The "America's Quiet Zone" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about a place in the United States where there is no Wi-Fi, no cell phone signals, no microwaves and no Bluetooth devices.  And, its been that way for over 60 years.  The town is called Green Bank which is in West Virginia.  It is a town much like most towns 100 years ago.  The story about the place begins with a young girl, Charity, who is a senior at Pocahontas County High School.  Yes, she has an iPhone, but she uses it as a clock and a calculator.  She makes all her phone calls to friends on her home landline.  She rarely texts, at least anywhere inside the town limits.  Doesn't have to worry about texting and driving.  She can use her family's desktop computer, but it is via a broadband connection that is so slow that it takes minutes to load a YouTube video.  The town has 143 residents who have gotten used to no Wi-Fi, since it is not only unavailable, but banned.  

Green Bank is also home to the Green Bank Observatory which holds the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope.  The federal government established the National Radio Quiet Zone around the Observatory in 1958 which encompasses a 13,000-square mile area near the state's border with Virginia.  Now, that's a lot of ground!  The observatory has a telescope that could detect if your phone was in airplane mode on Saturn.  And, how would anyone know that fact?  Well, there is a sign outside its science center building that says so!  The area might make you feel as if you were in the middle of Lancaster County's Amish territory.  

Phone booths sit at the corner of many driveways and paper maps are readily available at gas stations.  Green Bank has created a different type of childhood that most children who don't live there wouldn't recognize.  There is no being bullied or harassed online and fewer mental health problems without social media.  It is what the town calls a unique kind of modern childhood.  Being in the great outdoors actually means just that to the residents of the town and they report they have discovered a newfound sense of adventure.  As far as Charity is concerned, she makes plans with friends via a landline phone or in person.  After school she enjoys running before she has to tend to the family's goats, chickens and ducks.  

Then it's time to make dinner with her mom.  When is the last time any teenager you know did all that...all in the same day?  She does use the family's computer, but more as a word-processor.   She even enjoys visits from her boyfriend where they can sit in the living room with her parents and talk, undistracted by technology.  She even says that her parents would kill her if she was staring at her phone and not listening to them.  But, in half a year she will leave home to head to West Virginia Wesleyan College.  It will seem as if she's entering a different new world.  Her parents have warned her about the risks of technology and hope she will adjust slowly to the new life.  Perhaps she will be able to help her new friends move to a life much like she has experienced all her life.  Her family has become a sort of savior to many of the families who live outside the  quiet zone.  The director of the Observatory, Dr. Karen O'Neil, reports that Charity's family has visitors from outside the quiet zone whose parents bring their teenagers to visit quite often due to being too stressed out from being on wireless all the time.  Wow, what a novel idea!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.