Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum Here. The Mojave Desert is
Speaker 1: the driest desert in North America, and though it rests
Speaker 1: between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, it is remote, mostly roadless,
Speaker 1: and full of secrecy, and not far from the ghost
Speaker 1: town of Crusero, California, in a remote corner of the
Speaker 1: Mojave Desert National Preserve. This arid emptiness is home to
Speaker 1: the enigmatic Mojave Megaphone, and so called for its resemblance
Speaker 1: to allowed speaker. This megaphone is a rusty hunk of
Speaker 1: metal permanently embedded into a rocky outcropping. No one has
Speaker 1: been able to identify what exactly this thing is. Some
Speaker 1: call it the Sentinel Enigma. Others call it art. Everyone
Speaker 1: calls it a mystery. There's nothing and no one for
Speaker 1: miles around. It's a riddle as to how this heavy,
Speaker 1: roughly eight foot or two and a half meter long,
Speaker 1: very unwieldy object wound up in its resting place. Comprised
Speaker 1: of two horn shaped pieces of metal bolted together in
Speaker 1: the middle, it's too big to be a one person job,
Speaker 1: a group of people, or perhaps aliens went to a
Speaker 1: lot of work to situate this monstrosity on a cliff
Speaker 1: side so far from any civilized place. No one knows
Speaker 1: how long it's been there either. For the article this
Speaker 1: episode is based on how Stuff Work. Spoke via email
Speaker 1: with Eric Edwards, the founder of campsite photos dot com.
Speaker 1: He wrote about the Sentinel Enigma on his blog and
Speaker 1: has visited it. He said, my best guess is that
Speaker 1: it was put up there about thirty plus years ago,
Speaker 1: although it is in two pieces. Each piece is very heavy,
Speaker 1: but a few people could probably carry and drag it
Speaker 1: up there, and still it would be very difficult and
Speaker 1: take a long time to get it up that hill.
Speaker 1: There's also another lingering question, what in the world is it?
Speaker 1: Edwards said, that's the big question. It has some similarities
Speaker 1: to a siren circa nineteen forties and nineteen fifties, but
Speaker 1: that seems unlikely. Still, the area was used to transport
Speaker 1: chemical agents on rail, and perhaps the iron was used
Speaker 1: if there was a mishap. He also pointed out that
Speaker 1: there are no markings on it to indicate what it
Speaker 1: is or where it was made. Recently, someone put animal
Speaker 1: skin over the openings and used it as a drum,
Speaker 1: but he says he doesn't think that was its original purpose.
Speaker 1: Others have speculated that it's part of a rocket system
Speaker 1: or perhaps a pipeline ventory that is an hour glass
Speaker 1: shaped enclosure that's used to control the flow rate of
Speaker 1: a fluid, and because it has cross hair shaped metal
Speaker 1: strips inside of it, others believe it's a gun sight
Speaker 1: or other sighting device of some sort. And there are
Speaker 1: more fantastical theories too. Perhaps it's a tool pointing out
Speaker 1: the location of a California cave system that extends for
Speaker 1: hundreds of miles, or even an X marking the spot
Speaker 1: of a treasure hoard. Given its shape, though the megaphone
Speaker 1: nickname makes a lot of sense, maybe it's part of
Speaker 1: an antiquated alert system, as some people have guessed, like
Speaker 1: a tornado siren, or perhaps not has to works. Also
Speaker 1: spoke by email Sarah Roby, a history professor at Idaho
Speaker 1: State University, and she said it's probably not a civil
Speaker 1: defense or a raid siren. The early Cold War versions
Speaker 1: almost always have a rectangular mouth, and World War Two
Speaker 1: era airraid sirens didn't really look like that either, Even
Speaker 1: the ones that were more cylindrical Moreover, you'd expect to
Speaker 1: find such civilian oriented sirens in much more heavily populated
Speaker 1: areas than out in the desert. Her guests, it's a
Speaker 1: measurement tool of some kind. She said. It's proximity to
Speaker 1: the Edwards Air Force Base, as well as Navy and
Speaker 1: Army sites is a much bigger clue. Edwards is where
Speaker 1: the Air Force did a lot of sound barrier experiments,
Speaker 1: including Chuck Yeager's famous flights. I could definitely see something
Speaker 1: like the megaphone being some sort of measuring instrument related
Speaker 1: to flight shock or sound waves, etcetera. She also points
Speaker 1: out that the Nevada Testing Site now the Nevada National
Speaker 1: Security Site isn't too far away. That's where all of
Speaker 1: the US continental nuclear weapons were tested. These were conducted
Speaker 1: above ground until nineteen sixty three, then blow ground after.
Speaker 1: She said, even though the megaphone is a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty plus miles that's two plus kilometers away. It's plausible
Speaker 1: that something like this could have been used to detect
Speaker 1: long range shock waves or other disturbances. However, I kind
Speaker 1: of doubt it. If you have a sense of adventure
Speaker 1: and a rugged vehicle with high clearance you can make
Speaker 1: the journey to the megaphone and then hike the ridge
Speaker 1: to see it with your own eyes. There are plenty
Speaker 1: of instructions online, but even if you don't have the
Speaker 1: motivation or means to see the megaphone in person, it's
Speaker 1: clear that these odd objects spark the human imagination in
Speaker 1: weirdly moving ways. Edwards said, the desert, especially remote desert locations,
Speaker 1: are in currently mysterious. Often you'll find pristine areas with
Speaker 1: amazing views and beautiful, sometimes strange geological formations. I think
Speaker 1: people like to put these strange objects in these locations
Speaker 1: because they add even more mystery and wonder. I doubt
Speaker 1: their intentions are to draw interest to any particular area,
Speaker 1: but rather to have a little fun and see how
Speaker 1: people might react. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: Who's behind mysterious Mojave Desert Megaphone on how stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot com, written by Nathan Chandler. Brain Stuff is production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four more
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