The Zone of Silence
One of the strangest places in the world is right in the middle of the searing Chihuahuan desert in Mexico. This strange swath of land is also known as ‘The Zone of Silence’ and seems to be similar to a land-bound Bermuda Triangle where the seeming laws of nature are broken and ignored.
Similar to the rumors of what happens in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle, it is said that radio signals routinely fail without explanation, compasses spin out of control, and things seem to inexplicably go wrong. The Zone of Silence is roughly 30 miles wide of largely uninhabitable land.
Humans have resided in and around the zone since prehistoric times, it has always been sparsely populated. Even today, the closest community is Ceballos which is still about 25 miles away from the main portion of the Zone. And, despite not being directly in The Zone of Silence, television signals cannot be transmitted to Ceballos.
We have Engineer Harry de la Pena to thank for the name ‘The Zone of Silence’, as he was the first outsider to interact heavily within the zone. Penna and his party, tasked with scouting locations for an oil company, arrived at The Zone of Silence with no idea what they were headed into. As their group spread out,they realized they weren’t able to communicate on their walk-talkies and that the radio transmissions in their small portable radios were also failing.
While there were events that preceded what put The Zone of Silence on the map, the Zone of Silence really entered into public consciousness on July 11th, 1970. The Athena Missile, an American Missile, was fired from the White Sands Missile Base. Unfortunately and without explanation, the missile went off course. It crashed in the middle of The Zone of Silence. Just a few years later, an upper stage from one of the boosters used on the Saturn in the Apollo project broke apart over The Zone of Silence.
Wernher Von Braun, whose name you may recognize from America’s early Space exploration days, even traveled to The Zone of Silence to investigate this stretch of land on behalf of the American government. It seemed no expense was spared. Benjamin Palacios, whose father personally greeted Von Braun when he arrived, described what followed Von Braun: “The Americans brought temporary dormitories, labs, kitchens, medical facilities, and set them up right here in the desert. They even built a runway to transport cargo directly to Houston. By rail, they hauled away tons of debris.”
In addition to technological failures and seemingly intense exploration by the American government, The Zone of Silence also seems to get quite a bit of UFO-related activity. One of the most interesting of these cases occurred on October 13th, 1975. Ernesto and Josefina Diaz drove into The Zone of Silence in their Ford pickup which they had recently bought. They had decided to travel into The Zone of Silence to search for interesting rocks and fossils. As they explored, they didn’t notice that a big desert rainstorm was headed straight for then. Once they did notice, they were worried about the threat of a flash flood, so they decided to pack up their findings and head out. However, they were not quick enough to beat the rain and were soon stuck as the terrain became softer and softer.
The couple hopped out of the car and attempted to free their vehicle. As they struggled in the torrential downpour, they saw two figures approaching them. These figures, which they described as very tall men, were wearing bright yellow raincoats with matching hats. They offered the Diazs help with their car. Oddly enough, the men instructed them to get back into the car. As they started up the pickup truck, they hear a pop and realized their car was back on solid ground.
Incredibly relieved that their new car would not be ruined or damaged, Ernesto got out of the car to thank the men. However, the men had disappeared. There were no footprints or vehicle prints, nor any evidence of what tools the men had used to free their truck so easily.
Were these strange men from somewhere else?
Other UFO evidence has been experienced around The Zone of Silence including colored lightings, humanoid sightings, and strange effects around the flora of the area (such as burning or unexplained diseases).
The Zone of Silence, like the Bermuda Triangle, does not seem to have a clear answer or direction. The phenomena that occurs seems to run the gambit, which cements the weirdness of the Zone.
Thanks to Kenny V for suggesting this Blogstonishing topic!
The above image is not from the Zone itself but rather, Big Bend National Park and Chihuahuan Desert by Adbar and licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
