ‘quiet’ now falls on several employees - with Sizemore having previously homed in on problem items like malfunctioning electric blankets, often offering free repairs or a replacement.
But there is a secret in the Quiet Zone - and rumors of other, even more deeply buried secrets.
In a nearby mountain hollow, the U.S. military planned to build its own radio antenna - a dish 600 feet wide and 66 stories high, built to listen to Soviet radio signals that bounced off the moon.
Work on the initial project was halted in 1962, but the Sugar Grove site reopened in 1969 as a worldwide hub for navy radio communications.
Stephen Kurczy, author of The Quiet Zone, told DailyMail.com: 'The public-facing reason for the 13,000-square-mile National Radio Quiet Zone around Green Bank is that this town is home to the country's very first federal radio astronomy observatory.
'But there's also a less public reason for a Quiet Zone, which I was surprised to learn about.
'Not far from Green Bank, in the West Virginian town of Sugar Grove, there's a top-secret National Security Agency (NSA) listening post with its own collection of about a dozen radio antennas.'
Kurczy believes the hub is used to actively monitor millions of private telephone calls and emails.
'The Quiet Zone protects both Green Bank and Sugar Grove. Just as Green Bank requires radio quiet for its telescopes to "hear" the sounds deep space, so does Sugar Grove need quiet to be able to eavesdrop on the outside world’s communications,' said Kurczy.
Local rumors have suggested that there is a secret network of nuclear bunkers underneath the telescope.
Kurczy with son Manny inside the Quiet Zone (Image: Stephen Kurczy)
The Quiet Zone also hosts the once-secret Greenbrier bunker, built to house Congress in the event of a nuclear war.
Locals speak about rumors about something ‘buried in the mountain’ - ranging from missile silos to CIA sites to captured extraterrestrials.
Kurczy said: 'In the 1970s, hippies and back-to-the-landers also "discovered" the area, and hundreds of them flowed in.
'Among them was the hippie clown doctor Patch Adams (he's a certified medical doctor who literally dresses like a clown all the time), who was portrayed by Robin Williams in the blockbuster movie "Patch Adams."
'Adams's organization is still there, alongside many of the hippies who made this area their home.
Seedier groups were also attracted to the remote, isolated, mountainous, and largely unspoiled, environment where large tracts of land could still be found cheap.
One was an anti-capitalist sex cult known as the Zendik Arts Farm. Another was an infamous white supremacist group called the National Alliance.'
But over the decades, the area has become a refuge for people who believe they are affected by electromagnetic radiation, Kurczy said.
Sue Howard lives in the area due to her debilitating symptoms
In Dellamaggiore's film, she interviews 'electrosensitive' Sue Howard, a 56-year-old woman.
Dellamaggiore said: 'After years of enduring undiagnosed pain, headaches, and heart palpitations, she began to notice a correlation between her symptoms and the wireless technology in her home.
'Sue suffers from Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS), a syndrome that, despite lacking enough scientific data to be recognized by the medical field, causes enough pain for Sue to spend most of her time isolated in a radio frequency-shielded room.
'She had all but given up hope when she read about Green Bank and the other electro-sensitive people moving there.
'Ironically, Green Bank's hi-tech telescope offers Sue the opportunity to escape modern technology and discover a new way to feel in community with her neighbors.'
But Green Bank's peace and serenity might be under threat - as locals demand access to more technology, while outsider 'electrosensitives' strive to limit it.
Kurczy said: 'The people who have EHS say they're harmed by WiFi, microwaves, lights, smartphones... most modern tech. But many locals would love to have a bit more modern tech.
'Should the Quiet Zone become less quiet for the sake of modern conveniences? Or should it stay super quiet for the sake of the electrosensitives and astronomers?
'That tension has at times bubbled over into hostilities. One electrosensitive once found a dead groundhog stuffed in her mailbox, a not-so-subtle cue that she was rubbing locals the wrong way.'
Dellamaggiore said that in the eight years it took to make the film, it has become increasingly difficult to enforce the rules - particularly around Wi-fi in homes.
She said: 'While I understand the desire for access to common-place technology, it's disheartening to think that one of the last intentional quiet zones may soon become a thing of the past. We should strive to preserve this unique place on Earth.'
