Exploring the Secret US Government Town with No Internet & Phone Service (100% Disconnected?)

One of the most mysterious places in America hides itself in these woods,

far away from the public eye in one of the most enchanting mountain ranges

in the country,

the Appalachian Mountains, home to age-old myths and modern ghost stories.

Within these mountains, there is also a hidden border they call the Quiet Zone,

an area where technologies like Wi-Fi, cell phone service,

and even microwaves are illegal.

But why?

In a time where we are reachable anywhere we go,

how are some people within this border living completely disconnected?

And what lies behind this invisible border?

Well, on a quest to piece together some of the mysteries surrounding this place,

Staffan and I decided to make the journey to this extremely remote area

and explore all corners of this quiet zone.

But as there are no airports anywhere near this place,

We first had to fly to Washington DC to

then do the long

and remote drive deep through Virginia

and then further into West Virginia to go investigate to see

if we could find some of the characters

that live here and uncover some of the mysteries surrounding this place.

''INTO THE QUIET ZONE'' The roads are getting smaller and smaller,

and we are still an hour and a half away.

For the next 50 minutes, and we've already been driving for 50 minutes,

there's no town to stop in, which is wild,

I've never seen that in my life before, to be like this world.

We're gonna stop in the last town really before it

and see if we can find a place to stay there.

We have not had service for the last hour,

which is crazy. 45 minutes away from the 'Quiet Zone' We are now rolling

into the first village

that we have seen over the last hour.

Let's go, we're gonna go and explore...

What's the name of the town?

Monterrey.

We are making the executive decision to stay in the last town before we

head to this place.

This is the only hotel.

Monterrey, a peaceful escape.

Oh, it's closed.

This is the only place to stay in this entire area, so...

Hello, hello, my name is Staffan, I'm from Sweden,

and would love to stay at your place.

And you are in Sweden?

No, we are in Monterey, actually, outside the door here.

We saw a phone number.

Oh, I see, I see, okay,

I was like... that's a long way away for you to come.

I just ran across the street to get some food.

I will be back in two minutes,

and I'll meet you at the front door. - Hi, guys. - Hello, hello.

Welcome to Monterey, are you lost?

Yeah, we're lost. - I'm Staffan. - Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you,

come on in. - Nice to meet you, thank you.

They don't have microwaves in Green Bank, they're not allowed. - Really? - Yeah.

Wow!

We actually have a couple that's moving from Green Bank to here.

He was talking to his wife on the phone, he goes: '' Honey,

I used a microwave today''.

And she's like, Yay!

As we were downloading the offline maps before losing service for good,

we somehow ran into a subscriber working for the inn we spent the night

at.

This is one of the most interesting conversations we had in a long,

long time.

We met Kate, who is from the Yes Fam.

It's beautiful in Monterey.

I'm getting goosebumps, now that how did this happen?

And what did you say about when people don't have access to the internet?

They keep historic traditions really alive.

A lot of them are stuck in the past,

but you also get people who move here

because they like that they don't have anything else infiltrating your mind.

You'll get a lot of creative people, scientists.

You get a lot of people who are watching nature in a different way

because there's nothing else to do.

What?

We thought it was mostly just people that were interested in being completely disconnected.

But it sounds like it's a whole range of people who have decided to

move here. - I mean,

you also decided to move here. - Yeah.

Which is fascinating.

I have to drive an hour to the grocery store. - An hour? - Yeah.

And I have to drive an hour

and a half to go to school

when I go to classes. -

So... - Wow! - Yeah. - Wait,

so Uber Eats doesn't deliver here?

Oh, no.

COMEDIC GENIUS!!

What are your plans today?

I was just working here today.

Because we're obviously like a little lost puppies here,

and you seem to be very knowledgeable of this area.

It'd be awesome if we could explore a bit with you.

Oh!

I would die, I've been a fan for like a decade.

I saw the names actually on the reservation.

I was like, this can't be! - I need to ask my boss. - Okay.

What are we doing?

I have a question.

We've been bonding, and...

And we felt that Kate would be an amazing guide for us?

Yes, she would, she knows everything about this area.

But we know that she's committed working here and whatnot,

so we wanted to know

if there's any flexibility today

or tomorrow for her to join us a bit.

You're the boss, so...

Do you want to go?

You get her into any trouble,

I will kick your ass. - She's like my mother actually. - Yes, absolutely.

Go ahead and go.

Yes!

Thank you.

Yes!

How long have you been watching this Yes theory?

Since 2016, so I was 12 years old.

Wow!

I'm so excited!

Dream team!

I've always wanted to be kidnapped.

Okay, so now we're heading to Green Bank, the 'Quiet Zone'.

Let's do it.

Do we need to send any final messages before we leave the service? - Yeah,

I'm doing that right now. - Okay.

There were multiple mysteries around this town called Green Bank

that we were hoping to uncover the truth behind.

Why was the border created

and who were the people

that lived inside of it?

We'd also heard that multiple people had moved to this town

as a haven because of their hypersensitivity to electromagnetic signals.

So as we prepared to cross the border into the Quiet Zone

and lose service for the next 48 hours,

we put together a checklist of the things we were hoping to understand by

the end of this adventure.

Are there a lot of abandoned buildings around here?

There's a ton, I'm guessing a little diner.

I'm pretty sure that's what it was, it was some sort of little store.

It's been abandoned for a long time, I'd say.

Let's just peek inside. - Yeah. - Wow!

On this episode, we'll be breaking an N.A.

People have guns in this area, right?

It's actually pretty interesting to step back in time

and imagine and try to find clues of what was here.

A lot of toys, clothes, this machine here.

Abandoned places have this universal smell, a mix of mold and humidity.

It feels like we're gonna stumble upon a lot of side quests on this

trip.

No service.

No service, meaning that we have entered the Quiet Zone.

So we can't fly the drone here.

Microwaves are not allowed.

Cell phone service doesn't exist.

And on a serious note, people have like guns and stuff here, so.

Well, we are in West Virginia now, so I will say...

Just like, don't f*** around.

It's so empty, like that houses have been built, but that nobody's here.

There's the reason I only have like, two friends.

It's probably not like this, but I have a feeling,

when you're walking here that people are looking out the window and watching us.

Probably.

With no town center, essentially only roads with individual houses,

we didn't know where to start to meet anybody.

So we decided to approach this local church

that Kate told us are often left unlocked.

I mean, be respectful,

but they leave the doors open in churches so that you can pray.

Appalachian Mountains culture is unique for many reasons, one of them being their music.

So we were really hoping to encounter some musicians on this trip,

but we didn't know we had one with us.

Our adventure partner Kate, it turns out, is an aspiring singer of Appalachian music,

a rare kind that few still know how to perform.

Despite being afraid of taking the leap,

her dream is to become a singer of this music,

and she was brave enough to sing us a piece.

We just sat and talked about songs, and you asked me about a hymn.

I did a song in a Swedish hymn.

You missed a Swedish hymn, it was good.

I'm not singing that one.

Take your time, no pressure.

'' It was in that merry month of May When the green leaves,

they were swelling That William Green on his death-bed lay For the love of

Barbara Allen.

He sent his servant to the town To the place where she was dwelling

Saying '' William is sick,

and he sends for you, If your name be Barbara Allen''.

O mother, oh, mother, make my bed, go make it both soft and narrow,

Young William's died for me today.

And I will die for him tomorrow ''.

Wow, that was amazing! - So beautiful. - Your voice is so unique.

It's mountain music. - I love it. - Beautiful.

How did we meet you this morning?

I don't know.

As we officially cross over into the Quiet Zone, our real exploration begins.

Established in 1958, the US government banned any radio transmissions

or service in this area to perform sensitive scientific research

as well as national security operations throughout various government facilities,

most notably known by the public by this machine, the world's largest rotating telescope.

Playing a pivotal role in mapping what our galaxy looks like,

as well as in the search for extraterrestrial life.

This observatory and area is certainly home to lots of mystery.

The locals who live here never had to adapt to life with internet

and phone service as they never had it,

and may be one of the few places left on Earth,

certainly in the West, living off the grid like this.

Because of this unique characteristic, this area has attracted Nobel Prize-winning scientists,

US government officials, but also people who seek digital disconnection due to sensitivities to

the frequencies now all over our cities.

As we approached essentially the only gift shop in the area, also serving food,

we were quite eager to meet some locals.

How are y'all?

Come on in, we don't bite.

Where are y'all from?

Sweden and... - Sweden? - Yeah.

My lord!

Far away from home!

You guys are the first locals that we're meeting here,

so we are excited about that.

You guys live without internet, though?

Well, you can get it but it's illegal. - Illegal? - Yeah.

It implemented once they built this observatory, right?

The observatory bought everything out up through there in 1964.

I don't know how they stopped the signal, but somehow they stopped the signal.

There's a humming noise that I don't know what that is...

There's a humming noise in the mountain?

Like comming from the montain?

Oh, yeah...

What do you think the best part about living in the Quiet Zone is?

Definitely the quiet, the outdoor lifestyle.

People, close-knit community,

a lot of nights by fire pits. - That's lovely. - It's quiet.

It's easy to find yourself here.

It's safe.

Yeah, it's very safe here. -Yeah. - Other than if you get hurt,

it could take the ambulance quite a bit of time to get to you

if you had a real emergency,

but...

This place is like a gathering area?

Yeah, but if there are storms and power outages and stuff like that,

people come here to get information on what roads are closed

and if anybody needs help,

and you know, to call here.

You need a center where people can gather, right?

Because you can't really text or write or write in a Facebook group.

This place is the Facebook group chat.

It's starting to feel really nice to not have phone service. - Yeah,

man. - I'm not getting any messages.

For the first few hours, I was a bit, it was stressful.

I kept checking my phone.

Now it's just like, it's freeing because I have no choice.

It's like, okay, nice.

We're just going to be in this.

And before we knew it, the telescope was just around the corner.

Wow!

That is the observatory.

Wow, it's so massive!

It's like the most rural landscape.

Right in front of the most spooky, futuristic looking...

Yeah, man. - What are you feeling witnessing this? - This is amazing.

Isn't it trippy? - It is trippy. - Yeah.

Hi, sir, thank you, I'm Staffan, nice to meet you.

What a beautiful thing to have in your garden,

a telescope. 240-something feet across.

It's the biggest rotating one in the world, I guess. - Really? - It'll rotate eventually.

You see it move?

Yeah, if you come back in like an hour,

it might be going that way. - This is wild! - We're on someone's property!

But we didn't get shot!

The highest contrast visual I've ever had in my life.

Farm with cow poop everywhere, and then the largest rotating telescope in the world.

This is the best shot I've ever filmed in my life.

Really?

There's someone there.

How are you?

We're looking to get to the observatory.

Literally like 200 yards. - Okay, amazing! - That way. - Do you work here? - - Yes, sir.

Oh, amazing!

How would you summarize the telescope?

What is it?

It's a way for us to look at the universe, to expand human knowledge,

ultimately.

It's a pretty cool way to spend your day. - Thank you so much,

nice to meet you. - You're welcome.

Okay.

Let's go!

Green Bank Observatory.

With all of our side quests, we arrived at the observatory near closing time,

but the staff told us we were still allowed to walk to them on

our own.

We just couldn't bring any form of technology anywhere near them,

which meant leaving our cameras and cell phones behind, and instead,

we could only capture what the telescope was like up close on a disposable

camera.

The dish is 100 meters in diameter, just over 2.3 acres,

and was built to reflect radio waves coming in from space onto this receiver.

The entire structure weighs 7,600 metric tons

and can be steered to look at any point in the sky,

making this the largest steerable radio telescope on Earth.

To be able to pick up on things so far,

this telescope is extremely sensitive,

enough to pick up the energy released by a snowflake hitting the ground.

This, is why the National Quiet Zone was created,

to prevent any interference from getting in the way of these far away signals.

The surrounding Allegheny Mountains also help to keep out any signals coming from elsewhere

in the country.

As we made our way out of the observatory,

we were about to have another serendipitous moment May I ask you a question?

How are you today?

Well, thank you.

Do you work here at the center? - Oh, yes. - Amazing!

It's research in astronomy, and it's open to any qualified scientist around the world.

It's like if you want a grant, you write a proposal,

here the proposal is time on the telescope, time to use the telescope.

What kind of rule are you within and what are you working here with?

I was director and then chief scientist for a number of years.

I'm retired but I have an office

and all the support to do my research,

so I'm doing research full-time now. - That's amazing. - We're lucky to have

met you here then.

I am lucky to be here.

What was your name? - Jay Lockman. - Jay Lockman.

Yeah, we've had a number of filmmakers come through here.

Does the name Werner Herzog ring a bell?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, well, he came

and interviewed me a few years ago. - No way. - I'm in his

film.

West Virginia, the small town of Green Bank in Appalachia.

What you're seeing behind me is a very large telescope, 100 meters in diameter.

How busy are you tomorrow?

Because we would love to have a conversation with you. - I'm around. -

Thank you so much.

He turns out to be the director here.

You can't script it, bro. - Yes theory. - Yes theory.

Okay, now I'm going to have to write that down.

So feel free to...

You notice I don't carry a phone.

Yeah, I mean, there's no...

So you take notes in this.

That's a wonderful thing.

It's not backed up at Google, but...

After chatting for a bit,

we somehow got into the subject of music. -

So do you do old-time music? - Yes,

exactly.

I was looking for some old-time musicians, actually, to show them.

Okay, so here is what's interesting.

Our band is rehearsing at my house tomorrow night.

Amazing coincidence.

I am blown away!

Okay, well, I'll see you tomorrow sometime.

All right, take care.

Jay, this was an honor speaking to you.

No one's freak out, no one's freak out.

He was the two things we were looking for at the same time.

A scientist who works at this place, who has access, and a musician.

That evening, we once again showed up unannounced to a very rural hotel.

Hoping they'd have room for us.

How's it going? - Hi. - Hi, how are you?

We were curious if you had rooms for tonight available.

Yeah, how many do you need?

Oh, yes.

And it wasn't until the next morning

that we actually got the chance to explore the building

and its grounds.

Okay, here we go.

You have to check this out.

This is amazing.

A dream room to just read in it.

Wow!

And you can go up.

Oh, staircase.

Staircase always means adventure.

I've now decided I want a room like this in my future house.

We need to make decisions together about our future house, Thomas.

You can't just make a decision.

You said we?

There's a we there?

What are you insinuating?

Well, I'm gonna go...

And then, as we sat down for breakfast, another serendipitous moment occurred.

We bumped into a lady who told us

that she suffers from this electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

And a lot of people don't know that the headache, the heart palpitation,

the children's ADHD, all this stuff is really from this technology.

Again, the public doesn't know about it

because all the media is owned by telecom companies.

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity is a term used to describe a condition where individuals who are

experiencing various symptoms attribute them to exposure to electromagnetic fields.

These coming from sources such as mobile phones,

Wi-Fi and other wireless technologies which have taken over our modern world.

It all started in 1994

when she was a secretary at a medical analysis lab.

A rash appeared on her face

and she began to suffer from reoccurring migraines

and extreme fatigue.

However, the wider medical community often considers EHS to be a psychologicalor psychosomatic condition

and dispute the validity of these people's claims.

Still, those who experience EHS have advocated for more research into potential health risks

of the technology and have thus began seeking refuge in towns such

as this,

where they can escape the onslaught of constant overexposure to electromagnetic signals This is

how people used to hang out

when you are friends.

You'd just show up to their house

and you'd knock on the door

and be like,

hey, are you free?

Do you want to play?

Now, if I would do that to a friend, they'd think I'm insane.

This is what we're doing with one of America's most prominent astronomers.

We are essentially showing up and asking him if he wants to hang out.

He said, come in.

I know you guys aren't here right now, but it smells like intelligent.

Wow, I never heard someone say that, that's...

Good to see you again.

You're certainly welcome to the house tonight. - Really? - Yes.

I'm so excited.

Exactly what I thought your office would look like.

Oh, there was a remnant on the board of the visit of the great

man. - Oh,

yeah, that's Bernard Herzog. - Yeah.

Thank you so much, first of all,

for being open and inviting us into your office.

It's great to show off what we're doing here.

These are contours showing how much hydrogen there is between us and extragalactic space.

Jay Lockman, the one who we just met in the parking lot yesterday,

is the man who discovered the Lockman Hole,

a part of the night sky

that lets scientists see

as far out into the universe

as possible.

Because it's the part

that is the least obscured by the gas from our galaxy.

From a ground level view,

this patch of sky is

so small that you could block it with your thumb at arm's length.

But when you take a picture with a giant infrared telescope, you see this.

Each one of these dots is a galaxy containing billions of stars.

So this is the most transparent place in the whole sky

if you want to look outside the Milky Way.

Thanks to a puckish friend of mine who got my name on it.

I was completely unaware that it was being named after me.

Yeah.

I was naming it 'The Lockman Window'.

Exactly We couldn't believe Dr.

Lockman was willing to take the time out of his day to teach us

about his work.

And for the next hour,

he proceeded to blow our minds with what the huge telescope had allowed them

to discover.

How cool is that?

You could download this.

This is the cloud I'm working on.

It's on a collision course with the Milky Way,

and this is bringing in enough material to make a million new stars.

We've discovered over the course of my career that normal matter,

the stuff we're made of,

is a small fraction of the mass of the universe.

That most of the mass of the universe that holds galaxies together is dark.

It does not give off any light.

All we do is we feel its gravity.

This is so cool.

I was in Ireland just last fall. -

So we'll see you in a few hours. - Sure,

I will see you this evening. - This was an honor. - It's

so nice to meet you. - Very inspiring. - Yeah.

On our way to Lackman's house,

we thought we'd take a moment to watch the sunset

and give Kate some support for her music dream.

We just found a really nice viewpoint.

That's incredible.

I get why you were drawn to move back here. - For sure. -

It's really beautiful.

The music interest come to you when you moved back here?

It's kind of hard to live in a city and listen to fiddle tunes,

so I definitely phased out of it.

Then you come back here, and this kind of music really makes sense.

It fits the spirit of the place.

What are the steps that you feel that you need to go pursue it?

You always get that fear in your head of,

what if it doesn't work out?

Maybe people won't understand,

or how am I going to make it something

that people would want to watch.

I hindered myself for many years to post anything on social media

because I was afraid people would attack me.

And I see myself so much in you saying that,

but also remember there's millions of positive, loving,

kind-hearted people out there ready to support you on your journey as well,

I know that.

Thank you.

After today and yesterday, thinking about how small we are in the whole universe,

I mean, why not just try things?

Yes, yes.

Do you record these songs that you write every week?

On my voice memos app, I have like 5,000 voice memos.

We like to empower dreamers at Yes Theory.

We were talking and when we heard yesterday that you don't have a mic,

we want to gift you one so you can actually start recording your music.

Oh, thank you.

And putting it out in the world.

I'm like shaking, you guys can't see me. - This has been the best

dream. - Dream team,

dream team. - How is your camera? - It's not great.

Maybe we need to add a camera too, then.

So you can record and capture things and put it out.

I will do that too.

Let's go.

That's a good deal right there.

How do you feel about that?

I feel like If I think about it, I'm going to cry.

Wow, it's so beautiful.

And for our final two missions of our trip,

experiencing all-time music and getting invited to a local's house.

Rehearsal going on.

I can't believe we got invited to his house.

We're blessed to accomplish that with a very inspiring Mr.

Jay Lockman.

Yes, good to see you again.

We've got wine in the kitchen.

There are snacks there.

Nice, the violin man.

With these guys, we've been playing together.

We've known each other for 50 years.

Wow!

Yesterday, we met this man in the parking lot,

and now we're in his house watching him play old-time music.

I never expected the director of the observatory to be the one to introduce

us to the local music.

In the ultimate clash of modern and old,

we are watching a man who's literally mapping our universe

and studying aspects of science we are yet to understand

while playing old-time music preserved from hundreds of years ago.

This was a really interesting and oddly serendipitous trip for us.

As contacting anyone from this area is difficult,

we decided to just drive to it and improvise,

and somehow ended up meeting the full variety of people we were hoping to

encounter.

What we should do is find some repertoire we can play where you can

sing. - You want to make your debut? - Oh yeah!

Let's go!

I have a gig, my first gig.

We left with our minds blown from Lockman's insights

and some interesting perspectives

that we hadn't been exposed to before.

A part of me wishes we could enter a quiet zone without internet

or cell phone service more often.

The unintentional detox we experienced felt truly refreshing,

and maybe it should be something we can find access to in more parts

of the world.

That was great. - I love your style of singing. - Thank you.

I love your style of living.

For now, we would like to leave you with a final piece of wisdom

that we received from Lockman

If you could tell something to humanity,

what would you tell them?

It's take care of the home place, take care of the home place.

If you want to be a galactic civilization,

you've got to live longer than a few hundred years.

Our species is very aggressive.

Really, really aggressive, okay?

And so, I think we need to learn to control our natural makeup in

ways that are productive

and sustainable.

We'll see you next week.