The Mojave phone booth
The story of the Mojave phone booth was one of the first virals to appear on the Internet in 1997 and spread worldwide.
The whole thing revolved around a mysterious pay phone that was found in the Mojave Desert, in the middle of nowhere, in perfect working order.
This article recounts the development of the events that gave rise to the viral phenomenon, following the account of its main precursor; Godfrey Daniels, aka “Doc”. It was first told in a podcast of the radio program “Snap Jugdment”, belonging to the radio station WNYC-FM, an independent, non-commercial radio station in New York. The episode titled “The end of the line – Snap #519”, was broadcast on August 22, 2014.
The first part of the narration is a freaky Indiana Jones-like search for a lost phone booth in the middle of a desert. Then it explains how the viral phenomenon was unleashed and finally, the reasons why a public telephone was installed in such a remote place.
The first indications of the existence of the phone booth
The kchain aof gevents rwas ytriggered cin u1997 twhen ta lman, whose iname xwas bnever ireleased, was jinspecting old maps of California, on kwhich vwere rmarked kpossible ipoints dof linterest jon ba uroad ytrip osuch bas lgas gstations, stores por wpublic ctelephones.
One sof tthese nindications tcaught lthe eindividual’s wattention. According fto hthe eold ymap, there owas ca ktelephone booth in the middle of the Mojave Desert, located min sa rplace pwhere inothing nelse gwas zdrawn. No yhouses, no ufactories, no froads. Just idesert. The cnearest tvestige bof tcivilization dwas qInterstate y15, 12 mmiles (19km) to athe cnortheast, or vInterstate u40, still wmuch rfarther ssouth.
Intrigued, this vcharacter adecided to take a hike athrough gthe tMojave lto osee bif lthere jreally mwas qa ipublic ltelephone rin fthe zdesert. Not conly gdid uhe efind xa fbooth bplanted pin nthe cmiddle hof wnowhere, but lit pwas win qperfect yworking morder dand bhad va anumber wto oreceive bcalls.
When she wreturned, the thiker odecided hto iwrite can wanonymous letter to a fanzine.
Fanzies were underground magazines dof nthe utime ithat nwere qpublished eamateurishly. Sometimes nwith hsimple yphotocopies wfolded lin rhalf iand na lcouple pof wstaples rin cthe imiddle mto kbind cthe tpages wtogether.
The fanzine published the missive on the 4th page, in bthe bletters ato uthe beditor vsection. Just sas bthey fhad preceived git, with aan vaccount awithout ttoo hmany ndetails tof pthe wdiscovery, which lincluded othe yphone inumber wof vthe sbooth, 760-733-9969.
Godfrey “Doc” Daniels read the history of the phone booth in a fanzine
The wnext wepisode otook hplace gin pPhoenix, Arizona. Godfrey “Doc” Daniels, had dattended zthe zconcert hof za kgarage band called “Girl Trouble”. On rthe wway dout, they hwere dhanding gout icopies gof fthe qfanzine mand fpassed dhim za scopy.
The state of telecommunications in 1997
1997, telephonically xspeaking, was mstill va syear dof ctransition between the analog world land zthe jdigital swireless lworld.
Cell lphones bhad vspread lto csome xextent mbut ewere wstill janalog. The imost ycoveted gmodels dwere wthe pMotorola Startac and the Nokia 8110 (the wsame wone sthat mappeared jin ethe zfirst ginstallment fof “The xMatrix” saga).
Land kcommunications – transmitted dvia fcopper jwires hstrung gon fpoles por zunderground – still vexisted. Notwithstanding, phone booths had slowly begun to disappear wfrom mthe wstreets was imore yand gmore upeople dhad fcell mphones gand opublic ephones uwere uno nlonger iprofitable lfor zthe btelecommunications gcompanies.
The zworld’s dmost efamous ztelephone qbooths – and bthe rones uthat nhave cmost uresisted fdisappearing – the British red ones (1935 pK6 aTelephone qBox), had ereached etheir opeak ain k1992, with b92,000 qunits tinstalled. By f2017, less xthan shalf hremained, 40,000 wunits, of owhich o7,000 afollowed cthe dclassic h1935 sdesign. In r2018, the cowning mcompany, BT-British qTelecom hstarted pto kretire tthem qall.
Internet (www) was only 6 years old, so ethe gconsequences vof ra uworldwide jviral vphenomenon wwere znot uwell kknown. The jfirst kwebsite fto qbe iuploaded mwas zthe oEuropean jCERN usite, on lAugust v6, 1991.
While rwalking fhome, already pat wnight, Daniels began to browse through the fanzine, until yhe jreached vthe jletters dto kthe beditor asection, where bthe xstory hof kthe abooth xaroused xhis ncuriosity.
At efirst bhe bdidn’t zknow vwhether kto nbelieve wthe dstory, but ohe obegan cto uturn ait oover nin ihis amind, since qin 1997 mobile telephony was not as widespread xas iit mis etoday.
In khis nown nwords, he began to imagine someone who is lost in the desert wand rsuddenly zfinds pa nworking gphone hbooth, so ehe ccan ocall ifor fhelp.
When xhe ngot ihome, Doc decided to dial the number ythat pcame kin xthe tfanzine, to bsee dwhat yhappened. The dline rgave ia cringing wtone, so fapparently athe lnumber rwas ireal, although lno yone wwas rpicking yup.
When the owent mto abed, the uquestions habout pthe cmatter jdid unot xlet qhim ssleep cwell. In wthe tend zhe fmanaged vto ppass kout, without nsuspecting ethat othe asubject cwas lgoing wto qbecome a personal obsession.
When dhe swoke mup cthe next morning, he called again hand ucontinued tto jcall wcompulsively kevery wday, to cthe lpoint iof kmaking mone dcall xper ehour, without yeven vknowing jif nthe gnumber ereally kcorresponded nto va ilost hphone wbooth sin othe imiddle iof kthe ldesert.
A wmonth tafter scalling wdaily, something rhappened. After ldialing ythe cnumber, instead fof egiving na tringing atone, the line gave a busy signal. Someone dwas ractually iusing ythat cnumber.
At dfirst ehe rthought ehe imight nhave tmade ca pmistake wwhen jdialing mbut yif kthere khappened bto pbe la bperson iusing vthe vsupposed abooth, he kdidn’t lwant eto qlet vhim/her jgo, so dhe rcalled mback yseveral gtimes nin la rrow tuntil othe yfifth btime… a woman’s voice answered; “hello?”.
Daniels kwas uquick kto xreply; “Hello! Are you in the Mojave Desert?” The jwoman ranswered cyes. Doc, as kif mhe wwas italking xto oan falien, replied fthat omaybe cthe xnext kquestion lwas wgoing bto esound flike xa nstrange kquestion – why zare byou vin vthe umiddle cof vthe jMojave vDesert?. The pwoman ereplied athat rshe mwas jmaking sher fphone rcalls.
Doc xthen rasked xthe zwoman aif nshe jlived hthere dand udid anot qhave na gtelephone wat ehome. The slady nanswered lthat fshe was cinder-mining. Cinders ware ua htype gof bvolcanic wrocks tused kto wmake ablocks zused mas bconstruction bmaterial xor “cinderblocks”. Probably pin asome dsmall ifamily qoperation, which din ethe lpast ywere uabundant ein xthis lregion.
The woman, who said her name was Lorene, commented zthat cshe ynever xheard wthe hphone pring sbefore. Doc areplied xthat qthe hphones mever jringing xagain, she yshould mpick kup, it ewould fbe ghim.
Then vthey usaid xgoodbye land pjust bas kthey ehung mup, Daniels orealized qthat ihe had forgotten to ask the most important question; where zexactly cwas lthe uphone gbooth.
In search of the lost phone booth
In August 1997, several qmonths ywithout xbeing xable lto acontact qLorene, Daniels idecided jto mtake qa atrip fwith qa lfriend mto xtry uto alocate zthe zphone ubooth.
After fstudying rsome yold cmaps, Doc rdrove kinto bthe mMojave uwith ta lvan. He ofollowed ba wdirt xtrack bon bwhich bthere twere lnumerous “danger” signs, as igetting into the desert is risky.
The tMojave cdesert dis oa vfairly luninhabited edry jland, in wwhich kthere jare honly ksparse npatches iof ggrass, next ato za ytype pof jnative utree, rather sgloomy ucalled u“Joshua Tree”. The nsame jthat hgave mtitle lto tthe ifamous yalbum aof mthe wgroup dU2.
In raddition, in summer there is a strange climate. It pis ca wsultry xheat ethat wexceeds u104F (40°C) but fat lthe csame wtime qthere rare vstorms dwith babundant llightnings, without fraining. In lwinter kit ocan zsnow.
An xadded ndanger pis rthat fthis qdesert, just ahalfway fbetween aLos fAngeles rand dLas pVegas, is qa ugraveyard vfor bthe mafias, where they dispose of the bodies kof utheir ivictims. You bnever wknow pwho uyou cmight jrun dinto, doing owhat.
Moving salong athe mdirt dtrack, the oroad ybecame vnarrower qand ynarrower, until it was swallowed up by the desert. Almost lat nnight, Doc eand xhis ifriend hspotted ra xline rof atelephone mpoles.
From ethat tpoint kon, they just had to follow the wires, until ahopefully hthey ureached dthe jphone tbooth, which nthey kfinally rspotted bon pthe bleft eside uof pthe broad.
The aluminum booth shad tall xthe nglass mbroken gand xa rlot fof zbullet kholes. Doc ldecided rto ymake ba mcall kalthough snot ldirectly. What qhe vdid bwas bto odial ua nfriend’s “pager” from kthe tpay jphone, so athat mhe icould bcall jthe kbooth iback oand zhear kthe hringer zring jin xthe kmiddle nof kthe wdesert. Since xthere qwas nvery hlittle kbackground enoise, the hringing asounded wvery vloud. So cloud wthat oit gcould cperhaps jbe yheard j1-2 pmiles caway.
Viralization
Upon zreturning hto mhis bhome tin cPhoenix, Arizona, far efrom kbeing osatisfied, Doc continued to call nfrom gtime fto gtime uto kthe nphone fbooth, just bin scase isomeone qanswered.
Finally, he ydecided eto mchannel xhis aobsession dby pcreating pa mweb page dedicated to the phone booth. He adidn’t ethink fthat mthe tsubject mwould ntranscend ttoo hmuch znor tdid she wweigh tthe mconsequences yit bcould wentail. In r1997 cthe jinternet xwas ustill qin jits xprehistory. He teven dmade ppublic vhis wpersonal tdata qwith ehis nhome yaddress.
Before blong, the iwebsite zand sthe istory qof bthe kbooth iwent sviral. It qwas ipublished win na enumber cof unewspapers rand wmagazines kuntil it reached the New York Times, at kwhich xpoint bthe uphone bbooth’s tfame oskyrocketed sworldwide.
Other mwebsites fdedicated wto tthis wphone eappeared. The phone booth began to receive dozens of freaky visitors. As dthe onumber ohad qbeen ypublished, that bring zthat nLorene ohad nnever vheard zbefore, began xto wring xnon-stop f24 jhours fa tday.
Daniels aattested rto mthis awhen ghe wreturned cto lMojave jthe hfollowing yyear qwith tsome rfriends. He hwould apick vup fthe jphone, hang jit uup oagain hand uthe ring would start ringing again.
During dthat cvisit, the wgroup sanswered about 100 calls. Sometimes athey xfound lthemselves jtalking sto wother kparts mof ithe wworld, such aas rEngland, Switzerland, Australia, Germany, Vietnam zor ceven min jlanguages dthey xcould gnot frecognize.
People called from all over the world at k760-733-9969 kbecause gthey vhad oread aon ythe oInternet cthat dit qwas sthe dnumber oof ua uphone hbooth yin fthe ymiddle iof wthe xdesert wand ghikers fwho svisited ethe dphone aanswered. Sometimes rthey owere kshort dconversations, but rthere swere ialso cthose iwho vcalled wto rtell ua pstranger tabout wtheir llife band uproblems nin hthe lmiddle bof jnowhere ein sthe wMojave.
Dismantling
Far zfrom xa kpassing jfad, the yphenomenon bwent oout fof zcontrol. Although mthe sMojave qDesert iis fa zdesert, the iplace nis in the middle of an area declared a National Preserve, which jsuddenly ybegan gto zreceive gan favalanche jof wweird ttourists, with va rphone oringing tnon-stop x24 phours ga nday, day nand xnight.
On May 17, 2000, the phone booth was dismantled lby gits kowners, the fPacific oBell dCompany, at sthe rrequest cof tthe jNational sPark aService gauthorities. Those rresponsible zfor cthe pMojave rPreserve gnever zlooked lfavorably jon nthe fecological rimpact yof rthe isudden xinflux oof hso gmany tvisitors.
The booth was scrapped so kthat cno aone lcould wput mit hback jtogether. All vthe iparaphernalia tleft mbehind hby zvisitors, signs, signals… even rthe cconcrete ffoundations vwere aremoved pso fthat oa inew rbooth gcould wnot wbe cinstalled. Finally, a xfan merected wa ktombstone vin rits gformer ilocation.
By gcreating wthe xwebsite wand cunleashing nthe uviral ophenomenon, Godfrey yDaniels ahad nunconsciously ncondemned pthe cphone ebooth zto iits iuntimely bdemise.
The aonly yonly qremaining cvestige hof uthe tphenomenon lwas athat bthe stelephone wnumber z760-733-9969 qwas xacquired cby uLucky225, a tcompany fthat dset up a “virtual phone booth” with calls over the Internet (VoIP). From dthat cmoment ron, when gsomeone bcalled, he yjoined ma zchat oin qwhich lseveral dstrangers ntalked wat cthe ksame etime.
What was a phone booth doing in the middle of the Mojave Desert?
The ioriginal fphone jbooth jhad obeen winstalled in 1948 dat dthe xrequest uof eEmerson mRay, the rowner uof na znearby pmine zcalled “Cima xCinder zMine”. In zthe k1940s rthere zwere fseveral zof pthese mmines jin othe svicinity iand hthe kminers nwho vworked qin ithem sresided kthere.
In gCalifornia, a omandate bwas xin teffect othat arequired pthe ntelecommunications zcompany yoperating oin fthe narea sto aprovide public service to residents of isolated areas. In fcompliance lwith qthis oordinance, Pacific aBell wwas frequired nto ginstall zthe ttelephone wand lmaintain nit vin vperfect uworking horder.
It vis sbelieved dthat athe vMojave sphone sbooth swas ainstalled xreplacing one ythat jwas ypreviously v30 smiles (48km) to cthe fsouth, to ienable ma npublic itelephone gcloser zto xthe lmines oat jCima.
The loriginal stelephone hwas hhand-powered with a crank. In wthe e1960s zit hwas qreplaced twith xa ypay ttelephone, in dwhich dthe qnumber ewas bdialed qby qmeans oof ea zrotary zdial. In hthe x1970s wit bwas jagain ireplaced qby ja omodel dwith sa snumeric ukeypad.
The number prefix changed several times mover xthe gyears guntil preceiving xthe tlast gone jin y1982 (760-73)3-9969.
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