Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2010
From: James
Unconfirmed possible location for the Mojave phonebooth. All the articles I saw state it is at a well traveled crossroad and name Aiken Mine Road. This is my choice of location based upon the description.
35.281796 -115.683035
you're close, but a ways south. here's where it was
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2010
From: Chris H.
Subject: Lanfair valley #2
Hi,
From reading your sight I see mention of another isolated phone booth in Lanfair Valley. Whatever happend to it? Would love to find out more about it.
there may still be a phone there, but i haven't been that way in over a decade. it was at one time a booth, but by the time i saw it, it was merely a phone kiosk on the side of a telephone pole, and not isolated in the way that the mojave phone booth was.
Its a shame I never could make it out to the Mojave phone booth. Tried quite a few times to call it back in the late 90's but could never get through.
that was the downside of its fame, i guess. but also the upside. it was a confusing, paradoxical phenomenon, that phone booth.
From: Steven R.
Date: Thu, 07 Oct 2010
Hey Doc,
Its been a while and i was just poking around the website to read people's messages and i was just wondering if you ever got to see the video tape i sent you (you said you had received it) of the trip we took from Boston to the booth and were working on a documentary. (The doc never got finished, but i took the footage and made my own mini-movie covering the event and time at the booth). Very special time for me.
Just curious what you thought/if you ever found time to watch it.
apologies for the lateness of the reply! i've been on the run and on the road mostly continuously for quite some time, so my memories of what i've seen are sort of a jumble. i do know i didn't see anything footage that i didn't enjoy. do you think you'll be uploading it to the web at all?
doc
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010
From: Stephen M.
Subject: KMUD MOJAVE PHONE BOOTH ARCHIVES ONLINE
Dear Deuce,
I was one of three people whom went to the MPB in March 24-26, 2000, to do a pirate-radio bcast (KMUD-shortwave).
Yes, this is the real-deal!! No filmaker/Hollywood fakery
I have seen article(s) about this broadcas with pics of some guys whom ARE NOT US THREE!, but that is the link to the Internet Archives site with all of the entire MP3 audio of the incoming calls (6 hours-plus) and Ed's call to Terry Weisback of the Art Bell Show the night of 24 March 2000.
It was so fun - just way fun, and I decided to put it all for the world to see -
yes, I am the dude! KMUDsw in the Mojave Desert ...
i do remember--i was emailing back & forth with ed at the time. i haven't listened to the broadcast yet, but i seem to recall that i phoned in to the show.
I hope this reaches you and you are aware of the link to the audio-archives.
oddly enough, one day before your email arrived, i'd somehow stumbled upon that very archive.
i lost my pic album of the MPB bcast - only a few pics of our visit is onthe site - i will try to scan the prints when i get a new scanner (my HP one just crapped-out!!)
Best and thank you!
thank you, too. my greetings to your co-conspirators!
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010
From: lauren r.
ive just spent way too much time at work reading your site and traveling along with you to the booth (rip). enjoyed it soo much.
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010
Subject: Mojave Pilgrimage
From: Dave H.
Hi, years ago, I stumbled upon your Mojave Phone Booth site. At the time, it still existed and I always
had a trip to visit it in the back of my mind. Sadly, I waited too long and the phone booth was gone.
In August, 2010, I did the trip any way as part of a bizarre road trip with my girlfriend.
It's not the same but I rented a satellite phone and called my brother from the site.
There are a few picture's on her Flikr page...
Thanks for creating an obsession that I was finally able to fulfill.
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010
From: Randy S.
Hey I'm Randy from ZILLAH Washington I remember the telephone booth from like 60 minutes or somesuch crap and wanted to see it there was still a booth functioning. I love your site and the Burning Man stuff is a head trip. Maybe I'll load my wheelchair and take off to burn the man. Take it easy thanks for the fun site.
Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2010
From: Jean
Subject: Roof Booth
Hi! Got back recently from trip down parts of Route 66 in Missouri and Illinois. Was bummed I missed seeing the telephone booth on city hall roof in Lincoln, IL. By the time I realized I was going the wrong way out of town it was too late to turn back and see the roof booth.
Thought, hey maybe I'll read a Amish romance novel too before I die. Looked on Amazon and read pages from one of Beverly Lewis' books. Can't remember which one. Decided I definitely will not read a Amish romance novel before I die. I did want to die just from reading a few pages.
you have chosen...wisely
What fortitude or something you have to make it through a whole book.
is fortitude french for stupidity?
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010
From: Ellice L.
HI DOC
I googled onto your site after coming across a movie I borrowed from my local library called Mojave Phone Booth. I had gone to the Mojave Desert to climb Kelso Dunes last Memorial Day 2009. And I drove by it on the way to Death Valley on New Year's Day 2010, so the movie caught my attention and I really wanted to know if there was such a phone booth. The back of the movie says it was based on some websites and scheduled callings so I tried to find out online and was delighted to come across your site. I was wondering how I could have missed the phone booth considering I have driven through the I-15 plenty of times. Is it easy to miss?
if it makes you feel any better, the booth wasn't visible from I-15--it was 12.5 miles into the desert, on a small dirt road.
Apparently so since after reading some of your previous mails, it looks like it has been dismantled and I am very sad I have been 10 years too late to get a chance to experience the magic of the Mojave phone booth myself. I attempted calling the number you posted and like the other people that have tried, I got the message that the number is no longer in service.
Do you recommend any other quirky sites along the west coast? I need something intruiging while unemployed to get me motivated and upbeat again.
the first place i'd go is salvation mountain, near the salton sea. it's always worth a visit (keep an eye out for a photo of whip it! the art car, built into one of the structures). for that matter, the salton sea is fun to visit.
By the way, would you recommend going to Burning Man solo?
you don't have any friends who'd go with you? well, most things are better with friends, but one of the great things about burning man is that it's ubersimple to make friends there. i recommend everyone experience it at least once.
Thanks for your site and let me know when your book comes out.
de nada!
doc
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 2010
From: Jennifer R.
Subject: glass request
Hello,
My name is Jenn. I've heard rumors from when I was a little girl that there was once a phone booth in the Mojave Desert. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to make the journey out there to see it's beauty. I'm so glad that many people were apart of this yet melancholy because I was too young at the time to be involved. I've spend hours upon hours looking at your website and other websites dedicated to logging the journeys others took to answer or even make calls from the Desert. I know this is a long shot but I was wondering if I could trade you some graveyard dirt from Salem Massachusetts for a piece of glass from the Mojave phone booth? Hope to hear from you soon. Thank you.
I'm sorry to say that about ten years ago thieves stole from my desert property whatever of my possessions I didn't have with me. What they didn't haul away, they destroyed. It was, and remains, very distressing.
Strangely, they even bothered to haul away the five-gallon bucket of Mojave Phone Booth glass. I don't know what they thought they were getting, but they took it all, and thereby destroyed the Mojave Phone Booth Glass project.
It's good to know the booth story still inspires people.
So sorry to hear about that. Such a shame, thank you nevertheless.
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010
Subject: Ever wanted to own your own pay phone?
From: Mike B.
On the Ever wanted to own your own pay phone? page you say you can have a phone booth in any state "Except for Connecticut". (I love how the guy wanted to compeate with the original booth)
Why not Connecticut?
Is there a law, or something.
The phone booth has inspried me to build a little one for my train board some day (Won't be an exact clone, because I'm modeling Canada, but seeing as my town is isolated, it could work well.) All I've got to do build the new siding, and finish the little side roads.
I wish I could call the booth, it would be an interesting story to tell at school, I "bet" I could drop the name and no one would have a clue (Granted, seeing as how we're were in single digits for our age the year it was removed, but still.)
I Like the website, well done keep up the good work
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 2009
From: St. Vincent
Subject: bet you've seen this...
...about a dozen times by now, but on the odd chance you haven't.
i always appreciate extra eyes & ears.
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009
Subject: A Cartoon Cat and Girl Visit a Phone Booth
From: Shawn M.
Let me be the 12th stranger from the internet to tell you that Today's (12/18/09) Cat and Girl is seemingly about the Mojave Phone Booth.
From: Scott B.
Subject: Cat and Girl and a certain phone booth
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009
Hey Doc. This comic may be relevant to your interests:
From: Phillip P.
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009
Subject: Enjoying your site and my own lost phone booth
Hello and thank you for your wonderful stories and site. I was heart broken to realize as I traveled through the booth visits that something had clearly happened when the trip from July of 1999 (now over ten years old) appeared to have never happened. I feared the worst and my fears were realized. I'm now overwhelmed with the sadness that yet another phonebooth (and a famous one at that) is no longer with us. Residing in PA the heart of Verizon land I'm no stranger to diapering booths. As a person who's only 21 years of age, I apparently defy the odds by having such a connection with phonebooths. No phone booths existed in my hometown in my lifetime and few ever did, but booths I've grown up seeing in my PA travels have slowly and (almost) fully vanished. first a set of Two booths at a gas station were removed leaving me mostly indifferent. But then my heart was broken as the nearly mint Phonebooth at the Greyhound bus station in State College - that I saw riding the bus to and from Harrisburg to visit family - was gone in a flash, a sign of the times.
Anyway sorry for the personal rant, I enjoyed the site, lament the loss of the Mojave and all phonebooths, and foolisly hope they will someday make a triumpant return.
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 2009
Subject: Site of the Phone Booth
From: Jeff S.
Hi Doc,
I will be out at Mojave on Tuesday or Wednesday...I would like to visit the site of the Booth, but I can't find anywhere that describes the actual location. Can you help me out?
if you'll have any device with you that can provide GPS, i believe the booth is at or near: N 35° 17.144 W 115° 41.066
also, 4WD is highly recommended. i haven't been out there in a long while, but i'm told that since the local residents have been run out, the roads have fallen into serious disrepair. very sandy.
and, making no assumptions (because lots of people have gone out there without adequate food & water), please take along more than adequate food & water.
Thanks for the information. Doesn't sound like a trip I want to make in a standard rental car, even with my AAA card. Might see about swapping for an SUV for one day.
And thanks for the caution about water, etc. We're prepared, but I know lots of folks who weren't. Good to know someone's thinking of us.
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009
From: Brian E.
Pictures taken in 1983 or 1984. University of New Mexico Geology Dept. field work. Prof. Ken Marher and student Brian Elias.
Lots of good memories of the Cima area and the fabulous Baker KOA campgrounds! Loved working day after day in the middle of nowhere.
Hope to return some day. Sorry the phone booth is no more.
heya! thanks for sending those. back when the booth still had its glass.
when did you hear the booth had become famous—while the hubbub was going on, or more recently?
Not until after it was gone... Probably in 2003 or so. Have been meaning to get those pics to you for ages... Slow Friday and I'm goofing off so that's why they finally got sent.
many thanks!
I loved working out there. We were all over the Cima dome. Spent
several months out there every day.
i've got to find a way to get paid for being out in the desert!
Loved it when the Air Force boys
would fly by doing their low level maneuvers. We were on top of one of
the cones one day and an F-16 went by about 100 feet below us. I could
almost read the guys name on his helmet. He waved.
just last week i was writing about the first time that happened to me out there. you know how it is, so quiet, and then BOOM. i was all alone and not expecting that at all. and then you look up and there's nothing where the sound is coming from. i happened to catch the jet in the distance, waggling its wings.
Lots of good stories from those days... Ever hear of Clorox Ed?
Waitress in the diner in Baker told us about him and then one day he
walked in! Claimed he was an alien and ordered a coffee cup of Clorox
and drank it (or pretended to drink it). Wasn't the kind of guy you
would just walk up to and have a conversation. He was a little rough.
sounds about right. at the mad greek?
Had lots of close encounters with wild burros out there. Someone said
they were left over from decades before by the miners.
a miner friend told me her father had a chunk of his forearm bit out by one of them. i'm pretty sure the nps had all of them rounded up and removed.
Ever seen a Chuckwalla lizard? Those are some scary things.
yep. we have those in arizona, along with the gila monster.
Lots of good old memories. Thanks for the jump start.
de nada. thank you for sharing the photos. good stuff.
Oh, BTW.
Back in 1984 the phone didn't have a dial or buttons. Just a receiver
on a hook. You picked it up and you were connected to an operator.
Made a few collect calls to family and friends. I'm pretty sure it was
on some kind of party line.
you know, there's been an ongoing debate about this, with some long-time mojave denizens claiming the booth always had a dial, and others saying what you've said. at this point i'm convinced you're right. but i don't suppose you'd have a photo of the phone itself, would you?
Booth was in pretty good shape. No broken
glass except for maybe a few beer bottles. No bullet holes.
i found out who busted out the glass.
doc
Date: Wed, 8 Jul 2009
Subject: inverse mojave phone booth
From: Rory
My name is Rory. I read this article and immediately thought of the Mojave Phone Booth. I can't properly explain why, but your site means a lot to me. I'm from Milwaukee and have visited the Mojave Desert only once, a few years after the booth was dismantled. Still, for some reason, I get all warm and fuzzy recalling the details of excursions I wasn't on to a place I've never been. I solemnly vow not only to visit the gravesite of the Mojave Phone Booth, but also to walk down West End Avenue in New York and visit the remaining phone booths in America's largest city. I will be sure to leave some meaningful record of my presence at the former, whenever it is I am able to make the pilgrimage. A decade later, your curiousity and subsequent custodial relationship with this beautiful former anti-landmark enrich people's lives!
Thanks for it.
Rory
thank you, rory. that is very touching, and beautifully expressed. it's good to know that the booth, in this way, still has a life. that there are still people who think about the booth helps me to know i'm not completely crazy for working so long on this book about it.
From: Susan
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009
Dear DOC,
I just wanted to let you know how much I've enjoyed your Mojave Phone Booth site over the years. I would've loved to visit the booth but found out about it a *leetle* too late. However, I've written a 'memoriam' of sorts to it on my blog: and I hope you enjoy it!
From: GETTMAX
Date: June 7, 2009
Subject: Where 'ya at
Hello all...
I'm interested in the final resting place of our beloved booth. Have you seen her lately?
Best regards.
Photo: You've seen this one before...circa 1976 and all is well.
i do remember this photo, very well. did you take it? are you one of the people pictured? any info about the booth is welcome..
as far as a final resting place, i'm afraid the poor booth didn't receive any treatment so kind. the nps forced the phone company to remove it and destroy it. according to inside information, it was destroyed immediately. they seemed terrified that it would become an icon.
I'm the handsome guy holding a beer. My sister in law snapped it. I miss the booth.
I have a cabin nearby and we would ride over occasionally and take some calls.
Actually, I've been trying to find an old booth for my yard.
I'm interested in your book. Please keep me posted as you go. I'm always curious about anything East Mojave.
Date: Tue, 12 May 2009
From: Agnieszka H.
Subject: MPB number
Hello,
I have been visiting your site on and off for years (and like most of
your visitors, too late to actually call, I think the first time I
visited was in 2000). Anyway, I've been reading the letters from the
Mojave Mailbag and some people asked if the phone number was
operational and, of course, it isn't. I just called it and I received
a computer recording saying "the number you have dialed is
unallocated." So that seems that it *could* be allocated at some point
again. What if someone were to request it as their home phone number
from the phone company? I remember that someone (can't remember if it
was someone who wrote a letter or you replying to them) said that the
phone company wouldn't re-use a phone booth number as a home phone
number. Maybe someone could give it a try? Request it specifically
from the phone company, just as you can request phone numbers that
spell out certain things. I would do it, but I'm not in the area, so
maybe somebody who lives in that area code possibly could try? Maybe
you could put it up as a request on your site, and if somebody tries,
he/she could tell us what the results were, and if the phone company
refuses to do so, then why? What is the problem with the number?
Love the site, keep up the good work!
Agnieszka
muchisimas gracias.
i did make inquiries with the phone company, but they said there was no way they would release that number. the arm of the nps is long!
Subject: Art Bell Interview with subject at the Mojave Desert phone bootg
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009
From: jdl
Were you the person who talked to Art Bell from the phone booth in '98 or '99 ? I am trying to request the show be rerun on Coast to Coast A.M Calssics on theier Streamlink service.
not even close. that was someone evidently trying to hijack the booth's notoriety in the service of UFO cultism. contrary to what this or any other of my emails might lead one to believe, i am mostly coherent and not at all insane.
From: Maddison S.
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2009
Hello!
One of my professors had several links to information on the Mojave Phone Booth on his webpage, and one of them led me to your website. I was running around the site thinking "Oh man, this is so cool! This is real proof that you don't always have to go to some multi-million dollar, washed-out, corporate place to see and experience something awesome that could potentially connect you to someone thousands of miles away with a single phone call in the desert. Where's my cell phone? I need to call this number right now and see what happens. Heck, I know where I'm roadtripping to someday!"
uh-ohhhhhhh. . . .
Then I found the article stating that the phone booth had been removed.
yeah . . . sorry about that.
I am very sad. It'd have been such a cool thing to see and potentially participate in a call from someone (even though I would have probably been nine or ten years old at the time of the call, it would have been still really freaking cool). I mean, I'm a tree-hugging hippie who cares about the protecting the enviroment, but really? The phone booth wasn't hurting anyone at all, from what I could tell anyway.
yep, it wasn't. basically, it was removed as a CYA by a bureaucrat.
It's odd, that to some people it was just some phone booth that needed to be removed *coughPac-BellandNPScough*, but to others, it was a landmark, something that I think I could go as far as saying was a place revered as an important part of culture, history, and people's lives.
goes to show what really matters to bureaucrats and politicians.
Just wondering, but is there anywhere where all the pictures people have taken of the Mojave Phone Booth have been collected together?
not that i'm aware of (google images notwithstanding). at one time a large number of booth sites proliferated, some of which still exist, and many of them have photos.
It's evident that unless I somehow gain the ability to time-travel, I'm not going to see the booth in real life, so pictures are the next best thing. I remember reading that you were writing a book in regards to the booth, so I'm guessing you'd have pictures of it in that (along with all the ones that you have on your site, which are quite neat, by the way), but has there been anything prior to that? It'd be really neat to see the different perspectives and pictures people have taken of the booth over the years.
if you ever get out cima way, i believe charlie (who became the unofficial booth tour guide) might have some older photos of it.
The whole page of stuff that people had traded for Mojave Phone Booth glass was neat as well. I particulary liked the Lego phone booth. I actually ran over to ebay and typed in "Mojave Phone Booth" for the fun of it to see if anyone was selling glass, but the only thing that came up was the movie that was released a couple years back.
it's a shame, i had so much booth glass, and whoever stole it probably just threw it in the trash (though why they bothered to steal it in the first place is a mystery).
So, yeah, there's my two cents. I'd put them in the phone booth, but it's gone. *sigh*
Sincerely,
Maddison
Oh, and sorry for the semi-long rant. It's mainly because I've been writing papers for my class finals right now like no other so I'm already in nonstop typing mode, and when it comes to things I get fired up about, I can write on for ages.
Also, your website is awesome, but I think you probably already got the vibe that I though it was neat from this email.
muchas gracias,
doc
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009
Subject: Hi
From: Nina M.
Hi, Doc...
Just found out about the Mojave Phone Booth via a bizarre series of links I clicked through.
bizarreness is the very soul of the way to the booth.
What an amazing story, and what a testament to the importance of the seemingly meanningless connections we all make along the way. I'm so happy for you that you were a part of it all. Many thanks for documenting it for those of us who weren't there.
de nada. at least in this small way the booth can still be there.
All the best,
Nina
P.S. Because I'm terminally curious, I fully intend to call the number anyway...
call away--and please let us know of any voices who answer.
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009
From: Randall P.
Subject: Mojave phone booth: Latitude/Longitude
In case someone hasn't informed you about the correction to the lat/long coordinates of the phone booth, as supplied by Deborah in her email --
From: Deborah
Subject: Conversations from the Booth
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1999
found at:
http://www.deuceofclubs.com/moj/mojmail2.htm
The coordinates she gave are 0.9 mile east of the actual location. The correct decimal coordinates are: 35.2858 N, 115.6844 W
If one goes to Google Earth, or any map website that allows one to enter lat/long, then those coordinates will take you to the spot in the road where the booth once was. At the Google Earth site someone placed a Wikipedia article link over the booth location.
thanks, randall. i never did get around to checking the coordinates onsite myself.
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009
From: Matt U.
Hi,
I stumbled upon your site via your Twitter page,
wow. that must be the first time that's happened. i guess my friend who suggested the twitter/facebook/crackspace pages was right and i owe him a dollar. (err, how about we just keep this thing between us?) he said it would be good for getting the news out re: the book about the booth. and i said it sure would be nice if i could hurry up and finish the book about the booth. and he said social networking sites would help keep the booth's name "out there." and then i said something even more boring and then after a while we hung up. frankly, i can't believe i bothered to remember the conversation.
and -- like most who get entangled in the story -- was saddened to learn of the phone booth's destruction.
one of the most deflating days of my life. but also a day of growth and discovery, because i learned i had the capacity for murder in my heart. <sounds of butterfly wings and wholesomeness>
I was stationed in the Mojave with the Marines in Twentynine Palms from July of 2001 to September 2004. Young and single, I hated the isolation from society.
that sounds like a pretty plumb assignment to me (and a much safer arrangement for society). am i too old for the marines if i once owned a pair of bell bottoms? i mean, the first time they came around. i don't know if this sways recruiting officers, but they were purple.
I hated the heat. But the Mojave is nothing if not stubborn. People change; the high desert doesn't. I started to admire the sunsets. I began to appreciate the tough beauty of whatever flora and fauna survived -- it takes a hardy species to carve out a niche in the Mojave. In a way, I suppose I fell in love with the desert.
the desert's tricky like that. it's like a kinda attractive girl, with a really good personality. oh, and her father owns a brewery. "dude, that desert is . . . HOT."
Unbeknownst to me, I often sped past the phone booth's location on my way to Vegas -- Cima was the last of three "towns" on the back roads between the Stumps and Sin City.
oh, wait. "the stumps" is a place. cos i was gonna say, how did you . . . anyway.
Fly up Amboy Road, where you could see the giant crater associated with the Manson cult,
yeah? i didn't know that. i thought their mojave haunts were further into death valley. but i'll tell you what, i'd rather have met up with them than with the two guys who up until a few years ago owned amboy. they were a pair of precariously perched lunatics. and at least one of them liked to wave his gun around.
take a right at the T, then a left, under I-40 on to Kelso, over the train tracks and down into the magnificent valley filled with Joshuas in which the phone booth once resided, through Cima, left at the T and up the hill to the interstate on-ramp.
damn, you were so close. weren't newspapers, magazines, or television allowed on the base?
Two hours of loneliness built by God. Do that drive enough, and the phrase "in the middle of nowhere, 15 miles from I-15" isn't the middle of nowhere at all. It's damn near civilization.
up until about eight years ago, it even had a telephone.
My point? Can't say I have much of one.
as someone whose website is advertised as "an exercise in pointless telephony," i'm right there with you, man. don't worry. we'll get through this.
Sometimes you just want to connect with someone else who knows the names of the same nowhere towns, someone who's seen and loves the same expanse of land that provides beauty but not comfort.
If the phone booth were still there, I'd give the Mojave a call. I miss it.
so do i. something might be done about that, one of these days.something resurrection-y, yet non-religious. (i liked the booth as much as the next desert rat, but i'm not ready to be crucified for it.) stay tuned.
From: Chuck R.
Subject: Booth Site
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009
Hey DOC,
I just wanted to shoot you an e-mail and let you know that I still enjoy a visit to the website every now and again. I always wanted to visit the actual site where the booth used to reside. I’ve moved out of Southern California for greener pastures in Indiana, but perhaps someday I’ll load up the old 4WD Jeep and give it a goo, just so I can say I was there. Do people still do that, go to the site, even though the boot is long gone?
they may, but if they do, they'd have no way of letting me know--there's no longer a phone booth there (and cell phone service is for crap in the area).
Anyhoo, I think I’ll watch the movie tonight. I’ve never seen it and can watch it on Netflix, so I think I’ll give it a go.
director putch will be gratified
Take care and thanks for keeping the site up.
de nada. it's not as though i have anything else to do. oh, except finish the book. but other than *that*....
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2009
Subject: MMMMojave!
From: Chris T.
Hey Doc,
I just finished watching the Mojave Phone Booth movie. I really enjoyed it, but it reminded me of the sad feeling I got when I first heard about the phone booth. I found the site after the phone booth was gone, so I never got to participate.
I wonder how many o0ther experiences are out there that I might catch only the tail end of.
I also wonder how I can find wonderful experiences to share with people I know.
coincidentally, i'm writing something about that at the moment for the booth book. but for now i'll just say that the fact that you want to find them means you almost certainly will.
best of luck,
doc
From: Jelmar G.
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2008
Hi,
I found your website and the intriguing story about the Mojave Phone Booth via Neatorama, and spent a few hours reading all the articles about it on your site. Excellent stories and a fantastic project. It's a shame it was destroyed.
Anyway, nice to see you keep updating your site with mails and such, even after 10+ years.
Regards and greetings from The Netherlands,
Jelmar
thanks, jelmar! even though the phone booth is sadly no more, i don't think i'd be able to bring myself to abandon its memory.
From: Andrea
Subject: MDPB mentioned in June '08 Dirt Bike magazine!
Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2008
"It turned out that riding here is still possible," said Scot Harden, as we snacked on Cliff bars and looked out over hundreds of miles. "I just got a permit to run KTM Adventure Tours through the Preserve. But I was kind of lucky. If the last administrator was still in charge, I wouldn't have stood a chance." The original administration controlling the Preserve was apparently anti-dirt bike, anti-recreation, anti-access and anti-people. Scot told the story of the Mojave phone booth. This phone booth was located in the middle of nowhere, originally placed to serve a mining camp. The mine was closed but the phone booth remained and became a desert legend. If you rode up to it at any time of the day or night, it would ring. Pick it up and you could talk to someone in Australia, Japan or anywhere. The number had been published on the internet and it became a cult phenomenon, with people calling it constantly. Sometimes there would be an answer, sometimes not. The last administrator had it removed, considering it an unwelcome attraction that generated too many visitors. "She eventually was removed from the post," said Harden. "Now the Preserve has management that's willing to work with people."
I wasn't aware that Mary Martin was "removed" from her post (she did move over to Lassen before retiring), but I would be happy to hear confirmation from anyone about new, kinder NPS overlord(s). (I was told not long ago that those who asked NPS rangers about the Mojave Phone Booth were told the lie that destroying the booth was solely the idea and work of the phone company.)
From: sam l.
Subject: Phone booth (surprised?)
Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2008
Hey there, I'm not sure exactly what to say (I've already re-written this line like 16 times). I just like I had to email you. Like so many before me I just stumbled upon your site and was taken in by the story about the booth. Actually i was watching a show about sasquatch (interesting to me since I'm a Washington native all my life) and it lead to me looking up area 51 which somehow landed me on your site. As I was saying though, the story of the booth almost brought a tear to my eye. The whole thing reminded me of this book of read (House of Leaves), as well as a whole lot of other fond memories about old friends and such. The whole time I read the story i was getting nervous thinking about calling the booth, so when I saw that it was removed i was crushed. You have no idea how hyped I was!
(well, i might have a little bit of an idea...)
I guess what i want to say is thank you so much for the awesome story and for basically makng my whole day (very crappy) one of the best days of my life.(also many thanks for updating the sites mailbag still!)
if i ever become an old phone booth, i hope someone does the same for me.
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2008
From: MICHAEL K.
Subject: Mohave Phone Booth documentary
Hi DoC,
I just watched "Mojave Mirage," which is where I got your website address. I was off doing things that seemed useful at the time when this whole Mojave Phone Booth thing happened, and I missed it.
So, I'm watching Full Frame: Documentary Film Festival, volume 1, from Netflix, and the last film on the DVD is about the phone booth. "Wow!" I think. It reminds me of my numerous trips through the desert going back to the late 60s, some even hitchhiking. I'm starting to plan a trip there myself, but right now I've got the number and am getting ready to call and tell whoever answers that I just saw the phone booth on a documentary. It's right about then when I get to the part about the Mohave Phone booth being removed. Bummer!
So, naturally, I head for www.mojave-phone-booth.com, and it is no longer there.
But at least your site is there, and I learn some new and interesting things, but there is no mention of the documentary. Hence this email.
So, I guess I'll go digitize a book or something.
i thought i'd mentioned the documentary somewhere, but i guess not. i did interview one of the filmmakers for the booth book, though, so i guess i won't report to detention.
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008
From: Megan
Greetings from Munich! Just a quick note out of the blue: I thought of you today when I stumbled across this article about Steve Guttenberg. ("The Goot" as he calls himself, oye) Did you know that he's writing a movie about the Mojave Phone Booth? ("Look Out, New York Ladies: The Goot Is Loose! Steve Guttenberg, bumped from L.A. by Tom Cruise, is in town looking for Ms. Right: 'I am a seducer, I'm a salesman'")
Best wishes to Wagner,
Megan
the article was kind of ambiguous, but actually he didn't write the movie, he just acted in it. btw, here's the followup article: "Somebody Stop Him! The Goot Is Loose ... Part Deux!"
p.s. -- wagner said to say . . . i don't know, something that was in german.
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008
From: Stretch
Subject: Your mark in Baker, CA
Doc,
Apparently, your reputation is getting around. When I saw this, I knew I had to send it to you. I found this in Baker, California on July 5 (when it was 108 at 8pm) in the Del Taco parking lot. Suppose Southern California Edison will remove the box?
only if the nps owns that del taco.
also: i was nowhere near there, i swear!
(i have to say that for my own protection. look at what happened to two brothers who saved their land in big sur. . . i guess from the nps's point of view, i'm lucky i didn't land in some federal hellhole for starting the "trouble" with the booth . . . )
From: Lou Minatti
Subject: the carbon paper testament
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008
"I'm telling you, memory is going to pass out of – well, memory – as soon as the last magnetic-head tape recorder falls out of use. With the old machines, there is still the possibility of a ghost sound remaining on the tape, a slight impression of what we said before the finger overruled the lips. The rush of speech and sound drowns out everything that happens even a second before, or worse, mutilates it, makes what happened into what is happening now. We need an alternative to what is happening now. We need an escape hatch or at least a peep hole. They are sanding all the holes out of the wood of existence. Everything is becoming digital, which is the next thing to being completely imaginary. We are living and breathing pure imagination every second, which is not as liberating as it sounds. There are no more accidents, no more backwards glances, no more catching yourself running down the stairs as you are on your way up.
interestingly, other than the mojave phone booth itself, the theme that ties together the film mojave phone booth is not far from this....
The playing cards used to snap and rustle in the spokes of the bicycle wheels and you could glimpse a split-second of a jack or a joker smiling back at you. Life itself was like that – the eye saw through the crack in the fence, the chink in the black mud of night. Now it's seamless, immaculate, rolled out in front of you in solid nothingness by Pixar. I would see the remnants of pretty girls and stylish men on flaking-off posters glued to fences, the melting faces interspersed with the slats of wood and the fragments of whispered slogans and I would catch a faint scent on the breeze and a radio would play far down the street and the pieces would dance and combine before my eyes and this was the great chasm of memory a micro-inch wide and a billion billion miles deep opening below my feet.
There were mysteries then and there are mysteries now in this country, not just in Turkey or Nepal or the former Yugoslavia. But we have no loose threads of fabrics to unravel, no chipped coats of paint to scrape at. We have no beginnings and no ends. All we can hope for is to trip on a crumbling sidewalk and get a flash of revelation before we shield our faces before the onrushing concrete. Maybe on a worm's-level we can finally see the pinpricks of stars in the sky, the way a beggar in the days of the Caesars might have.
The doors of perception need more than a cleansing. The doorknobs have all been removed and they've been caked over by digital paint. Beneath the ordinary exoticism of everyday life is the incredible rare continuum of the commonplace, the air current from nowhere, the familiar snatch of banal conversation chewed into a fine sacred dust, the abandoned cup of coffee left by the long-departed hand."
Date: Wed, 28 May 2008
From: Greg T.
Subject: Great site!
Was looking for Mojave phone booth info and ended up happily wandering Deuce of Clubs for hours. As a teenager I ran across the Mojave phone booth in 1979 in the earlier location. I had always wondered what the hell it was doing out there and it wasn't until I looked it up on the internet a few years ago after a Burning Man trip that I found out the truth behind it.
Anyway, you might find a few fun things on my site, http://lodesertprotosites.org/sites.html
From: Ernest B.
Subject: cool sight
Date: Fri, 09 May 2008
i am computer iliterate and am using my freinds fathers computer befor he gets home i tried to raed as much as i could before my elloted time was up I have lived in the mojave desert and big bear area my entire life and havent ever heard about these phone, very intriguing. i have alot to offer as far as info on my area and cool places to check out in the middle of nowhere that aren't published oh a i probabl answer my phone as often as some one answers the phone out there. ?is there still a phone of cima or out ther by needles? sincerly clint or preferably Burt Baracudavich.
Date: Wed, 7 May 2008
From: Ben W.
Subject: MPB tribute
Hi there. I'll try to keep this short.
I'm a graphic design student at San Jose State University in California. I've long had an interest in abandoned/odd desert stuff like the Mojave Phone Booth, the Desert Megaphone, Amboy, et cetera. I think it was a total shame that the Booth was unnecessarily destroyed the way it was, and I've been contemplating the idea of an art installation to commemorate it. This idea's just hypothetical right now, as I'd have to obviously do a bit of planning, research and conceptualizing. (The rough concept I have right now is an approximate duplication of the Booth itself, life-size, perhaps with pieces of its 'mythology' integrated into the exhibit.) This idea isn't part of any class assignment; it'd be completely independent, and would probably go up in some local gallery. There are lots of little avant-garde art galleries around downtown San Jose that I'm sure would be interested.
I feel like the Booth is something important and worth remembering, and not in the form of some shitty indy movie. Ideally I'd want to put the installation right where the Booth itself stood, but obviously the park service would come and haul it away at some point if I did that. The Booth was utterly unique in what it became, and I want to do something to honor it.
Anyway, that's it. If this idea goes anywhere, I might want your help, if you're willing. On the other hand, if you think this concept is stupid, feel free to tell me. I've had my share of stupid ideas, and I respect the people who won't hesitate to tell me if one of my ideas is a dud.
i think it's a fine idea, and I'm sure the booth would agree, if it still existed. and could talk. but then it wouldn't need a memorial. it gets complicated.
but you did not like the mojave phone booth film? what didn't you like about it?
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008
From: Tracy
Subject: I lived at Aiken mine
hi, I'm Tracy and I lived on the cinder cone at Aiken mine between the ages of 6 and 8. My father was Scott Nielsen, and his grandfather was....well i remember him as Grandpa Aiken. My dad ran the mine and we lived there until my parents split up in 1989. My dad remarried, stayed a while longer, then left, never to return. I guess Grandpa Aiken died a few years ago, because we all got a little check from his estate. Is the phone booth really gone?
yep. the government ripped it out under cover of darkness and immediately destroyed it.
Did they replace it?
no.
Will they replace it?
not a chance.
Did they really make a movie about it?
yep, they sure did.
LOL! That was the nearest phone to us. it was on what we called Powerline Road.
now, that's interesting. i was under the impression that was called aikens mine road.
i have a distinct memory of a cow using the phone booth one time!
i guess the local joke was that they had to put in a touch-tone model because the cows were having trouble getting their hooves into the holes on the rotary dial.
We drove past the phone on the way to the convenince store there on I-15. Please email me back, and if you can share any pictures of the mine itself, I would love to see them.
i don't think i ever went to the aikens mine. i did go up to the cima mine.
Subject: The Booth
Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008
From: Emma R.
Hello,
Well, first of all, i feel compelled to thank you for the story about the booth- I use "StumbleUpon", and i stumbled on your site one day. I just happened to have a confrence draft of a short story due two weeks later when i first found the site, and it inspired my story completely. I can't possibly describe how much of a help this whole thing has been.
I wish I had been born several years earlier- about ten or so, so that i would have been able to make the journey to the booth. But alas, i'm only fifteen, and here i am in 2008, 8 years too late. Just the thought of connecting with someone like that. Over a special phone booth.
I must sound incredibly odd. :)
But really, i just felt that i needed to thank you. I'll send you the finished draft of my story, when it's been critiqued, if you'd like.
thanks. and yes, thanks, i'd love to read your story.
From: James
Subject: RE: Mojave Phone Booth opera singer
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008
Wow! A note from the real MPB Doc. I'm honored! Did you have any idea what
happened with its popularity was going to happen?
No, I unfortunately don't have any shots of Desert Willi, and if I did, he'd
be unrecognizable with the longs exposures I was using in that series of
photos. There were 6-8 other people with me that day, so I'll spam them to
see if they might have some shots. We tried to stay out of the way of the
film crew while they did their thing, but one of the people with the
handheld cameras might have some documentation. He didn't do any singing
that we saw, but he did talk to a couple of callers that day.
I'll definitely let you know if something turns up! Happy trails--
From: Annonymous Kelso hiker
Subject: I have been to that phone booth. Please read.
Date: Wed, 09 May 2007
Dear whoever,
I have been to your phone booth 5 times, once a year for five years : 1992 - 1997. I haven't read that much of your website to know when your booth became famous, but I am sure that I used that phone before anyone else that you know. I discovered it through a post on Google Earth. I was just tracing my hiking trail on google earth and found your post by the phone booth. I am sad to hear that it is no longer there.
As part of an annual Boy Scout endurance hike, every spring time my troop and other troops from my church would start a 32.5 mile one day endurance hike starting at Holloran Summit, passing the phone booth and ending at the Kelso train depot where we would camp for the night.
Because you've been out there you know how little is out there. Imagine how boring it would be if you WALKED out there instead of driving. As you can imagine, seeing the phone booth and calling home from it was one of the highlights of our trip.
About the phone, when I first saw it, there were no bullet holes. Annother year we brought a paint ball gun with us and shot up the booth with paint balls. Annother year we broke out the windows of the booth.
You can e-mail me any question you like about the area to prove that I was there. For instance, the booth used to have a phone book attached to it, and the booth is about 20 feet from a cattle grid on the ground in between a gate.
From: Houndog5
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008
Hello,
First off, thank you very much for the site. The stories and
accompanying photos were quite fun.
good. thanks for saying so.
Tragic ending though, sorry.
yes. (although i prefer to reserve the word tragedy for natural events, whereas events like the removal of the booth i tend to call perfidy)
Do you think it will ever be possible to re-establish the booth in its
rightful place?
realistically? no. but don't let that stop you.
about the only way it would be possible would be if the country suddenly did an about-face and elected ron paul, who'd be the only candidate who, as president, would be happy to divest as much authority as possible.
I am new to the knowledge of the booth, alerted only
today through, of all things, a soccer website for rabid fans of the
LA Galaxy called The Riot Squad. Apparently, they consider this a
truly worthy cause. (I think anyone who reads your site would agree) I
have attached the link to The LARS website thread.
thanks for that.
though the removal was billed as a "joint decision," it was actually entirely controlled by the nps. i'm told there were easement fees that had been forgotten over the years (i don't know how much) and the nps told pac-bell that they could either pay the fees (and probably intereset and penalties, knowing how government operates) or remove the booth. we know which option pac-bell chose, but i wouldn't exactly call that a free choice.
Subject: The Phone Booth
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007
From: Shawn H.
Everytime i read the Mojave story and see it, i wish i would have made the journey from Victoria British Columbia Canada to the desert.
It's unfortunate that they would remove booth. Personnally, i would have brought up some kind of fight with them, and with your plethora of followers you might have made a valiant fight agains the evil government overlords.
efforts were indeed made. but i discovered through insiders that the booth was in fact destroyed the very day it was taken out.
i don't know how evil government overlords are in canada, but u.s. evil overlords are pretty intractable. (but i suppose you, along with the rest of the world, know that already.)
But such an inspireing story, and fun for all involved...(again, i wish i could have been a part of it).
It would be impossible for someone to topple this sort of feat. It's not every day that a phone is descovered in the middle of nowhere...and publicized in a way that gets a cult following.
not in my experience, anyway!
I can assure you though....in my many ventures through backwood dust-trails, redneck villa's, and any and all outback excursions i throw myself into...i always seem to keep an eye out for such obscure chances that i might catch a glimps of a remote booth....something of the sort that can have the users of the world call and become part of a close-knit circle of excentrics...(cuz somewhere deep down...we all have one vice, so it might as well be this).
Being as you are pioneer of such an extraordinary adventure, which was unfortunately halted to a close by the phone company and the parks department, i would graciously like to ask for permission from you personally.... permission that is, that if i ever do come across a remote artifact like the one you stumbled upon yourself, that you make the pilgramage with me...and document it in a way that i have observed that only you know how.
i would be happy to do so, provided the location were kept secret this time. never let it be said that i do not learn from the past. . . .
(please post my name as : Shawn H. ..... leaving out any other information that might be attached to this email.....as i am sending this from my work email and i have always linked to your site through "ishouldbeworking.com" ... ironically)
From: rodney h.
Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007
well kiss my homesick ass....i been lookin for a reason to take a road trip_ran up on yer phone;;;;;paked y bags afore i read on to the part thatwoulda told e not to===shit, i'm loaded, headed outa the driveway i'll call ya on my cell..............
hmmmmmmmmmmm..ain't got yer #
we'll think about ya;}
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007
From: Shawn K.
Like many of your site's fans, I happened on your site today... a little too late. What a shame about the phone booth's demise. If they hadn't been so sneaky about its removal, I bet someone would have paid big bucks for the actual booth. Now it's probably strewn across scrapyards in China.
if we're really lucky, it will return in the form of chinese-manufactured weapons. or toys (for those who draw the distinction).
Reading through your site, I noticed that Dennis Casebier mentioned in your first telephone call that he knew of *two* phone booths... the Mojave booth and one closer to him in Needles. Did he ever disclose the location of the second booth? If so, I'll personally drive out there to get you the number. I've been looking for it, but so far to no avail.
i visited that phone ten years ago. it wasn't a booth, by then--just a kiosk attached to a phone pole, across from some houses. so, though it was a phone booth in the mojave, it was no mojave phone booth.
Do you know the name/edition of the Auto Club map he originally sent you? I bet there were other similar telephones marked on it.
the only other one was in a booth at the kelso depot (since removed).
I live in Southern California, where my favorite pastime is taking random drives into the desert just to see what's there. As a desert junkie, I was wondering if you could tell me where I might find some of Casebier's books. Do you know the publisher? Or did he publish them himself?
they can be had, but you'll pay a premium. i looked at bookfinder, and most are pretty pricey, second-hand.
Thanks for a great site! R.I.P. Mojave Phone Booth. I guess there's hope that there are others out there like it....
i think by now they'd have become known—and if they had, things might not have gone well for them. . . .
btw, I just read Mary Martin retired.
Bummer! I was about to write her a letter!!
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007
From: Jeremy B.
While looking at telephone related sites, I stumbled across the Mojave
Phone Booth page many years ago, I think it was near the time the booth
was taken down, but I never got the chance to call. Stumbled across
the page again and started reading through old viewer submissions...
I was bored and nosy enough when I stumbled across an old comic
somebody had sent you several years ago, and you mentioned that it was
illegible, so I pulled the text out. Well,
better than 95% of it anyway...
[Text from sold_superman_booth.jpg:]
The curious history of the telephone
Sold-supermans phone booth!
By the time you read this, some lucky cole?? ??octure may be the proud
owner of history's most famous phone booth.
Yes the very vehicle which mild-mannered Clark Kent transformed himself
into the "man of steel."
Kirk Alyro?, who originally played Superman in two 15-part movie
serials made in 1945 and 1950, reccieved the phone
booth from Pacific Telephone. In return, according to the inscription
in the booth,
Pacific Telephone was granted "all communication rights between Earth
and the planet Krypton." In preparations for
his move from North Hollywood to Palm Springs, Alryo? placed
the booth up for auction. His reason for selling it reveals that the
once all-powerful crime fighter is no longer
what he used to be. "I'd bring it along, but it takes four guys to
lift it."
[End text]
I like weird stories about abandoned and forgotten places: The
Loneliest Phonebooth. Centralia Pennsylvania burning since the 1960s.
Abandoned tunnels. even someone taking a motorcycle to chernobyl.
There are lots of really interesting things out there, but nobody
remembers once some little aspect changes.
I'm probably babbling,
Jeremy-
muchisimas gracias, mr. jeremy.
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007
From: Michael O.
I just wanted to say that your trip to the phone booth in the middle of the Mojave is just awesome! I wish I would've found your site back before it was destroyed. That would've made for a fun trip.
Anyways, thanks for sharing your experience and take care!
Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2007
Subject: I called in "sick" to work once on that phone...
From: Jena M.
at least I tried too.
I used to go camping out there with my aunt and uncle. This was back in...um....well, my oldest child was born in 1983 and I'm pretty sure it was before that. One weekend, we decided to stay longer, but I was supposed to work. We drove to the phone (my uncle knew where it was) and I tried to call. The phone did not have a regular number, but was on some kind of exchange thing. I could not dial out and though I could get an operator, she couldn't figure it out either. In the end, I just stayed and made up an excuse for work later. I didn't get fired :)
From: m hoiriis
Subject: WTF?
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007
The Phone Booth number has been disconnected!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I went to call it and got a recording...
you're KIDDING! holy cow. omg. &c.
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007
From: robert s.
Subject: That was fun-Thanks!
Hello, Sir,
Sounds lame, I know, but you visited a phone booth
many times, so you're game, I imagine.
This has started off like an insult, unintentionally.
I am just too lazy to backspace. However, your phone
booth site was very entertaining. Thanks for the
vicarious living.
We are a desert-loving, travel-loving family, yet
never made it to the booth. I called it once in '97
or so after a couple of beers and talked to a very
nice guy about stuff I wouldn't remember even without
beers. An etherial feeling came about me, because he
was vicariously where I couldn't be at the moment due
to mortgage/job/wife/kids/lawn/projects/whatever.
that, indeed, speaks to one of the core purposes of the project. always good to hear.
But my appreciation for all things remote, yet connected
was piqued. I had never seen your site, but it is a
delight to see now. It definitely takes me back.
So I thought, "I am going to email this guy about that
big-ass boulder outside of Landers by our desert
house. He would probably be interested in such a
landmark considering his preoccupation with the
desert."
As with many things, too slow! First site listed from
a search to remind myself of the name of the boulder
from Prodigy/MSN was your site. I laughed at myself
and felt a pleasing sense of satisfaction that I am
not the only goofball who revels in these types of
discoveries, despite the fact that some people's
outnumber mine.
Thanks for the laugh, and I will, most certainly, be
watching your site for more "discoveries."
i'm glad i got the chance to see giant rock before it became plural. hope someone comes by with a sandblaster to aim at the graffiti now & then.
Here's the scenario...
One warm, breezy, high-desert Friday afternoon, people
start dropping in for a casual day or two by the
boulder. At the campfire that evening amongst friends
new and old with like minds, stories, jokes and
history are shared. It comes up that a good
sandblasting of the rock would make things fresh (for
a while anyway). Bills pool.
In the morning, as people are starting to stir, a few
scoot over to Landers to seek out the Sandman. About
10 or 11, he shows with the rig he blasts houses with
during the week. About 3 hours later, all are sharing
some brews in the shade of a sparkling boulder.
Pics ensue, of course. Sounds like a good time!
From: Sally F.
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2007
Hiya Doc,
Just spent a precious hour of my life all over your phone booth pages. I am sad (that I missed this) and fascinated.
As a kid we made an annual trek from Phoenix to Seal Beach, CA every summer (vacation away from Dad got longer every year as the marriage deteriorated - yay for the beach - who knew it would all end when the divorce came - boo for the splitting of funds). Anyway - eight-hour drives across the desert sucked in the 1972 Chevy station wagon with the roof rack and hidden seats in the back (leave the back window open while driving and we can all die of carbon monoxide poisoning!). The highlights were busting out Mad magazine during the drive, date shakes and burgers at the Sambos in Indio, and spotting the jackrabbit outhouses. A jackrabbit outhouse is a goofy little building in the middle of the desert that has no apparent reason for being there. It looks like an outhouse and someone must use it. Everyone know coyotes and vultures don't use toilets so it must be for the jackrabbits.
The Mohave Phone booth strikes me as a jackrabbit phone booth (although the coyotes and the vultures probably used it too).
Just wanted to share - good luck with the book!
Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007
From: Tony E.
Subject: A few words from Baker, Ca.
Hello Doc,
I was just now surfing the web and I ran across
your phone booth site..Quite nice..I remember well
when the phone booth was all the rage and the outcry
that I heard even here in Baker when they first spoke
of removing it, not to mention when they did it..
I have lived in Baker California for over 20 years
and I saw the very beginning of the Park Services ever
increasing strandlehold on this desert (Not to mention
the BLM)..I am thankful that I was able to visit some
places out here that they either destroyed or fenced
off before all the nonsense set in..I dont want to go
on and on (which I could) lol but I had to send you an
email and at least say hello..
I wont mention all the land stealing they did
either! haha Heck I knew some of the people that were
run out of these areas..
In the end it was quite a shame that they took the
phone booth down, and an even bigger shame that they
destroyed it..Whether or not they want to think about
it that booth was a piece of history of this area..Of
the whole Mojave Desert as well..
I never met anyone here in this town that did not
like the phone booth where it was and the buzz that
grew around it..I am only ashamed to say that I never
got a chance to actually see it..I did stumble upon
the place it sat after it was taken out though..
There is a man here in town named Mike Dougherty
and he had a movie location scouting business..He made
much money just taking people to see the booth..I am
sure that whether they noticed it or not all of the
business owners liked it too as it most of the time
meant that people who were going to see the booth
would shop in Baker for drinks, food, etc..
I moved to Baker with my parents in 1986 or so..I
was in third grade so I pretty much grew up here..I am
quite fond of the place..The only drawback is the lack
of gainful employment..I have spent time in
construction and I am a plumber as well, not to
mention a mechanic both vehicle as well as
motorcycles..So working at Burger King is not
appealing in the least..But I have stayed..Not too
sure how much longer but even if I leave and do not
come back I will still look back quite fondly at this
small town..
Wish you the best Doc..
Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2007
From: Bai
Subject: Sergeant Zeno from the Pentagon???
Hello,
i'm a fan of the Mohave Phone Booth, or the memories of it.
I trully love your website, and i really wish that there were more oddities in the world like the phone booth, but due to metropolization and general party-pooping, these little wonderst are dissapearing. Now, as we all know, when Rick Karr went to the Booth, he, along with other people who met up with him during part of his adventure, took notes in a giant log-book of EVERY-SINGLE-CALL. Now, i've seen on SMALL list of about 60 calls or so, but i was wondering if anybody has either transcribed the log book on the internet or has somehow made it public? Also, there have been repeated calls from "Sergeant Zeno from the Pentagon". He has left many-a e-mails at your site. I have done a bit of research on him, with mixed answers. Anyway, if you have any additional information on him or any of the other odd callers, please do let me know. I would appreaciate it highly. Keep up the site, people need to remeamber the Phone Booth.
all i know about sergeant zeno i learned from the mojave phone booth.
From: Robert O.
Subject: Just a hello, and thanks.
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2007
Been on your site; read about the desert phone.
I had a chance a long time ago ('98) to visit the phone, but unfortunately I declined because I didn't have much cash. Now I have means to get there, and there is no THERE. It's really sad what happened to the phone in the end.
Thanks for having the site up, and sharing!
I'm considering seeing if I can get anybody to put a phone up like that in northern canada. I'm not sure if it would ring though... I know most payphones here are equiped for outgoing calls only.
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007
From: Nora
Subject: The book?
Hi Deuce,
I love your story...the first time I found your website (2 weeks ago) it was fun & sad and I just got all caught up in it....spent about three hours on it.....I just got a CD of documentary shorts in the mail...can't wait to watch it tonight (got it for the M.P.B. story) [Kaarina Cleverley Roberto's Mojave Mirage]
Have you thought about a pilgrimage to the site of the beloved booth? This May will be seven years.... and people are still interested!!….maybe take a cell phone or CB out there (post the # on D.O.C ‘s website) its not the same for sure... but a nice way to pay homage to a magical thing....& not a bad way to promote the book to fans....did you ever finish the book?....where can I get it?
i'm sure i'll go back out to the site one of these days. for one thing,
i'll need to get a 4wd vehicle. for another, i'll need to finish up writing
the book. then we'll get the ol' buggy a-rollin' again. . . .
I have a 4 wheel drive.....you're welcome to borrow it when you want to make a visit to the site.
that is very kind of you. i may just take you up on that one of these days.
make the time to finish the book....even if you have to start over with a new angle
(i actually had to do that once.)
....just think you have a special story in you, and bet you would feel great about finishing the project...the story inspired me in a bizarre way to look for the magic in unusual situations.....plus, you're the only one who can write this book.
it's going well and looks to be finished by the end of the year.
thanks for the encouragement,
doc
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007
From: N Lin
Subject: Loneliest pay phone - still alive?
I found your web page by chance. I also know of a phone called the "loneliest pay phone", but after reading your site, it appears that the "loneliest pay phone" may be a different phone than the "Mojave phone booth" you refer to.
Here's the phone that I know of, and visited, on highway US 50:
Is that the phone you are talking about? At first I thought "yes", but now, I think "no".
you are correct. that is, the you that thought "no," not the you that thought "yes."
The good thing is that the "loneliest phone" I am talking about is apparently still in existence.
Seeing as how the "Mojave phone booth" was apparently destroyed by publicity, I leave it at your discretion what to do with this information about the "loneliest pay phone".
i learned my lesson. i promise never to publicize another remote telephone booth.
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007
From: jess
Subject: Phone booth/radio
Just wanted to point out something Dan wrote comparing long-distance ham radio contacts with the Booth. We'd been talking about people who called the Booth hoping someone would pick up and people (like me) who called it hoping nobody would, and how that was a lot like what was cool about radio.
good parallel. somewhere i have hours and hours of cassette tape of the mojave phone booth just ringing in the night. i write in the book ms about how i'd thought that *was* the mojave phone booth project: just making a phone ring far out in the desert. . . .
Subject: Mary Mary quite contrary
Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2007
From: Hikes With Ropes
Mary Mary quite contrary
where did the phone booth go?
It was an asset to some and historic to many
so how could your selfishness force it to go?
i dont want to know how it feels to sit on your throne,
perhaps part of the New World Order to imprint and clone?
what i do know is what you have done is sefish and rude
and someday you will have to answer to "The Dude"
perhaps only to find... your number has been disconnected
if only the mojave phone booth, like the dude, had been allowed to abide.
Subject: Phone Booth...duh!
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007
From: Paul M.
You're certify-ably nuts! I was looking for information on a "superman phone booth" - I do live event production and this year's United Way campaign in Savannah, GA has Superman as the hero. I ended up in the freakin' desert! I LOVE it!
I'm planning a motorcycle ride from coast to coast either this fall or maybe next, depending on the amount of time I can take off work...and it's now a site that I HAVE to hit! I'll camp out there, for sure.
Good luck from Georgia!
From: Tom W.
Date: Sun, 4 Feb 2007
Doc (Duce of Spades),
(you have biffed both my value and my suit and therefore i must assume you are sending me a coded message. stand by to be contacted by cryptographic services.}
Hey guy! What ever happened to the phone man?? When I call I get this hateful recording that 760-733-9969 has been disconnected.
"our" government unilaterally decided that the phone booth--which was
in its place decades before the government strong-armed its way to
controlling the area--was "not consistent" with the government's
mission to get people to visit this "national preserve." so they
forced the phone company to rip it out under cover of darkness. the
booth was taken away and destroyed, so as to leave no trace behind for
the people who loved it.
i guess this is what we involuntarily pay them for.
I feel lost and disconnected over all this.
think how the poor booth must have felt, in the final moments before
its undeserved execution....
I also had a friend, James Pratt who lived out that way and he came up missing so if you ever go back out there can you look for him? He’s one hell of a great mechanic!
whereabouts in the area did he live?
His last known residence was at Ft. Mojave, AZ
that's near bullhead city. do you know people in that area? i'm
looking for a character named rick karr, whom i met when he camped out
at the booth for about a month. he said he was from bullhead city,
which is near fort mohave.
From: Pensioner
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007
Simply great site. I visited long ago when researching the Mojave Road for fun.
Thanks and keep on keepin on
From: Ericpik
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007
Subject: Mojave Phone Booth Update
Greetings... Thought I would give you an update and send you some pictures...
I have always loved the story of the phone booth and have followed it for some time. I was loading my GPS up for a trip to Vegas, and was scrolling around on Google Earth, and saw the phone booth marker. On the way out the door, I grabbed a fake pay phone that I had picked up, and tossed it in the suitcase. My wife and I drove to the site, and hung the payphone on the pole. We took some pictures, enjoyed the desert for awhile, and left it hanging on the pole.
It really looks neat hanging there, and on Jan 5th 2007 there was a phone at the site. Only the grounding wire exists, the line was way up the pole, so I could not try and hook it up. I am sure the circuit was down at the CO anyway. I wonder how long before it is removed, shot up, or smashed?
I also read how your glass had been stolen, so we picked up a bit and will send it to you if you email an address. Someone has hacked up the bottom of the pole, so I grabbed a few scraps of wood also.
a fine idea and fine execution. it is good to know there is a phone there (or was, by now, maybe, at any rate). thanks for sending those.
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007
From: Laura L.
Subject: Phone Booth - New Fan Too Late :(
Hey There
I just wanted to let you know that I just found your site, and spent a
couple worthwhile hours reading up about your adventures with this
phone booth. Actually, I'm a fan of Annabeth Gish's so I was looking
up information about her movie "Mojave Phone Booth" and came across
your site. I was extreamly and pleasently surprised to learn all
about this amazing phone booth.
It really depresses me that I just got to learn about this now, and
now it's gone! Ugh! Blows my mind how people can do something like
that. Another reason to hate our government right? I was out that
way last winter, visiting family in Pheonix. Woulda been cool if it
were still there, and I could have visited it then.
as long as you didn't mind driving a ways (the booth was pretty far from phoenix (probably 450 miles or so), in california.)
Even not, I just think it woulda been cool to call the thing if I had known about it
before they took it down.
Anyway. I just wanted to write and congradulate you on this fabulous
website. I give you major props for being so dedicated all those
years -- and now still!! It's really an amazing thing you've done
here.
I still have yet to see the film, but I'm hoping they do it as much
justice as this website has.
And can't wait to see your book!!
i'm glad the booth still manages to interest people, even almost six
years after its demise.
PS: Is that phone number still connected to anything, or did they just
reroute it to a normal phone in some person's house or something?
Kinda curious what WOULD happen if I were to call it lol.
why not give it a try sometime? what's the worst that could happen?
Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006
From: Martín B.
Subject: Recording of Mojave Phone booth call
Hey Doc,
Here's a link to a recording I made of my phone call to the phone
booth (I believe it was in 1999).
It's a fairly mundane recording, but you might appreciate it none the less.
I hope you enjoy it!
thanks for that! good ol' evil dr. cliff. he was in a decent mood that night, sounds like.
I didn't realize you guy were different Doctors! :)
yep. dr. cliff's an evil dentist. i'm just evil.
(also, he's a real doctor. i'm just an acronym.)
From: joe b.
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2006
Hi there
Just got a couple of questions about the ex-booth and some observations of possible remote phone booths here in Australia.
How far was the booth from the nearest exchange? Here, I think that there's a limit as to how far you can have a land line from the nearest exchange - about 10 miles, I think. Any more than that, and you've got a satellite phone. We've got a guy that lives in the middle of a world heritage area, 100 miles from even a road (!)
I live in a state that's pretty sparsely populated, no deserts here, but basicly we've got a city of 200,000, a city of 100,000 about 150 miles from that, and 2 cities of 20,000 near that one. Any other towns are at least 10 miles apart from each other, and the population is between about 2,000 and 200. The states' land area is about 60,000 km, so even though we're pretty small, there are potentially some areas where there would be remote phone booths. Theres a 100km stretch of national highway with absolutely no signs of civilisation, it's completely within a world heritage site. Distances between towns of 50km aren't uncommon.
It seems that since most towns are in clusters, with nothing in between, a phone box is going to be near an exchange - I'm not sure if there's a physical limit of the distance a line can be from an exchange, haven't enquired yet. There are definately a few boxes that serve about 200 people, maybe some where there are only 10 houses to be seen, but none that would come close to rivalling your discovery. Maybe near some old mines (though most of those sites are in world heritage areas now, probably suffered the same fate as our beloved booth), I'd like to enquire about where phone boxes are located (no real state-wide map), or a map of main feeder lines, but I imagine in this day and age, that kind of info would be sealed up pretty tight. I'll make some enquiries and try and find out for you.
Not sure if you know much else about phone tech, but what is the limit for a land line from an exchange over there?
Regards from Australia!
thanks for writing. i don't know the exchange limit here in the u.s., but the mojave phone booth's case wasn't a typical one in that the line wasn't established for the booth but the other way round. the booth was installed in the early 60s to take advantage of an existing interstate line running north to south, which had been installed during WW2 as a backup to the main phone line farther west, that had apparently been considered to be more within the range of enemy sabotage.
Thanks for the reply. Just read that you used to live in Tempe. Just wondering, how far can someone live away from Phoenix and still be considered "in" Phoenix?
when i lived in tempe, the following seemed to be pretty much the drill: if i was in phoenix & someone asked where i lived, i would say tempe. but if i were in, say, california and someone asked, i would probably say phoenix, because they might not have heard of tempe, and tempe is part of the greater phoenix metro area.
Also, do you have any other road trip photos (maybe digital) to/from the booth, or from the southwest?
i think the booth stuff's all linked from the main booth page, but there's tons of southwestern stuff (mostly from arizona), all over the site. (here's the site log.)
a few to note in especial:
azlower
wagner's az flyover
mt. lemmon
From: Mea C.
Subject: Save the Cima Mine
Date: Sun, 01 Oct 2006
Yes, it is 2006, but I just found the "Save the Cima Mine" website. The
last posting is from some time ago. What has happened in the meantime?
Was the family able to keep the mine and their homes? Please let us know
what happened.
i haven't talked to lorene in a while--actually, i should give her a call soon. when last i spoke to the family, they were continuing their fight and vowing not to give up. the government should at least have to compensate them for forcing them off their land, surely. but, of course, justice is in especially short supply these days.
This kind of stuff is why I detest our government.
right there with you, mea. in spades.
From: Dr. Truth
Date: Sun, 01 Oct 2006
At this site there is an interesting signature, no. 49 specifically.
I thought you'd like it after reading the Art Car segment on your site, Eraserhead etc.
i had seen that ["David Lynch"] before, but i hadn't thought it was likely to be genuine. do you think i may be wrong about that?
Id say it might be a fake as Lost highway was made years before its removal.
From: corvin
Subject: mojave booth new years 2000
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2006
I have several photos of the booth that we took in 1999. They are yours for the asking.
love to see them. do you have scans of them to email?
We attended the booth gathering on new years 2000. It was cold and the gathering disjointed. Fun all the same. Great way to start a century.
disjointed in what way(s)?
Just like the twilight zone.................... it were fun!
Needless to say............ they are most all locked up in an old spare drive that is only windows 98 compatible and I don't have a windows 98 system anymore............... I hope to find some way to convert the old external HD to XP and then maybe I'll be able to access the rest of the mojave booth pictures.
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006
From: Vermont
Subject: Cima Mine?
It looks like the Cima Mine page hasn't been updated in some time. Do
you know how Lorene's doing? Did she give up her efforts to reopen the
mine? I can't imagine why they wouldn't have a strong case for winning
compensation in a civil court if they managed to find a decent lawyer.
i haven't talked to lorene in a little while, but i can't imagine that she would have given up. i'll have to check back in with her soon.
From: Stephanie
Subject: I cranked up at the Mojave Phone Booth
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006
Came across your site totally by accident, and what a surprise it was!
I often used that phone booth in the mid 70's. I lived in Needles, and my friend Linda lived in Cima where her family ran the tiny general store/post office. There were very few phones in the area and the phone booth had been placed somewhat centrally so people without phones could make and receive calls. If any locals happened to hear the phone ringing there was a community rule that you stopped and answered, and took a message for whoever the caller wanted to reach. Everyone always slowed down and opened their car windows as they drove past the booth, just in case. When I was visiting Linda we frequently walked through the desert heat to the booth instead of using the phone in the store, so we could make calls we didn't want her parents to overhear. There was usually a beat up old chair next to it, so you could sit down if you had to wait for an incoming call.
I notice you have a 10-digit number for it, but back then all the phones in the area, including this phone booth, were "toll stations" and used crank phones. They weren't old-timey looking, they looked pretty much like other pay phones, but instead of a dial they had a crank on the side. You turned it a few times and an operator came on the line and you told her the number you wanted to reach. Toll stations didn't have regular telephone numbers; instead, they had quaint names like Windmill Station #2, Halloran Summit #3, Cinder Peak #1. I'm pretty sure this booth was Lanfair #1. The phone at the Cima store was Lanfair #2 and they were on a shared line, so their phone would ring when someone called the booth, but they had a different ring so they knew when it was for the store. There were phones at a few of the local ranches and there was one at the Stuckey's where my friend worked, but there really weren't many around and a lot of people relied on the phone booth for all their personal communication. The booth itself wasn't shot up when I was there, in fact it was in pretty good shape although the glass was scratched up from being sandblasted during desert storms. I guess back then not so many people knew about it and it didn't get vandalized. I never heard of it even being out of order.
A few years later I worked at Pacific Bell in LA and got curious about the crank phones, so I checked around to see if they were working. They were indeed, and I even called the booth a number of times. I had to dial 0 for an operator and say I wanted to reach Lanfair #1; sometimes they wouldn't know what you meant and had to get a supervisor, but eventually you'd be transferred to a Rate and Route operator who could connect to a toll station (the regular TSPS operators couldn't put the call through). I never got an answer at the booth when I was calling from Los Angeles. As recently as the mid-eighties some toll station names were still used (I don't know if they were still crank phones), but by the 90's there were no more toll stations in Southern California and all the phones had real phone numbers. I thought it was kind of sad, they had been so unique.
Just thought I'd share my memories since you allowed me to enjoy them again!
hello, stephanie and thanks for writing. i always love to hear reminiscences from people who have lived in that area.
it sounds as though we may be talking about two different phones. i've seen the one at the cima store--in fact, the first time we went to find the booth, we got lost and ended up in cima and saw it there. but the booth that is the subject of the site was up on aikens mine road, miles away from cima or the cima exit off I-15.
i'm not sure i'd heard about the second lanfair phone. i visited one lanfair phone, not far from goffs, but it had been moved, i believe, further up the road to where it now is, attached to a phone pole, across the street from some trailers.
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006
From: Phillip R.
Subject: Booth Book
Hey Deuce,
Have you visited the booth site since the removal?
i imagine i will eventually, but i haven't been able to bring myself to do it so far.
I really want to, but college is sucking my money dry. That and the best off-road vehicle we have is a S10. So how goes the book? I guess that's all I came to email about, so I'll let you go. Awesome site, by the way.
gracias. the book proceeds apace. if you do go to the booth site, be sure to rent a stout 4 x 4.
Subject: great site
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006
From: "Young, Karl"
Hey Doc,
Just stumbled on your Mojave phone booth site and spent more time than I care to admit exploring it. Thanks for providing such a great and entertaining site; I'm looking forward to the book (and hopefully will be able to catch the movie somewhere). I just had one minor quibble and request. Could you maybe tone down the jack booted thug bit re. the NPS a little. I'm sure they do a lot of dumb things and tearing the booth down may have been one of them but I find the libertarian, kill the gumint and we'll all be free under world domination by ChevMart stuff a bit annoying and to me counter to the creative spirit of your site. If keeping me from something keeps it alive (which a lot of Mojave folks seem to frequently feel is an act of terror perpetrated by the NPS) I think that can be ok; I'm not the center of the universe (and think of the situation in reverse, e.g. if you eventually had had a zillion RV's surrounding the phone booth it would have kind of killed the spirit of it - sure people can err on the side of trying to be overprotective but they can err on the other side too re. not doing a few things to try and protect something for a while, while acknowledging that it's all going to change eventually). Anyway sorry for carrying on and thanks again for your site. Cheers,
dear young karl,
i am glad you enjoyed reading about the mojave phone booth. your request, however, puzzles me.
yours is the type of email my friend the cardhouse robot calls a "great site ... but" email.
(what cardhouse actually said was, "I LOVE when people say `great site ... but.' Great email ... but fuck you UCSF twit. . . . Please give him an extra serving of STFU for me, please.")
(he also wanted to know where eudora stores its dictionary information, but for now that's between me and eudora and the cardhouse robot.)
at all events, karl, i would naturally just adore tailoring my site to your tastes and political opinions, except deuceofclubs.com must have thousands of similarly offensive pages, and, well, gollygoshdarnitall, i just flat-out don't have the time to fix them at the moment, what with having to waste large chunks of my time trying to scrape together enough money to hand over to the county government in order to prevent them from carrying out their threat of confiscating what according to me, the seller, and the bank is my entirely paid off and owned-by-me land.
oh, damn. there i go again.
but seriously. you're not thinking, here, karl. let's suppose i could figure out how expressing my very own thoughts on my very own website could possibly be "counter to the creative spirit of" my very own website. and let's suppose it were possible, in some non-idiotic manner, to accomplish that. the real question you and i must face together is: why? why would i do that?
can't think of a valid reason? you're in luck! i've thought of two possibilities for you:
1. because the force of your argument--no, let me start again. because the force of your being a bit annoyed has convinced me of the error of my deeply held and, believe it or not, carefully considered positions. i now consider it perfectly legitimate for individuals or groups of people to initiate force against other people for reasons other than self-defense. golly, thanks for clearing my head! i'm going to go out right now and join a major political party! (maybe the republicans! maybe the democrats! as if it makes a difference which one orders me around with threats of force backed up by . . . wait for it . . . wait for it . . . yes, force! force! glorious force!)
or
2. because i suddenly prefer that my website reflect other peoples' dumb-assed views of the world instead of my dumb-assed view of the world.
you will have divined from my apparently infamous "tone" here that neither of those reasons is currently applicable. perhaps you have even divined that it was pretty foolish to have expected anything else. in attempted mitigation of your embarrassment, i'll mention that i just now noticed that you have a university email address.
translation: i see by your outfit that you are a cowboy.
i suspect you are a sophomore or junior cowboy, because freshman cowboys are too busy drinking and getting laid to care about the views expressed on obscure websites (the ones that aren't devoted to porn, anyway) and senior cowboys are too busy drinking and trying not to marry the girls they knocked up. sophomores and juniors, however, often believe themselves possessed of The Great Ultimate Truth, which they expect, immediately upon their graduation, to begin forcing, by means of governmental violence, upon all the infidels who don't Think Right.
if this is the case, karl, i totally understand your befuddlement at the free expression of beliefs contrary to the Revealed Way, as handed down, no doubt, by your favorite infallible Ph.D
no harm done, boy-o. call me when you grow up and we'll go out to a big boy bar and raise our glasses to everyone going to hell in his own way.
then again, maybe you're not young, karl. maybe you're old-enough-to-know-better karl. perhaps you're an employee of that government university (and a san francisco university at that). if so, i can see why you wouldn't want someone poking at the tit you're busy sucking on. totally. (<== me speaking californian for you--does that tone work better for you?) you may therefore already be beyond hope, but all i can say is, i sure hope it wasn't taxpayer-financed hours you spent looking at my website.
wait. no i don't.
doc
p.s. -- thanks for letting me know the correct pronunciation of "gumint." here i've been pronouncing it "government" all these years. what was i *thinking*?
alrighty then and a g'day to you (and I'll give you that I'm just some dumb fuck who hasn't a clue re. which tit you're sucking from and I'll stick to my own little sissy san francisco cowboy bars, but thanks for the offer)
From: Bill P.
Subject: Thanks!
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006
Doc,
I grieve at the loss of “The Booth”. I keep myself pretty far away from media and so I never knew what I had missed until I stumbled upon your site today. I have spent the last six hours reading about “The Booth”. I can assure you those are six hours that I will never get back but the expense has been well worth the gain.
good to hear. though what i really want to hear is that you spent six *billable* hours reading about the booth.
I was led to your site as I was researching information on the AT&T transcontinental phone lines, one of which runs very near your pay phone site. http://long-lines.net/places-routes/maps/US52.html . In fact I think one of them is buried beneath your row of poles. I just thought this may be some trivia you didn’t know about your site.
you are correct about that. the line was installed in 1942 as a backup to the existing pacific coast line, in case saboteurs should get to it. the mojave booth's phone was added in the early sixties.
This is an updated link to the teraserver for the phone booth location.
i think that's the same one, from june of '94. i wish they'd update that one. either that, or let us have a closer view, so that we could get a look at the booth. i imagine that would practically require a freedom of information act request.
I say that we all just keep making pilgrimages out to the site, and invite our friends until NPS finally has to put up a fence to keep people out. Then their true intentions would be known.
i would encourage that, if the roads hadn't become so sandy now that someone would end up stuck out there.
I worked with a committee that was negotiating with Federal environmental groups for the construction of a riverwalk within a city park along a portion of a stream that carried migrating fish through downtown San Jose, California. Finally, after months and months of negotiations and repeated denials of proposed solutions, the Federal person summed it up by saying “Look, I don’t care if people can’t get close to the river, I prefer it that way, that keeps them out of this habitat”.
Somehow, the pendulum eventually needs to swing back a bit the other way. It wasn’t but about 50 years ago that the same federal government would have let you go strip mine in the Mojave and then go dump your leachate into the river. I’m not condoning that but can’t we find a suitable middle ground?
agreed. personally, i think private property is always better managed than "public."
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006
From: Big Red
Subject: satellite for Mojave phone
Hey there, since you are the expert in all things re: Mojave Phone Booth, I was wondering about using the google map server to located the phone booth.
You have an old satellite phone located on your site (http://www.deuceofclubs.com/moj/mojave6.htm) and I could not help wondering if maps.google.com (http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=34.83635,-115.856323&spn=2.123485,3.647461&t=h&om=1) would have a better picture. Some of their satellite photos are years old, so it might actually be present in the photo - maybe even have the word 'phone' nearby with the 'o' filled in with white quartz. Who knows?
I have tried to scan the area I think it is located using data from your site - but sadly, I have failed. What say you to seeing if you can give it a go - maybe see the booth again?
i keep checking, but so far, nada. it would definitely be visible, if they made available that area in a better resolution. unfortunately, for most desolate areas they haven't. terraserver used to have a fairly decent resolution of the booth site, but still not close enough for the booth to be visible. (and our message in rocks wouldn't be visible because the photos at terraserver are from 1994 or so, three years before i went to the booth.)
DRAT! I just love the whole over the earth kinda view it offers. Too bad the rocket-cam did't pan out.
guess we should've used a panavision camera.
Also, I am writing a book that was completely unrelated, but in seeing how the phone 'disappeared' so suddenly and abruptly got me thinking of a way to tie it in to my story. I will let you know (if you wish) if anything comes up regarding that.
Date: Fri, 5 May 2006
From: Tarah
Hey Deuce,
I was just wondering if the booth used in Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas was the booth.
i didn't make it all the way through the movie, but i doubt it was & if it wasn't it should have been.
I'm eternally grateful to you for keeping the site up. I can't wait for your book to come out. Thanks!
me, neither.
From: Karen K.
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2006
Hey Doc
I gather the book is still in progress? My booth memento isn't as cool as the late great headstone, but if you want to check out my photo(s), I'll get it in gear to find them and send them to you ASAP...let me know if there's still time and you're so inclined.
You know, after seeing the pix of Charlie on your site, I think I ran into someone else at the ranch...a lean tanned guy in his 50's, dark hair (more hair than Charlie). I assumed he lived in the trailer? (Lotsa assumptions.) The road was funky; I've never seen crushed granite or whatever it's made of. Very cool though (I love the desert), kinda squirrely to drive on since I was moooving--I started back from the booth site after sunset so by the time I hit the ranch again it was dark. Now that I think of it, I was super lucky not to have any complications along the way.
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006
From: Nick C.
Subject: Hi I'm Nick
Hi,
My name is Nick, I ran across your site when I was in highschool living in NC (sometime before 2001). I found the story of the phone booth extremely interesting. So much so that I themed an illusion in my magic show after it. My show ran for a year in a small casino in Las Vegas called Bourbonstreet. When Bourbon Street closed, I moved back to NC to pursue my magic there (I am trying to tour colleges predominently on the east coast). During my show in Vegas, I would have a recording of a radio show (that we recorded for the purpose of the show) that sounded simular to that show coast tot coast that talks about paranormal activities. Nobody seemed to get it, or care, so I removed the recording from the show. And whenever I would tell people about the concept, they would just look confused. So I decided just to drop that theme all together.
But last night I was tossing ideas about the illusion around with a friend, and we looked it up online and found info about the movie coming out this year, and I could tell that the poster for the movie, and the describtion interested my friend. So I want to give it another chance in theming it as the mojave phone booth.
I would love to talk to you either on the phon or by aim, or by email to further explain the illusion and maybe get some input from you. You can see footage of the ilusion on my website under the section called Demo Reel.
I probably should have emailed you along time ago, and even invited you to the show when it was in vegas, but I didn't always have internet. I am just writing this email on my way out the door, so I'm sure It's rushed and has 1000 errors in it, but I wanted to get in contact with you as soon as possible to discuss this cult Icon.
Thanks for your help,
Nick
hello, nick. i'm surprised no one ever happened upon your booth illusion and let me know about it. here i thought i had spies everywhere. i must re-evaluate my network.
From: Karen K.
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006
Subject: 4 years hence...
Doc Doc Doc, you have a booth book due soon?
well, "soon"-ish. i'm a depressingly tortoise-like writer.
Cool. And just my luck that I procrastinated sending you the pix I promised at the end of '02! Ah well not that they're book-worthy but I'll try rummaging thru boxes to find them...maybe this week (uh huh). They may give you a smile...even tho I'm quite sure the "evidence" of my sojourn to the site no longer exists, or it may in another form. Thanks to Charlie(?) at the ranch for pointing me in the right direction. If anyone is listening, leave the aging Honda at home and 4x4 it fer sure.
especially now; according to charlie, the road has only gotten worse.
Thanks for keeping your site going strong. I spent more than a few minutes in this morning's wee hours catching up on Booth Mail. Americana, baby! The gone is not forgotten. I'm so glad I caught Letterman calling the booth before it went hasta la vista. That's as close as I got. When is the book due? Please put me on your list.
will do. i don't yet have a projected completion date (though i could probably use one).
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2006
From: Amber
Subject: A sister phone booth?
On a tour through Flickr I found this photograph:
At first I thought your Mojave phone booth (which I read about 10 years ago) had finally found a friend, but then I saw that this picture was taken north of Toronto. Do you think the trend is finally catching on?
i don't know about that, but i hope the government of canada is at least a little less boneheaded than the government here.
(then again, it could hardly be more boneheaded, i guess.)
Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2006
From: jeff r.
Loved the phone booth!
Have been travelling all over the calif. desert since
I was little . Mom and I joined a gem and mineral club
when I was like 9 or 10 and went all over in her 67
plymouth valiant.
On one of the first trips we went to Death Valley.
Had obtained permission to go into a whole bunch of
old mines there.
One place called the Thompson Mine (or Thompson
Pit?) was an active Borate mine and there was a number
of roads you had to take to get to it from the main
road going thru the park.
On one of those roads there was this phone booth out
in the middle of nowhere.
Like the phone you found this was near a mine but
even as a kid knowing that, it STILL was pretty wild
to see it out there all by itself.
don't suppose you'd have any photos of that phone booth, would you? i'd love to see what it looked like.
I had actually talked once to Dennis Casebier myself. This was like 20 yrs ago and it might have had
something to do with Kelso.
Don't recall exactly.
One other item...........
Do you happen to remember back somewhere in the 70's
that there was this strange incident in the news about
these 3 sided cones left by the thousands on Baker dry
lake?
It was in the news for a while and there was
speculation that , of course , aliens did it.
They're very busy , you know. Productive little buggers.
Anyway, on the return trip to LA from one of Mom's
trips across the countryside, we were getting gas in a
station in Baker and inside the gas station office
there were these 3 sided obelisks that were in the
news lined up on the shelf.
I broke out the super8 camera and had to shoot.
I was able to dig up this film and let a filmmaker
borrow it along with a lot of other 60's-70's home
movies for his projects.Actually a couple of guys;
eric sachs and pat tierney.
You might have heard of an underground film classic
called Don From Lakewood??
oh, sure. that's a pxl-2000 classic. i remember seeing it at phoenix's metropophobobia long ago. loved it. i did a few choppy pxl-2000 videos myself, stills from which can be sighted when jupiter aligns with mars. or when the moon is in the seventh url, which happens to be http://www.deuceofclubs.com/w/wagwid.htm.
They did that and Pat just recieved an award at Redcat but as for what film my
beloved cones ended up in...........?
Don't know.
I hate to take the mystery out of it but for the
rest of the story...
It turned out that one guy was getting his masters in
photography and the other was getting a degree in
ceramics. So the ceramistt just made thousands of
these little clay sculptures and the other guy got out
his camera and had to shoot.
Anyway, wondered if you knew that bit of desert
trivia about the cones. Maybe Dennis remembers this?
dunno, but i hadn't heard about it (though it wouldn't surprise me if there were web pages out there still discussing the visitation.)
Really enjoyed the article.
gracias.
From: Linda J.
Subject: Mojave phone Booth 2-28-06
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006
Hey Deuce!
Many years ago, well, 1999, when my husband and I met on the internet, we entertained ourselves with fantasies of buying a 1959 pink cadillac convertible and driving across the desert in search of the phone booth. Instead we bought a Kia Sportage and moved to wilderness of Idaho.
Five years later, we moved to Las Vegas to seek fame and fortune, and found ourselves in such proximity to the phone booth we believed we could hear it ring! Never mind, it was just the parrot. We also knew that it had fallen into the evil hands of the Desert Patrol and aided by Pac Bell was removed to save the Desert Tortoise or whatever, but believing that such a mystical connection could not be denied, we drove out into the desert in search of the SPOT at least.
Being good desert explorers, we drove out unafraid, with gallons of water and a sacrificial lamb. It was actually our rott, Oscar, and we didn't intend to really sacrifice him of course, but maybe his presence would appease the desert Gods. However, I digress.
We drove out I-15, turned off at the Cima exit, turned left, drove past the gas station and into the Mojave National Preserve. We made a left onto a road that went into the desert by a corral and some water towers. We drove a few miles (I think three) into the desert where we found an intersection which was marked by an old sign lying against a Joshua tree from which the paint was all worn off, and afixed to an old sign post on the opposite corner was a paper plate which held directions to someone's camp (I think). I do remember that to the right, it pointed to "Standard Mine". We drove on straight ahead and the road ended at a place where there were two homes, neither appeared to be occupied.
We then returned to the intersection and turned in the direction of Standard Mine and followed that road. We found a small campground to the left of the road, also at an intersection, which looked like it might be IT, so we got out and celebrated just in case then we drove on and found another spot which I'm sure was not the place now that I have come back and looked at the pics, because the immediate area included a rock outcropping which I did not see in any of the pics on your site. We also celebrated there just in case.
We left there and turned left on the hardtop and followed past an occupied mobile home on our left, and found that it dead ended into the Kelso-Cima road where there were several abandoned wooden homes and buildings. We turned around there and headed back toward I-15.
I reviewed the maps on your website once again when I returned home and realized that the road we exited the desert on was most likely the road that you turned right on, "by the N in National", which I believe was on one of your 1999 trips when you traveled there through Goffs. Being the spontaneous rather than the planning type, we regretfully did not take a camera with us and therefore, I have no pictures. (Sorry)
I was wondering if you could tell me if you think we were in the neighborhood. The things we did not find, were any cattle guards once we left the hardtop and there were no telephone poles out there at all. I knew it was good possibility that they had already removed the poles but I can't imagine why they would move cattle guards except possibly to totally disguise the SPOT.
it's possible that they might have removed the cattle guard and stop sign by now, and i've heard that there are plans to remove the phone poles (although that would cut off the service to kelso depot, so it seems doubtful). but even if they were going to do that, i don't think it would have happened already. maybe on your next trip you can determine that for sure.
We plan on going out there again, are there any other landmarks that would help us know where we were for sure or even almost for sure?
Thanks for your website! Whatever we found or didn't find or if it was the right place or not, we enjoyed a good afternoons adventure, including stopping at Primm's on the way home for the buffet and a little slot action. No, I didn't even win the cost of our buffet or gas money back.
Thanks for any help you can give us in our quest!
Linda
PS Next time we go we'll take a camera and send you the pics.
that would be great. best of luck & let me know how it goes,
Thanks for the response! I don't know how well I described where we were last time, but it is obvious to me now, that we were on the wrong side of the road! Anyway, we plan on trying again. We are in fact, very adventurous, have 4WD, GPS, cell phones, (which are amazingly, usable out there), and always pack plenty of the essentials. Many of our adventures have taken us places where cell phones were useless and we were 50 or more miles from the hope of seeing another human, and at least 25 miles more from a phone or help. I know that doesn't make us Lewis and Clark but we are used to self-sufficiency and being ready for emergencies. (I do, however, have a two days without a shower rule.) We will take your suggestion and stop at the store next time though, we were afraid they would be sick of tourists out there on our last trip.
Thanks again for your help. Will send pics after our next trip.
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006
From: charles s.
No word on your site about the movie?:
there is, but i'd forgotten to link to it from the mojave phone booth main page.
thanks for the head's-up.
Thanks for keeping one of my favorite website's active! You rawk!
From: Lara H.
Subject: you are still out there!
Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005
I was reading another desert website and the booth was mentioned and it brought back SO many memories. Seems like a forever ago when I was first writing about the booth — a different life even. I don't think attempts to recreate a lonely booth anywhere else would evoke the same kind of emotional response that the Mojave Booth did.
I don't go that direction any more. Too sad. In my photos and in my memories the booth will always be there and that is best for me.
I am still working for a newspaper, but now the one in Victorville, but still live in lovely Barstow. This is a great place!
Wildflowers are one my photographic passions now and I am working on several different large projects: Civil War reenactments since 1998, American Landscapes (people) since forever and the wildflowers.
It was so good to see the Mojave Booth site up and still running!
next best thing to having an up-and-running mojave phone booth, i guess.
Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005
From: Demian R.
Ok, so I seem to be 6 or so years too late, but the number is out of service! I feel cheated. I don't know if I'll be able to die knowing I had a complete and fulfilling life now.
you can send your thanks for the lack of fulfilling life to the kind-hearted folks over at the national parks service. they're proud of what they do, for some reason, and love to hear from adoring fans.
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2005
From: Harold H.
I enjoyed spending the evening reading about the Mojave phone booth! Since
about 1970 or so, I've driven highway 15 to Las Vegas every April for the
National Association of Broadcasters convention. We used to always stop at
Stuckeys. I remember the public phone in Stuckeys. It was a wall phone
with a crank on the side. Below it were a bunch of dry batteries. There
was a card above it saying something like "You're about to have an
experience." The phone number was "Windmill Station ..." (I don't remember
the number). Anyway, you'd crank the phone, pick up the receiver, and talk
to an operator somewhere to complete the call. It was the only non-dial
public phone I'd ever used.
thank you for that confirming information. there's been some disagreement among the locals (or, former locals, as most have been run out or bought out by the NPS) whether the stuckey's phone and the mojave phone booth's phone were originally crank-operated.
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2005
From: Martin G.
Subject: remember me ... a long time ago. the caller from austria
so hallo to you
hello, back, martin. i certainly do remember you.
very strange things happen nowerdays. researching for something on wikipedia, reminding something from the past. starting google and feeling tears in the eyes.
hi deuce of clubs
dont know if you remember the whole story. i dont. i remember calling the mojave booth twice, once being the first caller after its last re-installment in 1999 ...
yep. and after you called, you emailed me to let me know the booth's phone was back on-line.
very funny reading about the polish newspaper that wrote about me and the booth in 1999 -- didnt know that either, strange to see a movie with steve guttenberg (?????) being produced in 2006 about the mojo booth.
it is good that the world is so strange. makes it difficult to be bored.
well, things have changed since that.
thank you for keeping the whole thing on line and thank you, you've made my day
martin g
the austrian one, we've talked to each other years ago i guess :-)
de nada. my best to you and, what the hell, to all of austria
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2005
From: Jake S.
Subject: oh jeez...
Deuce!
I am so sorry. But I just had to email and thank you. For still having the Mojave Desert phone site up, at least for archival purposes anyway.
the booth deserves no less.
I remember, way back in the day, following the story, and then all of a sudden... *GASP!*
Anyway, I had read the following article on Boing Boing:
And thought to myself: Hey, that sounds awful familiar!
phone swarm, btw, is by professor cardyhouse, who accompanied me on my first visit to the booth.
What a BLAST from the PAST! Unfortunately, my bookmark for the site was long gone (if the site even existed anymore!), thank goodness for Google!
I remember emailing you years(!) ago asking about Wagner, if you had put the hole in his head, to which the response was no, and I believe something about falling in a river.
yep. the rio grande (in albuquerque).
Whatever, not like you remember. How's Wagner doing these days, anyway?
wellll . . . there is somewhat less of him these days. attrition's a bitch, especially when you're made of plaster.
From: Becky D.
Subject: We've been cheated
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005
We just watched the short film Mojave Mirage. We had no idea the Mojave phone booth had ever existed 2 hours ago. Then, after we dutifully paused the film to write down the phone number of the exotic phone booth, we learned the phone booth died. We are outraged!!! Citizens of the world have been cheated out of the opportunity to truly connect. Those of you who made calls to the Mojave, or better yet, were there to answer the calls were surely blessed. Seems the essence of Americana is disappearing on the taxpayers' dime...oh to drive Route 66 and take a bit of a detour to answer calls in the Mojave.
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005
From: Tee
Subject: Reincarnating Phone Booth
Hi Dock, What we sow is what we reap later on. From
the viewpoint of reincarnation, the whole Mohave Phone
Booth thing takes on an interesting spin. It could be
that the good guys here and now were once the bad
guys. And the bad guys have returned to get a taste of
their own medicine. Imagine a scenario a few centuries
ago. One group may have been unjustly run off their
land by a neighboring group. The former conquerors
have returned to reap what they have sown. If this
were true, would it make sense to finger point and
bemoan our lot? Or might we be wise to look within
ourselves and stop this crazy cycle?
but if that were true, then there'd be no point in fighting wrong. might as well lay down and die.
(antidote: camus.)
First off, my apology for the unsolicited views.
no problemo.
Just out of the blue, our group touched on that in our meeting today. I see the error in my ways!
Is there a waiting list that I can add my name to for the upcoming book and film?
i do have one for the book, to which i'll add you. i don't know whether there is one for the film, but you could try the filmmaker & see.
Thanks for adding me to the book list. I look forward to it.
no problemo.
As I indulged further in crap-happiness, I found your episode with the 100% apple juice. To this I recommend
Kevin Trudeau's book Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About:
It is unbelievabe what the FDA and the FTC are getting
away with. I think that even Albert Camus would be
proud of what this guy is doing.
i'm no fan of government agencies, but i doubt camus was a fan of con artists.
Could you tell me what webpage software you use?
well, i use an old version of arachnophilia, not because it's the best, only because i'm used to it. i don't recommend it.
And what photo editing software?
usually photoshop.
Thanks! I appreciate your help.
Date: Tue, 08 Nov 2005
From: Ealasaid H.
Subject: I am speechless
Deuce -
I just spent ... way too long reading everything on your site about the Mojave phone booth. I am totally bummed that it was ripped out like that. My boyfriend and I have a fondness for roadtrips, especially quasi-pointless ones (he drove through all 48 contiguous states in 3 weeks once, and is now trying to visit every county in the US, with me along to take photos when possible) and a drive out to the booth would have been right up our alley.
*sigh*
Thanks so much for your awesome site and I am eagerly awaiting your book! Is there a mailing list or something I could get on to hear about when it comes out?
thanks for the kind words. yes, i'll add your email address to the book notification list.
Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005
From: David Cassel
Subject: Phone booth = "Great Internet Moment"
Okay, it's finally ready. I spent a couple months putting this together: Greatest Internet Moments - by Me.
The Mojave Phone Booth is in there. (Somewhere; the images load in random order every time the page refreshes.)
Thanks for making the internet more fun...
heya, senor. thanks for including the mojave phone booth. i'm glad that people still remember the poor ol' thing.
From: Thomas A.
Subject: Mojave Newsletter
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2005
Are you still publishing your newsletter?
if i ever published a newsletter, i must have forgotten to tell myself about it. perhaps you're thinking of dennis casebier?
I'm trying to find one of the desert phonebooths... are there any of them left?
not that i know about.
I'm crushed that they took one of them down in 2000. What kind of world are we living in?! It was almost a spiritual thing...
a world dominated by force and fraud -- which is to say, by governments. attacking a defenseless desert phone booth in the night is just the sort of thing they excel at. . . .
From: Michelle C.
Subject: google earth
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2005
Have you used this wonderful piece of time-wasting technology as yet? I saw that someone had bookmarked the Mojave phone booth. It put a “face” to all the years of “where the heck is that”
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005
From: Corey V.
Subject: phone booth tales
Hey man I have just read your entire website on the mojave phone booth. Great stuff man. I will be driving across country in the summer this year. I live in Massachusetts and I am looking forward to the complete cross country adventure. Maybe when I hit Arizona I can stop by and visit for a bit. If not I will understand. Your stories are an ispiration. While reading them I was instantly transported to the middle of the mojave desert. I enjoyed it very much. I wish the booth was still there so I could visit. I found your site amazing. It's a damn shame what happened with the booth. Are there any other phone booths out there in the middle of nowhere? If so I would very much like to visit one of them. Well anyhow, I hope to cross paths with you some day. Thanks for the great stories. Take care and have a great day.
Sincerely,
Corey V. of Springfield Massachusetts
i don't know of any comparable phone booths. i suspect if there were any, someone would've ratted them out by now. i wouldn't, though.
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005
Subject: Booth questions
From: Greg
Doc,
I am writing a book on "strange" places and happenings in California, and
suggested to my editor that an entry on the Booth would be worthwhile,
even though it was soullessly ripped out almost five years ago. Sometime
before the Booth was taken away, I was told about your site, but just
never made it out there, and when this book thing was placed in my path, I
remembered.
The article from the Las Vegas Weekly that is still up is pathetically
condescending. I assure you that is not my style.
I see that you are apparently working on a book about the Booth, and I
wish you luck.
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005
From: marty p.
you mention a stop sign , why is there a stop sign out in the desert?
there used to be truckers in a hurry speeding their cinder loads out of the desert.
how much did it cost to make a call?
probably a dime at first, like everywhere else. when i was there it was a quarter, then thirty-five cents.
who collected the money and how often. do you know how much money it made all the time the phone was popular?
very little, apparently.
did anyone witness the removal of the phone booth?
not that i'm aware of.
from what i read in your website, the nps claimed that due to increase public traffic causing environment damage, they had to remove it. well if that was true how were they able to remove it without any one seeing them?
good point to take it up with the nps.
why didn't they donate the phone booth to a museum instead of destroying it? don't they realize they destroyed a part of history?
it must've been like vietnam: in order to "save" the village, they had to destroy the village.
they could at least let you have the booth.
that's what i thought, too.
this phone booth and number was world wide known. HIDE YOUR VAN GOGHS FROM THESE PEOPLE!
hoards and hoards of people should have driven to the spot just to spite them for removing the phone. where were you, and what did you do when you heard the news?
sitting at my computer (lorene's nephew emailed me).
by the way, i am sorry for your loss, this is something you created or made possible. i was disappointed by its removal and i didn't even get to see it, so i cannot imagine what you are probably feeling. if it was to be brought again, it would have to be the same phone booth and number, in the same spot, or it would just not be the same. NO SUCH THING AS WOODSTOCK 2 . if everyone is persistent, or post a reward, the actual phone company employee or employees who went out there to the desert to remove the phone can be persuaded to dislodge its where about, anonymity will be kept.
unfortunately, it was destroyed.
i just finished watching full frame, and that's how i learned about the phone, and your website. i often wondered how people can just sit for hours and hours on the Internet, well now i know its because of very interesting people like you, did you ever think it would become so very well known at all?
no. if i had, i probably wouldn't have done it, & the booth might still be there today (though maybe not, given that the nps seems to want to erase the history of the mojave, rather than preserve it).
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005|
From: Laura
Did you see the "Moto" ring tone commercial, with a "Mojave Phone Booth" inspired location with celebrity whores piling into it?
i did see that, yeah. and i thought, hrmmm . . . interesting. mostly i was surprised at how far madonna's star has fallen. in the 80s & 90s, she'd have had her own commercial.
From: Hinda
Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005
Look! They're making a movie based on the Booth!
right you are. check out my interview with the director:
I live near Mojave (about 25 mi south)...if I were to drive out to the grave, what I'd most like to see atop the tombstone would be an oobi. Somehow, it just seems right.
sure does. what also seems right is for the tombstone still to be there. which it isn't.
wait a minute. what *really* seems right is for the booth to still be there (with or without oobi).
Wow. Isn't John Putch the son of Jean Stapleton? I look forward to both the book and the film.
So, the removal of the tombstone just seems kinda spiteful. You know -- like "STAY OFFA MAH PRO-PUR_TEE" it's on a preserve, isn't it?
I once saw a documentary on fireworks. Like, the possible fireworks of the future. One cool idea was a sort of image that would hang just outside the atmosphere, being visible to most of a hemisphere -- for a few months prior to disintigration. What say we build one in the shape of an arrow, pointing at Mojave, bearing the words "IT was here!"
Gads, the whole concept of the MPB is like a modern-day-culture version of those spiritual vortex swirlies that supposedly exist in Sedona, AZ.
...and my favorite episode of The Twilight Zone, "Night Call" the one were the elderly lady keeps getting phone calls directly from a grave in the cemetery...
I somehow think the Mojave Phone Booth won't die.
Shivers,
Hinda
From: Grimmie
Date: Sat, 17 Sep 2005
760-733-9969
Has been disconnected.
well . . . yes.
From: Byron T.
Subject: Batman query from Memphis
Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005
I seem to recall a Batman episode where B&R find themselves stranded in the desert near Gotham (as Gotham City was nearby any kind of natural phenomena or landscape imaginable) and were walking around... not near a road or ANYTHING... but they happened upon a public phone and were able to call for help. Batman mentioned to Robin that the convenience was due to some kind of 'Emergency Telecommunications Response Program' that he had talked the mayor into. Lucky for them!
Am I the only one on earth who remembers this? I have no idea who the villian was or why they were in the desert, but the ridiculosity of the desert phone stuck with me all these years... then I saw the story of the mojave booth. freaky!!
if anyone out there knows, the contact page will tell you how to tell the world (of Mojave Phone Booth folx).
Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2005
From: Craig Z
Dear Doc
I have just spent 3 or more hours on your website reading as much as I could about the Mojave Phone Booth, without getting caught by my boss.
that's what we're all about here -- deuce of clubs perusing employees eluding employers. bueno.
I started reading all the letters written to you, but there were too many, so I hope I don't ask questions that have already been answered.
First let me say that I FUCKING LOVE your Mojave Phone Booth pages.
thanks. next year there should be both a book and a film.
I was impressed like a som bitch with your interest, fascination and dedication to that booth. You seem a lot like me in that respect.
My questions are:
Is the land where the phone booth once was, private property or country property?
it is now controlled by the national park "service."
I was thinking if it was still technically private property, there would be a possibility that someone could put a phone booth of their own on the land and request phone service from the phone company. It would be like if you had a trailer on a plot of land out in the desert and you had to set up a phone line that way. Just a thought.
not a chance. they'd never allow it. supposedly they're planning to remove even the hundreds or thousands of phone poles that cross the "preserve." no confirmation on that yet, though it wouldn't surprise me.
Early in your search, you spoke with Casbier (spelling?) and he mentioned another phone booth near Essex, CA. Have you been to that phone booth and if so, is it remote like the original one? I believe he said it was moved, do you have and idea about the original location?
The reason why I ask is, if it is almost as good as the original phone booth, than it needs to be saved at all costs. Hopefully it is not located in the Mojave National Preserve....
it's no longer a booth, just a payphone attached to a telephone pole. it's nowhere near as isolated as the mojave phone booth. in fact, people live in trailers right across the road.
Thanks for keeping this phone booth alive through your website. People like you are a God send to people like me who love the past and all its history and quirkiness. If Mary Martin still works for the NPS, I would like to call her and let her know how I feel. It may not bring the phone booth back, but enough calls could get rid of her.
as far as i know, she is still the superintendent out there.
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005
From: David G
Subject: Brokaw News Pieces
Hey Doc,
Thanks a lot for getting back to me and giving
directions to the Booth site (well, former site).
Anyway, I was going to do you a favor and try to get
copies of the 2 NBC news pieces about the Booth. I
called NBC Archives and the nice lady there told me it
would be $150 for each piece if you wanted a copy. I
don't have that kind of money laying around, or I
would help you out. Sorry.
Seems a little steep to me, but if you really wanted
them, they are available. She suggested using their
web site to search their archives to get archive
numbers of the air dates, that way they could find the
pieces a lot easier.
I told her that I was trying to get copies for someone
who was actually part of the story, but that didn't
seem to help. I even gave her your hard luck story of
having all your shit stolen, but she was unfortunately
straight-up professional. Maybe you could have better
luck if you called them. NBC Archives can be reached
at 1-212-664-3797. Their main number is
1-212-664-4444. Maybe you could find someone more
helpful than Archives. I'm sure they could also give
you better info on how to find their archive numbers
to aid in the retreival of the tapes.
I also did a web search to see if anybody had copies
or they could be downloaded. I even tried several
peer to peer servers. Nothing. I'm sure somebody out
there has some dusty old videotapes with the pieces on
them. It's just a matter of getting connected with
them.
Just thought you might like to know. It might be
worth the cost for you to call NBC.
Good luck and hope all is well on your end.
$150 -- yipe.
thanks for checking for me. i have a few people to check with who might have copies & once life slows down again (someday) i'm going to look into it.
From: Sean
Date: Sat, 28 May 2005
You may or may not remember me, I think it was in about summer of 99. I came out one morning (prolly like 6-7 am), put the phone back on the hook and woke most of you up. The one dude was out there.. I forget his name, you know the ripleys guy that was preaching the word of Christ.
rick karr, i believe was his name.
I wonder how he's doing.
i'd like to know that myself. i called a few rick karrs i found online, but they were all non-ripleys-preachy guys.
I noticed my old gf Sarah emailed you recently, that's cute. I must say that it is very tempting to return to the spot of the booth, even knowing it isn't there any more, there's still something about that area that will always be special. I make several road trips each year from Vegas to Newport beach and back and any time I pass cima road I'm incredibly tempted to get off. Either to try to say hello to Charlie (whom I never met), or to perhaps take an hour out of the trip to visit the old site. I remember you told me there was another far less exciting phone not far from it. Something by a train track or something? Maybe that's worth tracking down..
that's clear over on the east side of the mojave, near essex.
Have you been out there since the removal?
no.
Do you think its even worth checking it out, just to maybe pay my respects?
that's a very personal decision that each must make for -- wait, that's something else. yeah, it could be fun. i'll probably go out there. one day.
Anyway, im glad to see the site is still up. Oh and by the way I forgot to thank you again for helping us get our stranded broke down car asses out of their that day, what a mess...
de nada (though i cannot seem to manage to access that memory)
From: Craig W.
Subject: New Year's 1999 at the Phone Booth
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005
Doc,
I was one of the fortunate people to attend the New Year's Eve party at the Phone Booth in 1999. Six of us from where we used to work drove from Las Vegas to party at the Phone Booth. It is still one of the best times I have ever had. The huge bon fire, the blasting music, drinking and answering the phone all night long. I particularly liked burning all the things from my past. Loved tossing in the wedding pictures, my aeronautical rating and commissioning papers.
I wonder what ever happen to the film they were making? If anyone else has memories of that night, I hope they write in. It was a fantastic party.
I got a kick out of telling my parents about this adventure. Their reaction? "Why didn't you give us the number so we could call you?"
the film, "mojave mirage," is on the dvd Full Frame Documentary Shorts.
From: Sarah
Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2005
Hi I was just thinking of the time when I went to the Booth. It was awhile back, I was only 16! My boyfriend discovered it and we called it everyday for a week til we couldn't take it anymore and ended up taking the trip. Our car broke down! Luckily there were people camping at it so they helped us out. The second trip was with our friends and we ended up there in the dark. Have you ever noticed all the cows? They surrounded our car!! It was so scary! But it was all worth it just to get to the phone booth. I loved calling people from it and telling them I was in the middle of the desert on a phone booth. I can't believe they pulled it out! Once you start having too much fun someone has always got to ruin it! I wish I would have known before they did it, I would have started a petition here in vegas to keep it. I will always remember that place, there was nothing like it! Just wanted to say hi! and tell you I love the website!
thanks, sarah. i guess we know the reason none of us knew when the government was taking out the booth....
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005
From: David G
I just wanted to drop a quick note (and hopefully not
take up too much of your time) to congratulate you on
a great site. I ended up spending about 2 hours
poking around and linking.
Your content on the Mojave Phone Booth makes me want
to cry. Why the hell can't the Powers That Be leave
alone things that people enjoy? Where was the harm?
To think that something that was once useful and then
historic was flippantly destroyed makes me sick.
Why couldn't they have at least saved the damn thing
for display in a museum or something? Why did they
erase all signs of it's location? What is it so damn
important that they don't even want people to know it
ever existed? It drives me crazy...
Anyway, this kind of thing happens all too often and I
think it sucks. So, I just thought I'd let you know
that I appreciate someone else taking the time to at
least document our marginal history. Yeah, a phone
booth in the middle of the middle of nowhere isn't
important in the grand scheme of things, but this
seems like another case of one of those mistakes you
can't really learn from because you can't possibly
repeat it. The booth is gone forever and there will
never be another.
Oops, I was trying to not take up too much of your
time. Gotta go...
thanks, dave. it would be nice if the nps would have the backbone to answer the questions you ask.
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005
From: Alfred R.
Subject: lone phone booth
Dear Deuce:
great site and all of the connected information that comes with it.
muchas gracias
first of all i feel your pain, as i too know coolidge az and all of it's
wonders and i am totaly suprised that you surrvived with your intellect
intact.
coolidge can indeed be a strange place, but i have to say it made me the goof i am today. the years i spent there i often call my deformative years, but i wouldn't trade them away.
but i know that it is possible, for i too am a dweller of the
desert who left for beter climes as i was from the reservation that was
directly north of coolidge and i lived in the village of sacaton which
is about 14 miles away for there.
wow. i don't remember ever getting an email from coolidge, let alone sacaton.
you're in iowa? holy cow, aren't you going crazy with no mountains to look at?
from coolidge, i always liked looking at the superstitions and the dripping springs and the picachos. love that place.
but most of all i was looking for a
site that had info on the lone phonebooth in the mohave desert
curious, how did you hear of the booth?
and i came apon your web site and i was well pleased with it. thanks and
FAREWELL in the greatest sense of the word and see you at the next
burning man fest.
i may, in fact, be returning for my first burning man since 1999.
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005
From: Alfred R.
Hey DOC:
regarding the last e-mail that you sent on 2/19/05, i am a student in Iowa, studying of all things pilosophy and religion. there fore when my mind begins to bend from all of the heavy thoughts that this semesters load is giving me I begin to search out mind candy to sooth my poor neurons and recharge my synapses. and on one of these quest for such candy was a tale my brother had mentioned to me some time ago. and that was the Lone Phone Booth in the Mohave desert. so after doing a google search on the subject and weeding out the phoney sites, i came apon The Deuce Of Clubs. where i was rewarded with hours and hours of endless mind candy and directionless nonsequitors. that is also a simular replicant of higher level university theology and thought.
bit as for the questiobn of how am i surviving Iowa without my beloved mountains and deserts the only thing that i can do to simulate my Arizona is to drive fast often and as crazy as i want to, as there are not as many state cops out here as there are in Arizona, and i can get away with so much s-it, much more than in Arizona. but i dearly miss my home land and my people. so that is about the jist of my story here in the land of corn and pigs, and until we meet again, stay safe and try to stay some what sane.
From: Sean Isham
Subject: Mojave Phone Barbie
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004
I have the Barbie from the booth. She is gold with ruby nipples, and a little sun burnt. I was present in the early morning hrs when it came down. Cash or Trade! If there is an interest I will send photos.
Let me know
RNG
(still interested, sean (or rng, or whoever), but haven't heard back from you.)
From: enrique c.
Subject: new line
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005
Iraq is a desert
why not create a line over there? I would like to speak to the man on the street over there?
perhaps
another one in the middle of no where where people are very poor, ANY PLACE ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET.
perhaps this is contrary to the mojave booth project which was surreal and without concrete meaning, with its origin arising more out of juvenile distraction?
good things end
sad but true
happy is sad and sad happy, no lone phone booth will ever change this constant, why whine? create war with the parks service? the train comes, step to the side so as to not let it hit you, love is always the answer
The project created a spirit and approach towards world wide human connectivity as witnessed by the desire of many to have such a place where unknown individuals can connect via serendipity live on
if mojave booth project propels individuals towards further desires to communicate across international lines there by creating the beginning of collective consciousness towards the realization of our shared carbon based life form, then the project will have eternal spiritual existence....
carry on
with any old new number any place on the face of the planet preferably where individuals have more worries then getting drunk....
happy to have discovered this happy occurrence and have no tears for its lose, the beetles finally separated, to much of a good thing...well it's basically impossible
whine and all we gain is suffering, I don't know parks service from us army, ask an american indian about that old special gathering place that was so special to them 200 years ago....
get it?.... what was created was the observance of the human spirit to seek a connection to other humans with some kind of compassion, to fight the parks department is to have what was beautiful become war.....story of the world.....
as far as parks
"They paved paradise and put up a parking lot"
of
America, love it or leave it asshole
the spirit of this project should live on there are so many humans who have it in their consciousness world wide and the spirit of human brotherhood is oozing out of it all over
as for the park service and the wild life I recommend university students get to work on sustainability projects that would allow both the phone booth and the wild life to exist...
everything can be achieved with enough study...
now it may not include everyone driving out in gas guzzling suvs in private cars, but get there they could and preserved the land could be no problem. The parks department should consider this as the spirit of what was occurring there had tremendous love ....a scarce thing indeed....
war is never the answer....
cubi
it may be time for a new brand of cough syrup, there, enrique...
From: enrique c.
Subject: Re: new line
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005
lol!
your reply made me laugh Doc
muy bueno, esta bien.
If you need a number off the good old streets of NYC let me know? NYC
having only a one word description, EVERYTHING, should fit in as desert.
too many phones there ... the incongruity is lost. (but there is the payphone project of my friend mark, which happens to feature on its home page a link to the last phone booths in manhattan)
I'll make sure to find a number that is right in the middle of the capital of the world yet as solitary as the mojave booth.
good luck to you in that endeavor, to be sure.
Have you any cough syrup brands you recommend?
do i ever.
The one I am drinking right now is a bit nasty tasting and you are right, it does seem to make me watch FOX news-network far to much...gotta go..there is a Fox news ALERT! Brad Pit is having a cup of coffee with his gardner.
hrmm, this IS important breaking news! i wonder whether his gardener answers to the name angelina jolie?
re: cough syrup, it's not so much the brand that matters as that one is not supposed to down the entire bottle at one sitting. make it last. you'll enjoy it more.
Please let me know your rates on e-mail analysis, you seam to have a knack for it? I'd love to out source and get a better deal, nyc is just to dam expensive.
if you have a nice camper conversion van for me, i'll analyze anything you like.
cheers, and thanks for the laugh! I like my meat well done so keep my burger on the flame.
cubi
will do. hope you like turkeyburgers.
hochste lust!
doc
From: enrique c.
Subject: 666!!!! works good!!!!
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005
Doc ,
I ran out and got me some 666. I took a shot, just one as directed, and sure as shooting my brain cleared up and sure as pizza is NYC's best chow Lewis Mumford's book Technics and Civilization come to me like a charging ecstasy crazed raver headed towards the old mojave love booth in a cadi 4 wheeler . "The machine itself makes no demands and holds out no promises: it is the human spirit that makes demands and keeps promises."
Doc your medicinal ways are nothing short of , well... kinda Jesus like I'd say. One moment the light was out the next I'm quoting from a 1934 book connected to a disapearededed PacBell Booth in the sand.
abrazo cubi
Subject: Mojave Desert Phone Booth
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005
From: Truman M.
Hi,
I've been enjoying your MDPB site for some time now and I am taking a trip to Nevada in March. I was wondering if there was any new info on the phone booth?
none that i know of. (you could try out a francisco franco sort of joke here if you like.)
Or possibly another phone booth in the Mojave?
none like that one. it seems that the authorities have outlawed interesting certain types of human artifacts there.
From: Carrie H.
Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005
Subject: Mojave Phone Booth Near Cima Cinder Mines
Hi,
I was looking up some info on the Internet regarding my family's mines - Cima Cinder Mines and also the Little Lake Mines - EMRay Mining Corporation, in Mojave Desert. I ran across the info on my Grandpa's phone booth that you found quite interesting and thought I'd send you an email.
Lorene is my Aunt. My Dad, Robert (Bob) is her brother. My Grandpa founded those mines many years ago (Under the Law of 1872) - Emerson Ray and my Grandmother is Fay. My Dad's brother, my Uncle Monte, owns a Geological firm, he's a Geologist in Agoura Hills, and the mines are part of the Ray Mining Corporation.
I grew up as a child hanging out at the Cima Mines - our family put in the phone booth and paid for the thing and we used the phone booth many times and never thought about anyone thinking it was weird or unusual. Grandpa just needed a phone out there - must remember this place is out in the middle of nowhere in the desert and at that time the trucks hauled 10,000 tons of cinders out every month - there may have been CB's but cell phones weren't around then.
Grandpa Emerson Ray, Miner and Founder of the Cima and Little Lake mines, died in 1997 and was buried on the day my youngest child was born.
Just wanted to say hi, since you have had a keen interest in our family's phone booth.
hello, carrie
coincidentally, at the end of november i met lorene and terry for the first time, over at sharron's place. i also met your father and your grandmother in dunmovin. i had a great time with all of them. wish i could have met your grandfather. it sounds like he was quite a guy.
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004
Subject: Lorene's cinder mine
From: Stray Apothecary
Hello, I stumbled onto your Mojave Desert phone booth page while, oddly
enough, searching for information on the Far Side syndicated strip. I
must say that what has happened to Lorene has struck a nerve with me. I
have no love for animal rights activists though I'm all for animal
rights, I'm going to eat my steak and my lamb chops. Dammit. Man has
been a meat eater since he learned to walk on two legs and carry a big
stick. It sickens me that they would put a family out of their way of
life, that they were legally entitled to, because of a threat that was
non existant, and then brag about it! Animals should be respected but
this is bull shit.
Anyway, I apologize for the rant. Do you have any information of what
has befallen Lorene? My heart goes out to her and her plight and I hope
she is fairing well after this shit.
Thank you for your time,
Stray Apothecary
the government still has the cima mine closed down, but lorene and her family have not given up on it.
From: Chuck R.
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004
Hey Deuce!
I was wondering if you happen to have any GPS coordinates for the site of the late Mojave Phone Booth? I'd like to plot the exact location on a satellite photo with a map overlay. I've seen the Terraserver pic on your site but I'd like to see it in a little more detail and add some interactivity.
N 35° 17.144 W 115° 41.066
I was also curious about the woman from the cinder mine. How do you suppose she makes phone calls now? I can't imagine she gets any cell coverage out there. It can be hit & miss when you're on the 15, let alone miles from the interstate.
actually, some cell phone providers do provide some coverage in that area. lorene did use her cell phone out there sometimes, but the phone booth was cheaper. the nps shut down the cima mine, however. coincidentally, i saw lorene and her family last month.
From: geo
Subject: BLM Poor things are not happy
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004
Thought this may be of interest.
Thanks for the cool site. Geo.
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004
From: doug
Subject: From Doug H
Hi Deuce,
I haven't written for a few years. Hope you didn't think I was mad or something - just left the airlines and moved back to the West Coast and got busy doing what grown-ups do. I clicked on the site every once in a while just to make sure it was still there.
While looking for the idiots who inconvenienced off-roaders by having hundreds of thousands of acres closed to us in defense of the Pierson's milk-vitch (weed), I discovered that they are the same idiots who lobbied to have the Cima Cinder Mine closed. They like bragging about their "victories" on their webstie. http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/goldenstate/cdca/actions.html#mine Their definition of a victory includes forcing rugged Americans out of their family businesses. I'll be writing these "land intellectuals" to tell them how this land user feels. You know if Kerry had the support of outdoors-people he would have won the election. These morons better start to realize that if they don't want more wars, deficit, terror alerts and the rest of the nonsense that our current administration - and future administrations like them will give us they must back-off their militant environmentalism. I don't need them poking their noses into my recreational activities and bringing logic and fairness to us land users will help the world much more than a stinking Kangaroo Rat or lizard ever will!
People don't want to be harassed on this very personal level - they see it on their weekends. The other sneaky shit that has been done to us because of Homeland Security acts and other invasions of privacy is less obvious and of little or no concern to the average stupid voter. As I said before, as long as there is beer in the fridge and football on the weekends most of America is happy. These Democrats continue to fuck with the "beer in the fridge" and the "football", metaphorically speaking, and they lost the election because of it.
Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2004
From: erik w.
Subject: phone booth tapes
could i possibly have or buy copies of the phone booth tapes? i would REEELY like to hear them... i'll pay
for copies, i'll trample the elderly to listen to them... really, anything.
i just got this great vibe while reading about the booth on your site and if i cant hear it my head is
libel to explode.
please please please email me back
lo siento to disappoint, but if i still have any of the booth tapes, they'd be buried in a mini-storage. but they might've been among my possessions that were stolen.
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2004
From: Xochitl666
Subject: The Final fate of the Phone Booth
doc,
Some of my relatives work for Pacific Bell/SBC in the Los Angeles area. After badgering one of them (who has worked there for more than 20 years) for weeks about the final fate of the famous Mojave Desert Phone Booth, I got a call today. It was confirmed that at the insistence of Mojave Preserve Rangers, the phone booth was destroyed shortly after it was hauled away from its remote location inside the Preserve. A San Bernardino/Mojave SBC supervisor told my relative that as part of her job she was required to officially witness its destruction.
Public phone booth numbers are never recycled.
So that's the inside scoop and the final word on the phone booth from SBC/Pacific Bell.
Xochitl
that is very sad to know, but at least now i know.
i still cannot understand why mary martin -- who knew as well as anyone in that part of the mojave, of course, that her "environmental impact" claims were lies -- so had it in for that booth. i've never believed, contra mencken's characterization of the puritans, that anyone really has "The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." Not, at any rate, enough to go to great lengths to stamp out the fun, as martin did. mary martin has refused to come clean, but surely there must be someone else who knows the real reason she destroyed the mojave phone booth.
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004
From: Brad T.
Subject: Burning Man phone booth
Well, the Mojave booth may be gone, but we built an even more remote booth for a while, using satellite, 802.11, SIP and a used pay phone. The story is here, if you are curious.
am i ever!
buenos dias, brad. what a beautiful project (and inspiring -- i'm currently working on a book about the mojave phone booth). i am thrilled to hear that there was an genuine, working public phone at burning man. we did take a full-sized phone booth to the playa once (not the mojave phone booth itself, though some people still seem to think that's what it was) but getting it operational would've been the holy grail for me (and for others, i'll bet -- the same year my booth was at bm there was a guy who had a phone kiosk on the edge of the open playa & would talk to people via walkie-talkie or some such).
unfortunately, fred flintstone has more technological savvy than i do, & just locating a booth (in oregon, though i'm in arizona) & arranging to get it to to the playa pretty much used up what smotts i have. in fact, the booth ended up needing a personal ad in the black rock gazette to get it back *off* the playa.
later i took the phone booth out to meet the mojave phone booth.
(my phone booth was later stolen, along with most of my other stuff. saving grace: the theft ended up being kind of a kick in the ass toward going even further in the having less stuff direction, though.)
I didn't see your booth in 98, or don't recall it, but I wanted to
find a full booth but couldn't find one near California, alas.
Maybe next time one will show up.
wish i still had mine to donate to you.
from time to time someone contacts me with a lead as to where the mojave phone booth ended up, but so far no lead has panned out. how beautiful would it be for the actual mojave phone booth to be up & running at burning man?
That would be fun.
a friend of mine has relatives who worked for pac bell when the booth was taken & still work for sbc. she says they're still trying to find the booth. if it turns up, we *will* find a way to get it, and if we do, i would love for it to go to burning man and be functional once again!
We were contemplating finding a way to get the number and forward it to our booth. None of the CLECs I deal with are in that zone though.
too bad it didn't keep its original 619 area code. i made a mental note the other day to call the number & see who has it now, if anyone. i should do that today.
Nobody has it, it is disconnected. I doubt they will reassign it to a private individual. With some connections it might be possible to
get it if you have a CLEC in that central office willing to help.
i'm checking into this. it would be magnificent to get the mojave phone booth back and wire it in the same way, so that it could travel & accept calls, but not be destroyed like before. (it could even, once in a while, sneak right back to its rightful spot for a day, right under the nose of the nps...) having its old number would be some nice icing.
From: Swandog
Subject: mojave phone booth update?
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004
Doc:
I'm heading out to the booth location to pay my respects. Are there any new developments or is gone just plain gone?
i'm afraid that ... it's just plain gone. if you're going to take any photos out there, i'd definitely be interested in seeing whether there's any change...
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004
From: sean
Hello,
I'm a telephone tech. in Canada, and I found your site after reading a book with a story about the Mojave Phone Booth.
really! what book was that?
I put down the book right away and looked at your site and started reading and didn't stop for hours. Like many others, I would have loved to have visited, or at very least called the Booth. After reading here, I feel like I miss the Booth as much as everybody else. I have always been amazed with telephone technology, especially something old and still in service and so remote. We have fairly remote booths here in canada, but there's just something about the Mojave Desert that makes it so special, it just seems so remote. I'd love to visit the old site, with my pole spurs and put up a memorial that those Park people will never take down. Those poles won't be going anywhere anytime soon, too expensive and too damaging to remove them...
nevertheless, apparently the nps wants to remove all the poles. governments don't care about how much money it takes to do anything -- they can always just steal more.
Kinda funny though, the Booth looks exactly like some of our old booths here in Canada.
Part of why i was writing was because i was wondering if you had a nice high resolution scan of a picture like the "Mojave Phone Booth Cards" on this page: http://www.deuceofclubs.com/moj/booth99/b9913.htm that would make the most amazing background for my computer at work...
unfortunately, i don't. that photo was taken by a journalist who had a website, but i just looked & it no longer exists. lo siento.
From: Greg S.
Subject: phone booth needed
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004
Hi,
I noticed that you maintained a site for the Mojave phone booth. Then I
noticed that you have a travelling booth in some of your photos. Is that
your phone booth?
it was.
We need a phone booth for a non-profit production we are
putting on in Las Vegas. I was wondering if you could possibly loan us the
booth, or any others that you know of, for our production. The production
will run for about six shows over three months.
i don't still have the phone booth; it was stolen.
my phone booth did visit las vegas once, for a defcon convention. one of the defcon organizers, "evil wench," promised to reimburse me for all expenses. she reimbursed me for none (& when i'd call to see wtf, she'd always have an excuse "can't talk now, there's a hurricane!"; "can't talk -- just gashed my finger and there's blood everywhere"; and (no shit), "your check's in the mail." she ripped me off all the way. guess a guy should be more careful with someone called evilwench, huh?
so, even if i still had the phone booth, it's unlikely i'd let it leave my possession again. even if you're not an evil wench.
Also, we were hoping that we could go out to the Mojave phone booth and get
some video footage of it, but you have informed us that it no longer exists.
That is a bummer! Do you know of other lonely Desert phone booths?
no. seeing what happened the first time, if i did, i would keep it VERY QUIET.
From: Darel E.
Subject: cima rd. stuckey's
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004
Hi,
I was looking for pictures of the stuckey's at the cima rd. exit off of I-15, and I stumbled on to this site.
I used to pump gas there and we lived in the house that connected on to the store.
I didn't realize there was a phone booth down that dirt road to Cima. I remember a public phone outside the store and we had one in the house. The number was windmill staition #...something.
It totaly frustrated the people who tried to use it. The operator wasn't into answering the phone.
Anyway ..it sucks that they removed the booth.
sure is. yay for authority.
was the station a stuckey's when you worked there? the first time i visited (1997, i believe), it was no longer a stuckey's.
here's an excerpt from an email i received about five years ago (which is posted here) that you may find of interest:
My dad and a friend of his used to spend a lot of time out in the deserts in Nevada. They were out in that area and ran across the phone booth in the 70's. At that time, it was just a booth and metal phone with no coin slots or dial. To make a call you would just pick up the receiver and place a collect call with the operator. They used the phone one day to call home and the operator told them the phone number was "Windmill Station #3". They passed by there several times over the next few years without a change. Then in the early 80's the phone and booth were gone, only the concrete slab remained. My dad thinks that it was just about a year or so later there was a new (dial) phone and booth, which I guess has been replaced periodically over the years to keep up with maintenance and technology.
My dad also mentioned that windmill station #1 used to be located at what used to be a Stuckeys store on Cima road, just off I-15. It was similar to the #3, but it was a wooden phone.
i wonder where that telephone operator was ... barstow, maybe?
Yeah it was a stuckey's, I worked there in '81. People would break down out
there and my boss wouldn't let me help them. They would come in with their
raditors steaming ask where the water was, i'd point to the fawcet at the
edge of the lot, they'd get their car over there and ask where the hell the
hose was. I told them people always stole the hose so we dont provide
them..your gonna have to get a paper cup or something out of the trash
can.....and I usually got a good cussin'!
Rumor has it that a family disapeared from that apartment we lived
in...supper on the table... Anyway, my boss,who we shared the place with did
not answer the door at night. One time he ran this poor guy off at gun point
because he was broke down and wouldnt accept the fact that our phone was
just like the one outside! It was a scary place to be because of the
isolation. It went against my nature to not help people when they're so
desperate so I quit after about 6 months. I'll never forget my time
there...there are a lot of nuts going to and from L.A. and Vegas!
i'll say. sometimes those nuts were my friends and me.
intriguing rumor about the family! from whom did you hear that rumor? any idea what the family's name was supposed to be? i'd love to know more about that.
My boss, Mark Estes,who is also missing , told me that. He said thats why we were not to help anyone especially after hours. Aparently that Stuckeys had been closed a long time before we were there and I think that was why. I have no idea who the family was. I wish I did.
how did you happen to get a job at a stuckey's in the middle of nowhere?
Mark had worked at the Stuckeys west of Baker and decided to get trained to manage one. They gave him the one at Cima rd. We both lived in Newberry Springs just about 25 miles east of Barstow and were good friends. When they gave him the store Mark and I ...and our girlfriends at the time moved out there to run it.
I used to think Newberry was the middle of nowhere until we moved to Cima rd. I couldnt hang and I don't think Mark ever forgave me for leaving..I haven't seen him since.
if the family disappeared, it's sure to have been in area papers. maybe someone knows what newspapers were operating in the area at the time...
I bet that Baker has a paper..maybe there's records there. If you fail to find anything about it there then it could be that it was an Arizona Stuckeys where Mark was trained. The town Benson comes to mind.. as far as when it happened, i'm not sure but i'd guess late '70's or very early '80's.
Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2004
From: Burning Sensation
Hi Doc,
I don't know if you've been out to the booth's site at all recently,
it's been quite some time since i've been there. it would probably be a little depressing for me to go there now.
but I made a short trip out there yesterday. Unfortunately, the memorial appears to have been removed (which I suppose was to be expected),
yeah. i believe that disappeared not all that long after it was placed.
but I did manage to get some photos. Thanks for turning me on to it in the first place; I'm glad I had the chance to visit before it was removed.
Cheers,
- skroo.
Date: Sat, 5 Jun 2004
From: Ken B.
Hey,
Just wanted to say I enjoyed reading your site on the Mojave Phone booth. I ran
across it while reading telephone history. I grew up in Maryland and still live
there. Im 49 and remember in the 60's seeing phone booths in remote locations.
I was always facinated at seeing a phone booth on a dark night and with a few
coins being able to contact the world. Im a ham radio operator and have been
for years and continue to enjoy communications. The cell phones have taken the
facination our of communicating by phone. Anyway I guess the Mojave Phone booth
was used in alot of Hollywood Movies and TV shows for sure. If I had the time I
would have loved to have made a trip to visit it. I think a new phone booth
should be restored and put in Operation, but reading your site I guess the NPS
does want to discourage visits for such things. I hope your readers and
followers can lobby to get it back.
the booth definitely had a unique, and even cross-cultural, appeal. it was an essentially unrepeatable phenomenon, though, and even if it weren't, it is almost certain that nps officials will never again allow anything like that to take root under their noses.
From: Jim G.
Subject: Question from Backpacker Magazine
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004
Hello, Doc:
Backpacker Magazine is trying to identify the most remote phone booth in the
contiguous U.S. I'm a writer at work on that story. My question for you:
With the sad demise of the Mojave Phone Booth, where does that leave us? Is
there a runner-up phone booth that is now king? Please share your thoughts.
none of which i'm aware. if i did know of another that was in any way comparable to the mojave phone booth, however, i would keep its location quiet; i believe i have done more than enough damage to the isolated phone booth cause for one person's lifetime.
hochste lust und mea culpa,
doc
From: Sookie
Subject: phone box fun
Date: Mon, 31 May 2004
Hay deuce,i loved ur web about ur fun & journey with the phone box in the middle of no where.....
Have u desided 2 find a new box 2 make famouse?????
no. if i found another, i think i would have to leave it in obscurity, or else it would probably be destroyed like the other.
Im from australia,i would have loved 2 have had the chance 2 call the box but it was taken away by the time i read ur web site..... :(
Anyway just wanted 2 say thanks it was a good idea while it lasted & i loved ur web site..... :)
muchas gracias.
From: Sookie
Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2004
Hay,thanks 4 ur reply..... :)
I 4got 2 ask if u eva meet the girl u 1st talked 2 when u rang the ph box?????
Laine-was that her name?????
lorene ... no, i never did meet her in person, though i spoke with her many times on the phone. i may yet meet her one day.
Also,did u get any ph calls from aussieland while u were there?????
Ph box fan Sookie :) xo
i believe so. i used to have logs of all the calls i took, but they were stolen. grrrrrr.
From: Jen K.
Subject: phone booth mosaic :)
Date: Wed, 26 May 2004
Hello......
Great site... So sad to see those cocks took the booth away.
yeah. it's just what cocks do -- when they have uniforms.
I was wondering if you've ever bothered to find the Anti-Phonebooth that you show pictured on the map (or if it still exists)
i did. it's not a phone booth, though. just a phone kiosk. and while it's isolated by city or town standards, it is right across the road from where people live.
-- and if you ever made any mosaic crafts out of the bits of booth window glass you collected?
Cheers!
JenK
i intended to ... but the five-gallon bucket full of glass i collected & cleaned was stolen -- along with nearly all my other possessions -- a couple of years ago.
Date: Wed, 26 May 2004
From: Sayward D.
Subject: love the website/phone booth
Hello!
I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your website!
gracias.
It all started when we first got our computer around '99. I was searching for something, I have no idea what, and I clicked on the Salton Sea So Cal trip page (the search engine took me there) and I have you to thank for my weird fascination with the Salton Sea. Never heard of it before, but the thought of some surreal place half sunk in salt water and a beach of fish bones? Cooooool!
I really like Wagner. How's he doing?
his condition slowly, steadily deteriorates. yet he remains spry, even vigorous. where is mozart today? beethoven? right. alone of all the dead composers, wagner continues to roam the world!
I followed the Mojave phone booth thing and that was really cool. I saw you have pieces of the booth. Do you still have any pieces left? If so I was wondering if we could trade. I don't know what you like exactly as you seem to be varied in the things you like, but I have a lot of paintings. No, not any lost Rembrandts or Van Goghs or anything like that, but tons and tons of paintings I have done over the years. I do a lot of different things, in varying sizes. I mostly do surreal stuff. So how about a painting for trade?
I come with this proposal as I see you have visited many different places and museums and archetectural stuff. I think it's neat. And I really would like a piece of that phone booth!
Please let me know what you think, and we can go from there.
unfortunately, the booth glass was stolen (see below).
Date: Sat, 22 May 2004
From: Casey W.
Are you folks for real? I have been interested in the Mojave Desert Phoneboth for years. Even talked to a lady from New York who was with her boyfriend who was out there on vacation. I should get a piece of phone booth glass for THAT secret information!
sadly, the five-gallon bucket full of glass i collected & cleaned was stolen -- along with nearly all my other possessions -- a couple of years ago. i really need to update that page. but thanks for the offer.
From: Steven R.
Date: Thu, 20 May 2004
Hey there,
Its been a long time, but was at a BBQ recently and somehow we got on the subject of the phone booth. Most hadn't heard about your story so i briefly recapped, and passed along the website for them to lookup. Also told about our documentary/road trip across the country with WAAF in Boston to the phone booth several years ago (before it was removed). Unfortunately, Craig, the Director, left the production company he had his deal with and the project never was completed. However, I pulled all the dailies/tapes and made my own mini- trip down memory lane documentary of our trip. I think Craig had contacted you at one point early on, right?
he did, but i don't know whether he mentioned a documentary (although carrie did).
In any case, the recent Grill-out made me pull out the DVD i made and poke around your site to see what was knew. To this day, i still carry Charlie's Business card in my wallet and also had Lorene's too, but i seem to have misplaced it. (i've attached a picture of his card for your files).
Although i don't have my VCR set up right now, i could make a copy of my DVD, if you really wanted one.
yes, thank you, i would very much like to see that.
A lot of it is our trip across the country with Mistress Carrie from WAAF and visiting historic locales along the way (Miniature version Graceland in Roanoke, a Waffle house (just for Breakfast), Graceland, Largest Cross in the US (Broom, Texas) Largest Illuminated Star in US, etc.
Just curious,
Do we know how Lorene and Charlie are these days? - other than what i've read in the latest emails posted?
i haven't had an update from either of them in a while -- probably more than a year or so. i need to call lorene and find out the disposition of her cinder mine case against the nps...
From: cycocat9
Date: Fri, 14 May 2004
Ran across your Mojave phonebooth site while I was researching Baker for a story I was writing. Nice trip.
Thanks for the tour and inspiration,
From: steve b.
Subject: Phone booth glass
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004
OK, We've been trying to think of something cool to trade, and can't think of anything really funky, but here goes:
How about a piece of the St. Francis Dam? It collapsed in 1929 (good job, Bill Muholland), and caused one of the worst disasters in U.S. history. Type in St Francis dam on a search engine and you'll get tons of hits
As far as trades go, it's kinda dark, but what the hell.
Let us know.
that would be a fine trade, indeed. i have a book on the st. francis dam disaster. wherever did you get a piece of the dam?
unfortunately, nearly all the mojave phone booth glass i picked up from the site was stolen, along with most of my other possessions. i think i have a very few pieces left, but if i do, they're in a small storage somewhere. i hope.
P.S. We're taking a 4x4 trip on the Mojave Road this weekend, and are going to visit the phone's "gravesite". I wish I could have been there before the NPS stole it.
bon voyage. if you return with interesting photos of the site, please forward them along
From: Curt
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004
Subject: More Booth stuff...
Well you might be aware of this but I was out on the Mojave Rd. the other day & heard of a booth near the Goff's vortac N. of I-40, credit card only....I didn't investigate but I had flash backs to the thought of another desert booth......
the Goffs phone has been there for quite a while. as phones of the world go, it's fairly remote; but compared to the mojave phone booth, it's not. it's right across the street from some habitations. i think i took some photos of it when i was there, but i'm not sure i posted them.
Is there any interest in locating another booth in another nearby Mojave area?
if there were one, i'd probably have heard about it by now (and would also have heard, most likely, of the government getting rid of it).
but the mojave phone booth phenomenon is, most likely, an unrepeatable event.
Thanks for all the updates & keeping a light on for the booth.
From: Aaron P.
Subject: ye olde Mojave Phone Booth
Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004
Deuce --
I stumbled across the Mojave Phone Booth pages after searching for pics of
old-fashioned rotary-dial payphones. I think it's kind of funny (and
great!) that such an isolated payphone existed. Too bad it was long-gone
before I'd ever even heard of it. :-( Maybe someone should set up a new
booth someplace where the NPS can't have it removed.
-- Aaron of Minneapolis
but the booth was historical. that was part of its charm.
if santayana was right, maybe we should forget the booth, and then it will be repeated.
From: Arto A.
Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004
Just missing the great late phone booth.. It was so much fun to talk to some wierd strangers at the desert in the middle of the night having -30 below zero here in icy and snowy Finland.. Igor
thirty below ... i can't even imagine that kind of cold, being a 1/4 finn who has lived all his life in the desert (where currently is it +70 F).
From: Kryse B.
Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2004
greetings! i have been meaning to send you an email for years. my name is kryse, i'm over in san diego and i cant remember how i heard about the mojave phone booth (now that's going to bug me until i think of it) but i was able to call it while it was still in existence and talk to someone who was camping out there. it was awesome cuz i had been trying to call for the longest time and kept getting a busy signal. i was bummed to hear of it's demise. that sucks. anyway, i was checking out your website again as i do every so often and wanted to let you know how much i enjoy it. great work, thanks for taking time to share your mojave phone booth excursions with us!
From: Mike J.
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2004
Hi
I found your information on The Mojave Phone Booth inspiring and fascinating. I admire the dedication and time you put forth to make the booth a well known landmark. It's removal was unjust and simply became one reason not to visit the Majove National Preserve. Your website is a wonderful way of preserving it's memory and I look forward to seeing new pictures and updates about the booth's site and some of the artifacts that still remain. Most unfortunate about this story is that the booth's wherabouts are unkown. Perhaps this is not totally disheartening for it will be the subject of many theories and debates for years to come.
I took your advice and phoned Mary Martin. A very young voice picked up on the other end and I figured it could not be Mary herself. I started asking general questions about the Mojave Preserve. At one point I asked her if the phone booth was still there for which she replied, "It's.... not there anymore." I acted truely dissapointed then asked if she could send me pamhlets and tourist info. She was sincerely nice and was friendly to speak with so I couldn't bring myself to complain about the booth's dissapearing act. 2 weeks later I received a manilla envelope containg maps, bookmarks, articles etc. Interestingly enough, the phone booth symbol is still marked on the map!
An interesting story I share with the booth occured sometime in the winter of 1999. I discovered an online service that allowed you to make free long distance phone calls anywhere in the USA from your PC using a headset & mic. When first experimenting with it late one night, I searched Yahoo for phone booth numbers simply out of curiousity and hoping to speak with others around the US since it was costing me nothing. I came across a site listing pictures and phone numbers of various payphones around the world. Included was a line of phones at Grand Central Station, a few others I cannot recall, and the Mojave Phone Booth. I remember seeing a picture of it on the website and went ahead and called the number it gave. I made it ring several times before tring other numbers. At that time I didn't realize it's significance nearly as much as I do now but even then I was amazed that there was a booth in the middle of a desert. Had I known that people were visiting the phone regularly I would have called all the time. I'm just happy that I was able to make one call to that lonely booth in the sand.
Thanks for the enjoyable reading that your website provides. I hope you update the Mojave Booth section from time to time and I look forward to reading other posts on the topic.
(RIP)760.733.9969
From: David C.
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003
Dear Deuce,
I live out here in the middle of the East Mohave Desert and there are plenty of phones out here. I've just never found one that works.
well ... there was once one working pay phone to which i would have directed you ...
From: Tom T.
Subject: Mojave Phone Booth DVD
Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2003
A friend loaned me Full Frame Documentary Shorts, a 2003 New Video Group, Inc. DVD which contains seven short films. The seventh, "Mojave Mirage" by Kaarina Cleverly and Derek Roberto, is about the now-vanished-but-not-forgotten phone booth (as close--damnit--as I'll ever get to the booth in this life!).
i have seen the film (kaarina was corresponding with me while she put together the film), but not the dvd (which i would assume is the same version, though i'm not sure).
how did you like it?
Thought it was an excellent documentary--scripted, shot & edited well, it captured the spirit of desert, booth & their visitors. Congrats to the filmmakers for preserving--at least on film--what corporate America (business & government) destroyed.
From: "Desert Tripper"
Subject: Chatted with Charlie on Friday
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2003
Hey Deuce,
We went on a road trip through south-central Utah last week. Nice trip with lots of panoramic vistas. I got that old familiar feeling as we went through the Cima Valley on I-15, and on the way back I stopped to say hello to Charlie and deliver a videotape of the footage I shot during our visits to the Booth. He was most gracious, and was pretty much his old jolly self. But I could tell he is nowhere near as happy as he used to be. He said that he had not been out of his trailer in 3 days, and watches satellite TV all day to pass the time. Not normal for a guy who used to round up cattle, tow people out of sand pits, and trundle several miles up a nasty road twice a day to answer the Mojave Phone. He was reminiscing about the great times he spent on his peaceful ranch, dragging the mattress outside during summer months and watching the satellites criscrossing the night sky, and of course the fantastic run he had as caretaker of the Booth. Now he stays in an old single-wide in the middle of a junkyard of old vehicles, right next to the bustling I-15 Freeway. It is a sad story, much reminiscent of the Jethro Tull song "Farm on the Freeway", only here instead of a freeway the government is creating a sanitized "wilderness" that it doesn't want anyone to see or even know about. If only Mary Martin and John Reynolds could see beyond their special interests and see how their ill-conceived policies ruin people's lives, things could be better. May the powers-that-be have mercy on their souls.
By the way, I looked carefully from the freeway and could still see a line of poles heading off into the desert from the Halloran Summit area, so that is a good indication that the poles across the Mojave Preserve are still there. As long as they exist, hope (however slim) also does.
In other news, I don't know if you heard, but Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) led a successful fight to preserve a cross next to Cima Road in the same general area as the Booth, placed there years ago as a memorial to WWI veterans. Its existence had been challenged on grounds that it was a religious symbol on public land, but Lewis launched an act of Congress to keep it there. Ironically, this is the same Lewis who blew me off and told me to ask Pac-Bell about the Booth when I wrote to him about it. I am tired of wasting postage and paper writing to eyeless, earless, spineless bureaucrats, but I may send one last letter to him and ask why he can't dedicate a similar amount of effort to investigate why an historic and unique phone booth was removed from NPS land in direct violation of the NPS Historic Sites Act, something which no one to date has given me a valid explanation for.
glad charlie's still in the area. he wasn't living at the same yard near the cima exit, was he? i'd be glad if he were, but i'd heard that he'd been forced out of there.
i imagine the poles will begin coming down in due course. but one certainly can hope otherwise
as for congressman jerry lewis, he's probably about as much of a clown as his hollywood namesake. only maybe a little funnier. difficult to settle the difference between a gnat and a flea (didn't dr. johnson say something like that?)...
yes, he [Charlie] is still there, miraculously. last time i visited he said that it's the only place the nps CAN'T kick him off of, because the little parcel of land surrounding the cima rd. gas station is privately owned (though he did say that one of the trailers on the parcel projects a couple of feet over the nps boundary line and technically they could be forced to move or remove it though through some act of god they haven't come around and harassed them yet. never know, that trailer could move in an earthquake and squish an endangered cactus... ) charlie is a good sport and still monitors all the stateline tow truck traffic -- both times i've visited they called him to come out on his radio. but I am sure he dearly misses those six miles of pole-lined road between his ranch and the booth.
incidentally, that's the first gas station where i've ever seen gas over
$3 a gallon...
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003
Subject: Cool Site
From: Lane J.
hi there, I love the Mojave site, about the "booth" I stumbled on it from a link from TechTV, way too cool.
From: Sean W.
Subject: Mojave Phone Booth documentary
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2003
Not sure if you ever knew about this, but I was perusing the local music/video store the other evening and ran across a DVD of short documentary films. One film was of particular interest, it's a somewhat avant-garde 15 minute piece on the Mojave phone booth. Lots of footage of people calling the booth and calling from the booth and generally having a good time. I was only disappointed that the filmmakers never interviewed you! (although you are mentioned and thanked)
i have seen the film (from which i was omitted at my own request). the filmmaker is a nice person, and became a good friend of lorene's.
i didn't know it was out on dvd, though.
From: Jeff B.
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003
Dear Deuce,
Thank you for taking the time and resources to document your phone booth
story. I was very dissapointed to read the the booth had been destroyed.
Given enough time, a small tourist town would have sprouted around the
booth. ;)
I can't believe I have spend this much time (2+hrs) reading about a
telephone booth in the desert, but found your story compelling and heart
warming. Long live the booth, even if its only in our hearts, memories and
internet servers.
Thanks again,
Jeff B.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
From: Bart M.
Subject: God Hates Mary Martin!
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003
God hates Mary Martin and all those involved with the removal of the Mojave Phone Booth! Ergo, His wrath is upon thee!
Proverbs 1:24 - Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
Mary Martin, listen up! God is not mocked! God hates all workers of iniquity (Psalms 5:5)! Ergo when you die you will split Hell wide open! There will be no appeals. All the acts of congress cannot buy you one day off your sentence which is eternity.
With kindest regards, I remain&
Yours in Christ,
Bart M.
*************************************************
God Hates Harrodsburg!
"The foolish shall not stand in thy sight, thou hatest all workers of iniquity." Psalm 5:5.
Anyone who tells you that God hates the sin and loves the sinner is a Pied Piper of Hell leading you right into the belly of the eternal furnace. Who does God send to Hell? The sinner or just his sin? Does he love the billions of people already in Hell? Did he love the filthy sodomites that He rained fire down on at Sodom and Gomorrah? Did he love the millions that He drowned in the flood?
www.GodHatesHarrodsburg.com
*************************************************
From: Jason
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2003
Subject: MOJAVE TRIP
hey deuce,
heading to Mojave Preserve may 1st. were gonna attempt to find cow cove, a petroglyph site that i believe is not far from the old booth.
on a delorme topo its west of the booth.
it'll probly take half a day, but thats what makes it fun.
later
jason, sacramento
yep, very close indeed.
when you see the stop sign beneath the telephone line (if they haven't removed the poles yet -- i think they haven't), you'll know you're on the hallowed former booth spot.
have fun!
doc
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003
Subject: Booth and Site
From: Michael S.
Deuce,
I just spent the last 6 hours reading everything on your site.
you must be a fast reader indeed
It really sucks that everything that is good and fun is taken away from us by the gov.
it certainly does. what shall we do about that?
I found your site on the internet completely by accident...but must say that is one of the most original sites I have ever come across. I have been all over the mojave desert being from Lone Pine, CA...and in the area of the booth...I only wish I could have found it when it was still there...Would have been fun to meet you people. I enjoy your stories so much, have you thought of publishing your site into a coffee table book...It is after all a part of history.
(such a project is in the works even now.)
I will continue to go to your site to read what your up to next...Also, I will keep my eyes open for phone booths were nobody goes as well..If I find one, I will send you a photo and phone number. There has to be more somewhere.
Take care, and thanks for the great site!
de nada y gracias,
doc
From: Jadin H.
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003
I haven't finished reading everything at the site yet, but what I have
finished quite simply rocks.
rocking is what we do best here at deuceofclubs.com.
no. no, that's not true.
but rocking is one thing we do here at deuceofclubs.com, from time to time.
Thought for you, if somebody hasn't posted this idea already. (the mailbag
is one of the unfinished parts. . )
Phone company engineers, or whatever they want to be called, have a
lineman's phone. It allows you to clamp on to the telephone wires 'as is', not sure exactly how it works since
I don't want to fork out the money just to test this, but you 'should' be
able to clamp one of these onto the remains of the Mojave Desert Phone
Booth. That is unless they took out the wires too.
this is what is apparently on the nps agenda. the wires and poles are slated to disappear.
Maybe someone else who is more experienced with one of these would know for
sure, but if it was indeed possible, a new phone booth would also be
possible with a little ingenuity. I think.
From: Robert G.
Subject: Interesting new phone booth items
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003
Hello...
I'm hope I'm not bugging you too much.
(not bugging at all.)
Like many I've become caught up in the obsessive and totally meaningless insanity of bazaar coin- operated communication. Extreme enough that there is a real and fully functioning phone booth in my living room. Help, I need therapy!
Most mornings lately I spend 15 minutes or so continuing my Google-quest for Phone Booth Knowledge. Largely hunting for that "other" yet to be discovered far off and forgotten booth waiting for fame. Lessons learned from the last one, a plan must then be developed in advance to protect it from the same fate.
I've come to the conclusion that Miz Martin is the invisible woman. In spite of numerous cumulative hours doing Internet searches, seeking government employee directories, and a couple trips to the University library, I have been unable to dig up one single scrap of her past. No records of origin, former positions, educational background, childhood pets, favorite ice cream, any acknowledgment that she ever existed before her unexplained and present appointment. Weird. I was very thorough. Have you ever found anything significant??
haven't really searched. currently she is as insignificant as a gnat.
In the meantime I discovered a couple of interesting items that I thought you might appreciate. The first is from the town of Olympian, Washington. A pretty good phone booth story.
interesting, especially given that girl trouble, the band from whose zine i first learned of the booth, are from olympia.
As for the second item I have in fact located another, (though not quite as exciting), booth. It is near a mostly abandoned section of old route 66 near a pipeline maintenance access road. Attached is a picture. The booth is in front of a long since deserted gas station. The information came from a travelogue someone posted on the web. It reportedly does work.
From: Andrew L.
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003
Subject: Remains of The Booth
I know the Telephone poles are still in the desert, but is the phone cable
still on the power lines? If you dont know, culd you refer me to someone who
would?
last i saw, it was. however, i'm pretty sure it is on the nps drawing board to remove the poles and lines. you could call pacific bell and they should be able to give you the latest status.
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003
From: Steve Mann
Disconnection of the "Disconnectivity Booth": The end of Postmodernism
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I teach electrical engineering and computer science at University of
Toronto, and found that the Mojave Desert Phone Booth served as a great
teaching example for understanding culture and technology, and what I
call "Deconnectivity" (Deconstruction of the notion of connectivity),
that raises a lot of important philosophical questions.
In addition to the alleged mandate of the Parks Service: to preserve
"patterns of western exploration and settlement, and sites exemplifying
the mining, ranching and railroad history of the old West." one could
also argue that the Desert Phone Booth is also an important artifact of
postmodern culture. Perhaps in some sense the phone booth has an
importance not unlike like Duchamp's urinal, or Magritte's pipe, or
other common objects, taken from their usual context and re-situated as
an important work of art. (PoPoMo is described in wearcam.org/deconism.htm)
There is, however, something ironic about the disconnection of
disconnectivity. The phoneboth in the middle of desert stood as a symbol
of disconnectivity. Now it has been disconnected.
What would happen if the Parks Service decided to break into museum
storage and destroy Duchamp's urinal, or Magritte's original works?
I think this phone booth has an even greater importance than paintings
by now dead artists, and other such materials that are so carefully
preserved, because the phonebooth was an example of "living art".
In the sense that John Cage's four minutes and thirty three seconds
of silence was considered an important work of art, somehow the
ability to reach out and touch nobody was all the more profound.
But the destruction of this way to reach out and touch nobody
is analogous to (and I might go so far as to say worse than)
somebody calling for the erasure or destruction of all known copies
of Cage's original performance simply because too many people are
listening to it.
The telephone is an important element of modern technology, situated in
our postmodern fragmented world of interconnectivity. Clearly the
disconnection of this "disconnectivity booth" is a postpostmodern
phenomenon, and getting it restored would therefore be itself a work
of art in the deconist era of re-postpoststructuralism.
Thus I would wonder why an argument cannot be made to have the phone
booth restored.
Has anyone looked at getting the phone booth restored, and perhaps
getting it declared as an historical or national heritage site?
Now of course they might allege that the phone booth would be used
by terrorists to anonymously plot the end of the destruction of the
world. If we can no longer have a phone booth in the middle of the
desert, then we definitely do live in the postpostmodern (postcyborg)
era.
Prof. Steve Mann,
University of Toronto, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
From: Robert G.
Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2003
I just saw an episode of Dilbert, (animated series based on comic strip), on Comedy Central. At one point Dilbert calls Dogbert from an isolated phone booth in the desert. The operator requests a deposit of $5,000.00 for the first three minutes. VERY obvious what concept they were copying!!
perhaps they sent the royalty checks to the mojave phone booth and they were returned, stamped MOVED -- LEFT NO FORWARDING ADDRESS.
From: Robert
Subject: Superman's booth stolen
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2003
Saw this old cartoon and thought it was very appropriate.
and how. can't tell what the text says, though i can see it says "pacific telephone" at one point.
[Update, 2008: The text decrypted]
From: LoopSouth
Subject: (oops) Electrons spilling onto the desert floor.
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002
I just happened across your site about the Mojave Phone Booth... (I capitalize the first letters because I feel the booth would have wanted it that way... hehe)
I remember years ago hearing about a phone booth in the middle of nowhere... I called... I never got an answer... but like you guys, It was an interesting thought to make a phone in the middle of the Mojave desert ring.
I wasn't even sure if was even true... but I called anyhow.
It wasn't until tonight (this morning? its like 4 in the morning...) when I found your site that I learned that I did, in fact, make a phone in the middle of the Mojave desert ring.
Neat.
I wonder if Salvador Dali would have made a call?
From: boymaenad
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002
Subject: spider story
a few years ago, like 1998-2000 sometime, yall were camping out at the phone booth and inviting callers. I think you were on your way to burning man. I redialed for a while and got through eventually, and told a story about a spider in my car.
do you remember when this would have been? as exact a date or date range as possible?
ah, of course! that was september 13, 1998. i will never forget that date, because that was the day someone told me a story about a spider.
no, not really. we were at the booth on the way to burning man several different times, and all sorts of people took calls. i'm hoping that yours was taken by the self-ordained missionary who camped out at the booth and read proselytizing texts to callers. turnabout's fair play, and isn't it about time the spiders had their say?
I am retelling the spider story in writing, and had the urge to find the actual phone bill of the call, all the more precious now that the booth is gone.
check your long distance bills for 760.733.9969. shouldn't be too hard to find. as phone numbers go, it's very nearly unique.
From: Barb B.
Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002
love YOUR booth...especially the image with the blue haired girl!!! I'm also the proud owner of a booth that originally stood in rural Nebraska..it's in my garage for now.
unfortunately, my booth was stolen earlier this year, but i'll pass along your comments to the blue-haired girl.
From: Grant and Laura
Subject: passing mention by the old grey lady
Date: Sun, 08 Dec 2002
Long time reader, first time emailer. I even made a few calls to the pone booth before it was taken away from us (too soon, too soon). Thought you might be interested to see there is a story in the New York Times about the declining number of phone booths in that city. It mentions (just once, and passingly, but oh, what a thrill) the Mojave Desert phone booth.
that is funny, given the lack of context -- wonder how many nyt readers will remember their story mentioning the booth a few years ago?
From: Trpster *
Subject: *IDEA!** On locating M.T.B. (the telephone in the desert)
Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2002
D.O.C.,
I was reading the NBC coverage on the Mojave phone. I came up with an idea. Why don't you see if NBC can find the phone?? It would be a follow-up piece for them on the booth. And, as we know, they have some pull in getting info.
From: Robert G.
Subject: phones n' deserts n' stuff
Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002
Howdy-
I drove across the desert over Thanksgiving to and from Idaho. Thousands of square miles of endless desert in every direction with abandoned buildings and wires across the landscape. I am still hopeful that another lonely booth is out there somewhere waiting to be thrust into fame.
if you find one & don't want it destroyed by the government, maybe you should learn from my contrary example and leave it in peace.
While driving I was thinking, it took 450 miles to reach the state border. miz mary calculates a 2'X2' phone booth has the power to cause an environmental problem. This size is less than one full rotation of a tire on my truck. How many phone booths does it equal to drive across 450 miles of desert? Let's see, one statue mile = 5280 feet.
wagner is flattered, but is fairly certain you mean statute mile.
This means that it would take 2,640 phone booths side by side to stretch one mile. Over a distance of 450 miles you would require 1,188,000 phone booths in a straight line to reach from Las Vegas to the Idaho border. How many wide would it take to fill a desert? A fascinating math problem, isn't it?
From: rustypup
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002
Hey, Deuce
Left a memento of my own devising at ye olde boothe's last known loc...will
send you pics if you so wish to use on yer site. Can't believe I found it on
first try (with help from a buddy at the ranch).... A lone pilgrimage as the sun set...hoo-wah to
all!!! And thumbing my nose at Ms. Mary M. and the other bureau-cretins.
From: Bret M.
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002
D of C
I am currently a resident of the Japanese island of Okinawa. I would have
loved making a call to the phone as I did not see any listed from Asia. Too
bad "the man" had other ideas. I will say this though, even though I am no
fan of the NPS running things the way they do, as in the "be a pain in the
butt and they will not come" policy, I must admit that I do like anything
that reduces the visitors. Like most everyone else, I want deserted
expanses all to myself and don't like seeing anyone else anywhere near me
when I am at those places. So as I criticize the NPS for being so "not
customer friendly", I secretly and hypocritically like that they do so as it
helps my secret ambition to keep it all to myself. They sometimes act like
jerks, as if we are lucky they allow us access at all, and I hope they keep
it up.
i'm of two minds about that. which seems fitting.
From: Desert Tripper
Subject: Saw Charlie yesterday!!
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2002
Hey Deuce,
On the way back from Comdex in Vegas (my first Comdex! what a show!!) I visited the Cima Rd. mini-mart. When I asked the clerk about Charlie & identified myself as a Booth fan, she lit up right away and called him on the radio. He and his girlfriend showed up in short order, and they related a lot of the goings-on in the area post-Booth.
Apparently, the NPS has been reaching warp-speed in the area with their relentless grab and destroy campaign. Not only are they beginning to reclaim various sites in the area that once brought livelihoods to people, they have kicked Charlie & his cattle off his land. He now resides in a trailer near the mini-mart. He told the tale of how he received some sort of mandate from the NPS that he had to install tortoise fence beside the east side of Aiken Road all the way from Cima Road to past where the Booth used to be. (We all know how long that road is!) When he asked them how his cattle were going to cross the road to get to their watering tanks, they did back off. Plus, he added, what would keep the tortoises on the OTHER side from entering the road? Maybe he should put a fence down the middle of the road, he quipped. His resistance most likely led to his getting evicted, too. Typical BS from the NPS. He said the majority of the NPS officials he has dealt with are total jerks (no surprise there). They also gave him hell because he graded the road between his place and Cima Rd. in order to remove the heavy equipment from his farm. What a crock! In any case he's moved out & happy for the time being; the area the mini-mart is on is private land.
As far as the Booth goes& he is sort of relieved that the world spotlight is off him and the area, but he has nothing but the fondest memories of his tenure as the Booth s Tour Guide. There was nothing in the world like it, and he made an effort to visit 3-4 times a day when possible and answer calls. If he was answering the phone and someone came up, he would always relinquish the phone so the visitor could receive the full effect of the Booth. He said the weirdest thing he ever heard about at the Booth was a couple having sex in the Booth. (No he didn't see them, but someone told him they called the booth and were told Please call back later. We re having sex! The person called back 5 minutes later and they were done!) He said pulling people out of the sand pits took a toll on his pickup ( it only runs on 2 cylinders now ) but it was all worthwhile. He said, for the most part, he didn't see druggies or drunk-off-their-ass revelers at the booth, just a lot of people having good clean fun!
All the locals in the mini-mart concurred that it was [name deleted] who was mainly responsible for pushing the NPS to make PacBell remove the Booth. (Yet another reason I am a vegetarian!!) Ironically, it was an arrogant and belligerent NPS RANGER thundering through his property at 2AM and, when confronted, saying I can do anything I want out here! , that pushed [name deleted] over the edge, according to one person there. Now, in still another twist of fate, [name deleted] now WORKS for the NPS, and therefore gets to keep his ranch (minus the cattle of course.) Charlie had been told by PacBell after the removal that per NPS regs they weren t allowed to touch the concrete pad, so he thinks it was [name deleted] who took the pad and cinder blocks out. He thinks [name deleted] is the one who removed memorials left at the site, too. He said something about a rule that NPS can t remove anything that doesn t have an advertisement on it(??) Then again, who would expect Martin & Friends to follow goddamned RULES?
Charlie was as jolly as ever, and full of stories about his city days as a Search & Rescue official and longshoreman. He invited us to come and visit him anytime. He is now retired and kicks back at his trailer when he isn t out exploring the desert. He said he is very interested in any VHS tapes or pictures taken by anyone who has visited the Booth (& even is willing to reimburse postage if necessary).
[readers, if you have items, charlie's address will remain on file here at deuceofclubs.com]
Before taking off I opened in Charlie's presence a letter from Sen. Dianne Feinstein I had received a week or two earlier in response to my concerns about the way the NPS dealt with my complaints to them regarding the Booth. In true politician form Feinstein appears to believe the NPS party line about the horrendous resource damage that was allegedly caused by Booth visitors, but she promised to have her staff look into the way NPS has handled the incident. (I m not holding my breath, of course&)
The mini-mart is doing great! They have brand new gas pumps ($2 a gallon - yikes!) that just went on line a couple of days before I saw Charlie. The snack bar is freshly renovated as well. One local said they are planning to become a franchise of a major gas company. All in all a great visit with Charlie and friends.
From: [Name withheld]
Subject: saddened
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002
In my short [x] years of life I have never shed a tear for a phone booth. Until tonight! In researching a trip across the Mojave Road I came across your wonderful site and all its glory. How I wish I could have been there for that last, although frozen, excursion. On 10-21-02 I will pay may respects to a wonderful story at the last known location of "the booth". Deepest regards.
p.s. I happen to work for the man (SBC Pac-Bell), and if I can be of any assistance in replacing the booth, I'd be glad to help.
From: Robert G.
Subject: Where is it now?
Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2002
Hello,
I recently obtained my very own phone booth, now sitting on my back porch. It is in phenomenally great condition. It still has the original folding doors and all the glass intact. Even the light works. I won a bid on ebay for an old pay phone to install inside.
Anyway, all of this reminded me of the Mojave booth and I started wondering, where is it? I mean when the KGB agents removed it they took it "somewhere". Is there a surplus dump somewhere where old orphan booths are laid to rest? It would seem to me that there may be some value to it, the perfect centerpiece for a roadhouse bar someplace. Imagine having in your possession THE Mojave booth. Any thoughts?
as soon as pac-bell took it, i started asking them for it. pac-bell claims that they destroyed it pretty much as soon as they took it away.
true?
hard to say. but i wouldn't be quick to bet on the truth of any claim they might make.
More than likely there is a fenced "bone yard" someplace where pac-bell
tosses all of their junk. It was probably thrown in among dozens of other
orphaned booths destined for recycled aluminum. It may still survive if it
hasn't been crushed yet. In all seriousness the best way of finding it is
not going to be through official channels. The most promising means would
be to scout out a few of the linemen in the field. Buy them lunch and work
into the conversation where old booths are taken. For a case of beer they
might even show you were it is. It might take a bit of foot work but it's
probably the best chance.
a couple of inside attempts were made, not long after the booth was taken away. they got nowhere. maybe it's true -- maybe they really did destroy the booth, to (presumably) pre-empt any attempt(s) to make unapproved use of it.
Thanks for responding--- again! In all seriousness I've been poking around
and spent several long nights sifting through the Internet. I've learned a
number of very interesting things.... I never had the privilege to visit the booth
myself but I have learned enough that I feel very cheated. It's amazing
what a 2' X 2' X 7' box can do to people. I've become completely fascinated
by it.
From: Rustypup49
Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002
Subject: re: the Other phone booth
Howdy, Doc! Sitting here perusing your website on The Booth, I caught Dennis Casebier's reference to another "famous" booth "15 miles up the road" from his place in Goffs. Any more info on that one, like its loc and history? Thinking of hitting the road in the next coupla months and wanna see the sites, past 'n' present.
Thanks,
Fone Fan
actually, the other phone out there isn't in a booth. it's just a modern phone in a plain old phone kiosk, right across the street from where a bunch of people live. nothing like the mojave phone booth (or even the also-carted-away-by-pac-bell kelso phone booth).
there was at one time, i believe, a phone booth in that vicinity, but it had to be moved because of vandalism.
From: La Fong Schmidlapp
Subject: 15-08-02 First Contact
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002
I grew up in Cali/ L.A. now I'm in Florida.
Thank you for all you have done , I just found the info on the booth last night . Hope and pray you get the booth back , I think some Bell sevice man has it in his garage , cause I can not imagine it being thrown out like recycled metal...
i can easily imagine them crushing it into pie plates at their earliest opportunity
I will be sifting through the links and sites for a while , learning the history.
Date: Tue, 06 Aug 2002
From: Jen
Subject: the glass has landed
DOC
I have recieved wonderful piece of glass.
Thank you for sending it, as I know you have little left.
From: Desert Tripper
Date: Mon, 20 May 2002
Oh man!!! Sorry to hear that. Hope whoever stole it rots in hell (or gets a 2-year assignment with the nps under Mary Martin ... heh heh).... did the bastards steal your $89 phone also?
yup. cleaned me out.
From: jimmr
Date: Thu, 9 May 2002
Deuce,
thought I'd forward this newly started petition in case you wanted to add it to your page.
sorry your booth ran away from home and who knows, maybe it will call home sometime soon.
thanks for all the work you've done in the interest of humor, information transfer and just plain entertainment.
From: Sergeant Zeno
Date: Wed, 8 May 2002
Deuce,
It seems an eternity since I last wrote. The phonebooth was still there. And no planes had yet hit the Pentagon.
From: Desert Tripper
Subject: Booth Petition
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002
Hey Deuce,
I’ve been busy the past year or so, but I am still as outraged as I was the day the Booth disappeared. Thoughts of the Booth and what we lost occupy my consciousness several times a day.
I found this cool place to circulate petitions in cyberspace, and created a fitting petition to the director of the NPS. So far I’ve been able to get 23 brave souls to “sign” it. If you feel this endeavour is worthwhile and up to your standards, please post a link to it somewhere on your website and let your friends and acquaintances know about it and sign it. I know we’ve faced brick walls everywhere we turn with the issue, but if somehow the director can be shown how many people care about the Booth, and be convinced that something larger than life has been taken from our desert, she may come around. At least one can hope. I will not give up hope as long as the lines across the Mojave still exist (the powers-that-be are still preserving them from the NPS abomination, I hope!) Here is the link
Take care and long live the Booth…
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002
Subject: a mourned passing
From: Gomez A.D.D.ams
I was saddened to learn of the passing of the desert phone booth. I
actually called it a few times, but never (WOT a surprise) reached anyone.
I seem to recall missing a chance to call the booth from Burning Man a few
years ago, but my memory of _any_ year on the playa is somewhat fuzzy
(imagine that)... I think someone had rigged up a satellite phone link or
something.
I would love to obtain a piece of glass from that booth - I'll probably
frame it with pictures of the booth I have around somewhere. My theory is
that these pieces of glass will wind up (mostly) in the hands of people who
care(d) about the booth, and thus it will never really cease to exist so
long as someone somewhere remembers it and thinks about it from time to
time... and all that sappy sentimental shit.
From: felix0ne
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002
Yeah this is way after the fact, but, We, in fact, did get on...
We were sitting here at xmas time 2000 and my wife brought up the subject of the Mojave Phone. After much soul searching, about 10 seconds, I decided to call...Busy...Busy..."Hello"...
What followed was a fun conversation with several folks, some from overseas, some from around the area, some campers. It was late and we bid our fond goodbyes. Glad I was part of history..
You meet the best kind of peole out in the hinterlands of hideyholes all over the world. I have been to a few. Hope I make a few more in my short years left.
May you all do the same.
Thanks for a great site
glad it's still around, unlike its poor, departed subject...
From: Drew M.
Subject: the late great mojave phone booth
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002
Dear Deuce,
I know I'm about two years too late, but ... Don't mess your drawers or anything, but I
really want to check the site out, because I'm really into the desert and
especially the wierdos who inhabit said deserts. Since I'm going up to Primm
Valley for a weekend gamble-a-thon, me and my buddy Jesus thought we'd check
the site out, see if anything cool has happened, maybe get sacked by cinder
miners...
From: Tom Graves
Subject: booth remnants
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002
(((please post on your phone booth site, if desired)))
Doc:
During my first visit to the booth site after its demise, I managed to find a handful of glass fragments from its windows, which I kept. But now they sit in my toolbox in my garage, rather forlorn and all but forgotten, and I figure it might be better to share some of them with other fans of your site. Those who would like a piece o' the booth absolutely free can send me a self-addressed stamped envelope and I'll tape a piece between some business cards and send it to them. Its windows were made of safety glass so, when shot at, they fragged into pellet-sized beads, not shards. As booth fans who saw pictures or visited were aware, its windows were completely shot or bashed out long before the phone went out of service. I'm hoping some fans might create fitting memorials to the booth, perhaps by encasing the glass piece in resin next to a dried scorpion (nicknamed Lisa); or perhaps by polishing one and putting it in a jewelry setting. Something to bequeath t! o grandchildren and say, "Kid, this was a remnant of a time when there was freedom in America." Don't miss out. In this case, freedom really is free. (Plus postage and an envelope).
Or if you would like, I'll send you most of the glass nuggets I have left so You can continue your terrific trades page (which I forgot about when I made the offer and then noticed again after reviewing your site.)
that's a fine idea, is what that is. thanks.
From: Leo
Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002
To: Mary_Martin@nps.gov
CC: deuceofclubs.com
I just recently found out about the removal of this phone booth. I'm so sorry that I was never able to see it for myself. I was born here in Barstow in 1962 and the only things that I can say to my kid's that I've seen is Inscription Canyon, Owl Canyon, South-tooth Canyon, and the Harvey House. The reason I just mentioned the Harvey House is because they never removed this land mark / historical site. I can remember when all it's windows were busted out; It was an eye sore from the outside and the inside as well. I use to go inside that building to catch pigeons, their nest were everywhere. I guess since the National Park Service had nothing to do with the preservation of the Harvey House this is why it's still standing. I said Inscription Canyon earlier because I know that the National Park Service has to preserve this or do they. When I went there with my Brother years ago; I never seen a park ranger. Is the NPS different from the BLM or are they the same? Maybe if the BLM knew about the removal of the phone booth before it happened they might have put a stop to it.
Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002
From: Devin J.
ok i know you have probably been asked this a million
times but why did the phone booth get taken out?
it's all pretty much spelled out there on the home page. the nps has stuck to its weak story.
where is it now?
pac-bell refused to tell me, claiming that the booth was destroyed as swiftly as a bomb squad would dispose of an explosive.
did you ever get another one put out there?
no. now that it's a "national preserve," no more phones will be installed (unless they're sanctified for the use of the nps, of course)
can i still go visit the site where it is?
you could.
thanks dude, you are welcome to come party with us in tempe any time.
gracias. i've moved from tempe, but i'm still trying to sell my home near asu. if you know anyone who might be interested...
Date: Sun, 09 Dec 2001
From: Rebecca S.
Subject: wild places
There are some pretty strong opinions out there (and in your mailbag) about, not only the phone booth, but about the preservation of deserts and public land in general. It's a tough subject, one that I don't believe can easily be melted down to one narrow viewpoint.
I am sorry to see the phone booth go. I grew up in the desert and, in fact, still live in one, in New Mexico. I love relics of past times when the issues of public land protection were not so thorny, and where a phone booth in the middle of a desert simply meant a means for people to communicate. But here's the reality: the wild places I knew as a child in the 50's ARE threatened by overexposure. Deserts aren't like other places that have lots of rain and vegetation and a better shot at regeneration. They are extremely fragile. Every time an off road vehicle goes off road in the desert, it can take many years to undo the damage. It doesn't bounce back.
In the fifties and sixties, you could still see kangaroo rats and chuckwallas everywhere in the Mojave. Now they're hard to find. You could drink from streams and springs in the surrounding mountains. Now you have to filter the water. It's sad. I will miss the phone booth, but I'd miss the desert even more. Many people don't understand wild places these days. So, for me, I believe that protection isn't all bad, but what I'd rather see is people visiting these areas who are not careless and ignorant about them. Then we wouldn't need so much protection.
i understand what you're saying. i grew up in the desert, too. it was never my intention that people go and visit the phone in droves. and by and large, that isn't really what happened. deserts are threatened these days, but much less by individual wanderers but by developers, who could not wreak the destruction they do upon the desert without the active collaboration of government. (the record of government care of the desert is an appalling one.)
off-roaders in the desert aren't good, but the fact is that the people who went out to the booth weren't off-roaders -- most of them had a hard enough time getting their 2wd vehicles down the established roads to the booth. more damaging to deserts than occasional sightseers are free-ranging cattle, in fact. what angered me is that the government acted in its usual dictatorial and duplicitous manner in getting its way. nothing new, but always frustrating.
From: BuziDebBee
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001
I was so amused with myself after having written Mary Martin about the phone
booth and having seen your reference to being ridiculed about e-mail. I
thought I would set myself up and send you a copy of what I wrote to her. So
here goes......
Mary, Mary, Mary,
Removal of a phone booth because people USED it? Removal of a phone booth
because it caused people to visit a PARK??? I intended to show that booth,
OUR booth, (us being the American people) to my children. It was going to be
a lesson about how not EVERYTHING quaint and popular was being removed by the
Bureaucracy!!
Oh Mary, I am very disappointed......
Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2001
From: Jen
Subject: Phone Booth Glass
In return for a piece of glass, I can offer you a phial of DNA and
protien material extracted from dried peas. I can also give you
instructions on how I retrived it. I think you will be amused because
in the words of our lab assisstant "it looks a lot like snot!"
I am desprate to get a piece of the glass, so if you reject this offer,
I will obtain something else.
Tons `o love from Jen G
sounds splendid (although, surprisingly, it doesn't surprise me that pea dna would look like snot)
From: Crasstrology
Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2001
im pathetic, i admit it.
i am a copycat.
i called the phone booth...just to see.
My fingers, numb from the cold dialed the wrong number.
the people at MCRD San Diego were not happy...
i dialed again...it has been disconnected.
im sad.
do you know what happened?
-crass
well ... yeah
From: DrinkinLikeCage
Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2001
Subject: when is your next desert adventure?
hey brother
i love your tales of traveling abroad, especially in the desert,
but im sure your quite used to seeing the the tumbleweed and cacti every day.
to me the desert is the best damn thing this planet has to offer.
i look forward to some new tales
later
j
ps. my dog is named Cima and rightly so
how did that come to be?
because we love stopping in cima on our mojave preserve trips, and besides, it sounds better than goffs or amboy.
i guess kelso sounds alright.
Date: 28 Oct 2001
From: Paul W.
Hi Deuce!
I was having lunch with an old friend of mine last week who was telling me about Burning Man. He said he went there with you and also stopped by the Phone Booth during one of your visits there. Naturally, he told me about this amazing web site of yours!
It turns out that I had visited the Mojave Phone Booth site some time ago, and I've been missing that damned Phone Booth
ever since. Thanks for the site! The Monogram Mountain Project is cool, too...
Thanks for a few hours of great diversion from an otherwise predictable existence.
From: TallAuburnF
Date Sun, 21 Oct 2001
Hey! Iwork 4 Verizon in Va....have been servicin pay fonez for 29 yrs...very kewl site!
too bad it wasn't you working for pac-bell on a certain day not so long ago...
heyyy...IM me dammit
you sure are, TallAuburn. you sure are.
From: Kim
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001
G'day Deuce,
I found your site after I had typed in Mojave Desert into the Google.com search engine. Like a few others, I have just spent a few hours checking the site out.
I'm kinda disappointed like so many others as well. We don't get the chance to see the loneliest phone in the world. So I guess I kinda have a mission now. To see if I can find the loneliest phone here in Australia, which shouldn't be too hard, considering the entire centre of Australia is desert and I guess they need phones out there too.
I'd love a piece of the glass from the Mojave Booth if you have any left of course, so what I'll do is, find the loneliest phone here, and if there's any broken glass from that booth I'll trade ya. How does that sound?
Or if there's something else Aussie you'd like I'll see what I can do.
(either would be lovely, danke)
I'll check out the rest of your site later on. I've been sitting front of this infernal machine for hours.
Later mate.
~Kim~
From: Desert Tripper
Subject: Interesting response from a PacBell tech
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001
Hey Deuce,
When posting a rant ... about my crappy DSL service, I inserted a little poke at
PacBell for their part in the removal of the Booth. Later that day, a guy by
the name of "PacBellTek" posted in response:
"Blame the right party... We didn't have any say there. bub."
So much for the NPS' "blame game", saying it was PacBell and not them.
But then again, we always knew that....
I wonder if this guy has any other inside information that might be interesting?
During an idle moment at work I was thinking how fantastic it would have
been during this terrible week to go out to the Booth and take calls from
people wanting to talk about it. That would really have been interesting.
Oh well. There's only one person to thank for ridding the desert of the
terrible phone booth menace.
By the way... after Dubya appointed his new cabinet I fired off a round of
letters about the Booth to the new Sec of Interior Gale Norton and new NPS
Director Fran Mainella. Guess what... no responses! So much for Dubya's
"more sensible environmental policies."
Just business as usual.
Later... Desert Tripper
From: James S.
Subject: Mary writes back.
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2001
I emailed Ms. Martin because I was concerned the "guvment" was trampling on
the rights of taxpayers and I wanted an explanation. I wasn't concerned in a
gonna-join-a-militia-and-start-a-cult way, just plain ole concerned. I am
leary of the NPS after the Slick Willie's proposal of $1.46 billion Land
Legacy budget, the double protection of parks, restriction of single user
vehicles over mass transport, yadda yadda yadda. Bottom line if Bill gives
you cash, you're up to no good. Here's what transpired for what its worth.
SHOT ACROSS THE BOW
>Subject: Just a simple question.
>Author: "XXXXXXXXXXXXXX" <.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX>. at np--internet
>Date: 05/27/2001 1:14 AM
>Why is the NPS pressuring residents of the Mojave National Preserve to sell
>their homes and move?
RETURN VOLLEY SERIOUS DAMAGE
-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Martin [mailto:Mary_Martin@nps.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2001 8:49 AM
To: James S.
Subject: Re: Just a simple question.
Dear Mr. S.,
It is truly dishearting to see misinformation surface and spread. I
encourage you or anyone else with concerns to call, write or meet with
me and I'll be happy to discuss the factual situation.
There is absolutely NO pressure on residents on Mojave National
Preserve to sell their homes and move. Not only do the residents have
legislative protection against such an action, but they are part of
the history of Mojave NP and intergal to the area.
For many years several of the ranchers have been trying to sell their
ranches and relocate to another area. These individuals independently
pursued selling options and recently were successful in persuding a
non-profit organization to purchase the grazing permits/ranches and
subsequently donate them to the National Park Service.
Far from pressuring or encouraging residents to sell their properties,
the opposite is true. We have many landowners who are willing/anxious
sellers and are frustrated that the National Park Service does not
have funds to purchase their property. I've had many folks call and
plead with us to purchase their property, with legitimate financial
hardships, but we've had to turn them away because of lack of funding.
It was heartbreaking to tell a father, who needed to divest himself of
a small parcel so his daughter could qualify for an operation under
MediCal, that we did not have the funding to purchase his property.
I encourage you to help educate people with real information. As I've
said, I'd be happy to meet with you or any landowner and ensure them
that we are not pressuring or encouraging people to sell their
property, rather we are trying to find creative ways to help those
folks who are willing sellers.
I appreciate you writing and asking the question and hope this
clarified the matter.
Mary Martin
Superintendent
FLOUNDERING HIP SHOT
Subject: RE: Just a simple question.
Author: "XXXXXXXXXXXXX" at np--internet
Date: 06/02/2001 2:58 PM
After this land is "donated" to the park service, will the public have access to it? Or will it become another Sierra Club "Look at the pretty
picture we took, but you cant go there" protected parks?
DIRECT HIT I'M SUNK
-----Original Message-----
From: Mary Martin [mailto:Mary_Martin@nps.gov]
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2001 5:51 PM
To: James S.
Subject: Re[2]: Just a simple question.
The donated land will be managed similar to the rest of the land
within Mojave National Preserve. There is absolutely no land, managed
by the National Park Service with Mojave, that is off limits or
without access to the public. Part of the mission of the National
Park Service is to "provide for the use and enjoyment" of our nation's
parks. The Sierra Club does not manage park lands within Mojave.
In fact, last year through a combination of private donations and land
and water conservation funds, Catellus lands in Mojave National
Preserve (and elsewhere in the desert) were purchased. This provided
access to the public of almost 87,000 acres of land that was
previously not accessible to the public.
It is important in this situations to acquire the facts and I
appreciate you doing just that..
Mary Martin
The part about the father needing to sell to save his daughter got me all
choked up. And I now firmly believe that the Sierra Club has no influence
whatsoever on the NPS. And I got a car that runs on water. And I'm married to
Morgan Fairchild.
this was my favorite part: "There is absolutely no land, managed by the National Park Service with Mojave, that is off limits or without access to the public. Part of the mission of the National Park Service is to "provide for the use and enjoyment" of our nation's parks."
how that statement squares with her bitter and petulant war on an isolated phone booth is beyond my ability to cipher out.
Date: Tue, 29 May 2001
From: Cynthia C.
Subject: mohave phone booth site report, for june 16th, 2001
i've never been there.. missed it when it was standing.. went down the wrong road.. i was cruising thru mohave the other day whilst in cali and i took a photo of the intersection of cedar canyon road and ivanpah road, and i need to inform you that i didn't see a trace of the phone booth, nor any wrapped phones on a telephone pole or anything. i have this great one page map of the mohave desert indicating where the phone booths are on it.. and there is one indicated for that intersection, but it is not there. who do they think they are? the phone was handy just to use if you broke down.. did they ever think of that? anyway, i thought i'd inform you the whole thing is gone now. i did take a photo of the intersection, if you would like to post that. i don't have it processed, but will have it done, soon. thanks a lot! cynthia.
not the right intersection. the booth was at the intersection of aikens mine road and telephone pole road
From: Tom G.
Subject: phone booth pics
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001
Doc:
Rite-Aid lost my original Seattle Film Works phone booth shots, which is just as well, because my girlfriend and I visited the site again and the phones we left were swiped, as I expected. Instead, I left this grafitti on the pole (hope it's legible from jpgville):
and my girlfriend left this slogan out of rocks:
Not quite as picturesque as I thought, but better than nothing. Discovered some great hiking and camping areas west of Cima, though.
Hope Tempe's treating you well,
tempe won't have the deuce to kick around much longer!
From: Los Dudes
Subject: Howdy, dude.
Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2001
Hey Deuce.
We've been following your site for about two years, I guess, and we were about to make our first trip to the booth in two weeks (purchased airfare, etc...) when we found out that the booth has been removed.
HORRIBLE!
Additionally, we also own a string of internet-radio stations. LosDudes is kind of a mix-mash of all different types of stuff, and we were curious about playing the recordings of some of the more action-packed phone-booth phone calls.
i'm not sure we had (m)any of those...
We're not opposed to assisting you find a new phone booth or other suitable replacement, either.
well, there's a booth here at DoC headquarters. the actual mojave phone booth was destroyed (or so pac-bell claims). but thanks.
Well, I actually meant... like... finding another phone booth out in the middle of the desert.
i don't think it's possible to replace a thing like that. and the same thing would happen again, anyway, i suppose...
From: Steve G.
Subject: This American Life Oblique Mojave Phone Booth Reference
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001
FYI, this week's This American Life (http://www.thislife.org) had a fleeting reference to the Mojave phone booth.
That is all.
From: Nick
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001
Subject: indian rock art near the phone booth
this in response to bruces pretty funny letter.....there indeed are
petroglyphs (carvings) as well as pictographs (paintings) nearby the old
phone site......i was directed to these by a fairly drunken character i met
at the phone booth who gave me a card that called him a "tour guide" to the
worlds loneliest phone booth.....they are in remarkably good condition and i
hate to say this but the reason that they probably havent been carved up
spray painted or pissed on is because very few people know theyre
there.......i have some conflicting feelings about this but i will tell you
this......more people will find out about them......more people will see
them.....more people will be turned on to and appreciate these incredible
sites that native people left in our deserts......some of them may be several
thousand (!) years old.......and eventually, probably soon, they will wind up
carved up spray painted and pissed on......now bruce.....and deuce.....what
part do we play in this.......i guess theres just an age-old conflict between
exploration and conservation.....but to my mind the preservation of this site
wd take precedence over some fucking phone booth in the middle of a bunch of
joshua trees.....on the other hand if i hadnt gone to the phone booth i never
would have met this guy.....and he wouldnt have told me about the
site.....and my kids wouldnt have had a great coupla hours answering phone
calls from canada......you can see my dilemma........how do we
balance....well you know............yrs........nick
i've wrestled with the same question. but i wouldn't make the same mistake(s) again, i can tell you that
From: Tom G.
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001
DOC:
My girlfriend and I took a trip Easter weekend along the Mojave Trail and a side trip to the phone booth location. Now the tombstone is gone too. We left our own rather transitory memorial, two phones wrapped around the telephone pole and a small vase with dried flowers. On one of the phones, I wrote in black marker "In memory of the world-famous Mojave Phone Booth. Let Freedom RING!"
We stopped by at Charlie Wilcox's place. We knew them from the time in November 1999 when we checked out the working phone booth and answered calls from Germany, the midwest and south. That's when Charlie handed us one of his official phone booth tour guide business cards and took our picture. (He keeps a scrapbook full of photos of phone booth enthusiasts.) Charlie said the rancher that lives on the ranch near the access road was the guy who complained loud enough to get the phone removed. He apparently got tired of traffic in his "yard" day and night and asked the parks service to get rid of it. If so, the whole "environmental impact" argument was a complete ruse.
well, it definitely was a ruse, but i don't think that the rancher's complaints were the reason for the removal. i think that the booth's removal was the government's plan, and they used whatever excuses they come up with. if i'm not mistaken, the government has purchased the ranch in question anyway, so it wouldn't have made a difference in the booth's removal. i sympathize with the rancher's plight, by the way -- i wouldn't have wanted all those people driving through my yard, either. (the road really did go right straight through his yard -- in front of his door, in fact!)
It's public land for us to use and our taxes to protect, or so it would if our government worked.
as i'm sure you know, in the government's vocabulary, _public land_ is land that is seized from the people and kept from them.
Charlie said he thinks the rancher also removed the tombstone.
possible, although i wouldn't imagine many people are going out to the booth site these days
It's too bad there wasn't more remote access to the booth so getting there wouldn't bother anyone who doesn't like visitors coming through.
actually, the route through the rancher's place wasn't the only way to the booth, and definitely wasn't the most direct one. i didn't even take that route until maybe my 4th trip to the booth. if that really was the cause of the trouble, it would have been easy to restrict access to that road.
Thanks a lot for keeping the site going. The booth is gone, but the mythos lives on.
as, unfortunately, does the federal government...
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001
From: James B.
I just want to say how much I LOVE your site. I recently came across it and learned of the Mojave Phoone Booth. I was
all ready to pack up my car and drive out to see it, but then I found
out it had been removed. I think I'll probably be mourning its death
on and off for the rest of my life.
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001
From: ms
Subject: Truly inspired
A few months ago, a friend and I were driving through the Mojave on the way home from Vegas. I remembered the phone booth series of articles, which were a "random hit" on yahoo about 3 years ago.
We turned off the road and found the town of Cima. We bought stamps at the post office and had an icy cold 7-up.
Then, we drove south for a little ways, went east into the canyon, and came down the eastern side of the hills and ended up at Mitchell's Caverns. Did I mention that we were in a rented convertible and that it was the middle of January?
I just reread the web pages, and it looks like we were just a few miles from the site of the phonebooth, and we missed it. Do you have an image of the map with the phone booth's actual location circled? I couldn't really find such a thing on your website.
Oh, and you guys rock.
danke. well, there's not a map image up on the site, but you were in a different part of the preserve from where the booth used to be, which was quite a bit west of the caverns, off of aikens mine road. maybe it's a good thing you were looking in the wrong place the roads around there can be pretty un-navigable, especially for a convertible!
From: Damien
Subject: Re: mojave phone booth marker
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2001
Doc,
Well I went to the phone booth only once it was 1-2-2000 on the way back from vegas we met Charlie and took phone calls from everywhere all night long. We also buried a twelve pack of beer with the plan of calling the booth and letting people dig for them and replace them with thiers so there would be a perpetually changing twelve pack at the booth, anyways we never ended up calling. then we heard of its demise.
I, like everyone else decided it was quite a cool and unique piece of desert Americana, and it needed a memorial, so I made one. We now had a mission, to set the grave stone and recover the beer, so under the cover of darkness on 12-29-00 we got off the freeway and made our journey to the former site of the booth we dug and dug for the beer with no luck but we did get the stone in. I'm actually surprised that it lasted this long I figured it would be gone with in a week.
What other country celebrates it uniqueness like we do? for a dollar you can see the worlds largest ball of twine or the great corn palace. You can see "The Thing" on I-10 or stop at Bedrock City (near the Grand Canyon) its even on the map. The worlds largest Rhinestone is in the Liberace museum in Vegas so is the neon sign museum. You can see half buried Cadillacs at cadillac ranch. Or sleep in a cement tee-pee on route 66. And untill last year you could visit the worlds loneliest phone booth and talk to an excited curious caller from halfway around the world. I am proud to live in a place that supports and encourages people to remember our diverse American spirit in so many ways. I am also ashamed that we have some shortsighted and narrow minded individuals in positions of power. Is this the same agency that allowed major mining to be performed in the area turning cindercones into holes yet decided that a few cars traveling to see the booth were negatively effecting the environment? Where is their sense of scale?
Talk to you latter
Damien
From: Anthony T.
Subject: I know alot of the booth from the early 70's
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001
Mr.Deuce,
In the early 70"s I spent the summers at the Aiken Cinder Mine and spent many hours making crank calls from that phone. It was called "Cinder peak #2" and was reached by ringing one long and two short rings using a crank.
From: Roderick K.
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001
Hi,
I was going threw my newspaper archive (cleaning it up) and I found a
small newspaper piece about The Booth.... The newspaper piece was dated round the date the booth was going to be
closed. About 1 1/2 years ago I saw a report about the booth on the Dutch
news... I was thinking which crazy person would go out there....
The first 30 seconds I was thinking, your crazy driving out in to the
desert.... I was reading your website for 5 minutes 10 minutes and ended up
reading everything....
I have browsed your website for about 4 hours and enjoyed it very much,
thanks for the great site!! Keep it running in honor of the booth thats no longer there....
I first said anybody that would go out there is crazy....
After reading your website, I wish I would have gone out in that
direction....
The desert is something which has something magic...
I'm afraid in Europe we don't have many very remote phone booth's,
maybe in Scotland (U.K.) or countries like Norway and Sweden....
Enjoyed your site!
Roderick
From: R
Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2001
Mary Martin has a Clinton style of exonerating herself and the actions of the NPS.
While there could have been a few isolated cases of people misbehaving (sheer
ignorance on their part), over all, most did not misbehave. So is this simply
a case of a 'few bad apples spoil the whole bunch'? Taking that into
account, What is the job of a Park Ranger anyway? If we could learn
anything from Yogi the Bear, Park Rangers or employees of the park -- isn't it their job to protect the people from the elements and give a person a hand if they need it? Should we feel bad that they had to help out a few
folks or clean up a little trash?
As for the one person who complained (I know who it was) about too much
traffic in their area, I have empathy for them. It is understandable to be
upset that there is more cars and people around than before. But I'd like to
offer that this was a great opportunity to educate a whole slew of new people
of the 'beauty' of the desert and the do's and don't of the desert community.
After all, if we keep pushing people away how can we ever expect them to know
or respect what a gift the desert really is?
From: Ethan W.
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001
I, too, am mourning the malicious and swift departure of the phone booth by those ignominious bastards at Pac-Bell. Not knowing that a 4x4 would be required to reach the booth, I claim the dubious honor of having Charlie tow my truck out of the first AND second 100 yd-long sand washes. He was kind about it (and took ten bucks!) and hung out a bit and answered a few calls with me. (I took the Cima mine road out the next morning).
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2001
From: Craig B.
Anyone who wants the Phone Booth or the Cinder Mine saved clearly has no idea what is really there. At first glance
the East Mohave looks like a lot of nothing. Go there, hike, camp, explore, read, research the history, geology, plants,
etc. Spend at least three or four weekends. You will change your mind, in many ways.
you already sent this exact same message to me on december the 5th (see below).
what on earth is wrong with you?
From: Kelly S.
Subject: Cima Cinder Mine response from Orrin Hatch
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001
Hi there,
I dig your site. I wrote all of Utah's representatives about the Cima Cinder Mine last spring. None had responded-- until today-- when I received the attached letter in the mail from Orrin Hatch. Better late (and vague) than never? *sigh*
Keep up the good work and don't park under the buzzard tree
From: Andrew
Subject $89 payphone
I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. The letter I identified most
with was the one that said something like "I just spend the last 4 hours
on your site reading about a phonebooth. Now I miss it and I didn't even
know it existed at 7:30 tonight." I miss it too.
Anyhow, the reason for this e-mail is to say that the payphone place is
now selling those payphones for $99, not $89. I probably would have bought
it for $89... but oh well.
well, what's ten bucks among phriends?
From: Michael
Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2000
I do not really have any helpful information for you to get the phone booth
reinstalled, but I thought you may like to know a little more history about
it on a personal level.
Harry H. was a prospector, miner, and resident of the Cima area from
about 1947 until his death in 1975. He had several claims notheast of the
town, and lived on a lead mine claim in a dugout kind of house surrounded by
derilict cars about 10 miles from the phone towards Cima. He was also my
Grandfather.
According to him, my father and my uncles, the booth was installed around
1960 for the convenience of the Cima Cinder miners and the cattle ranchers
in the area. I believe there was another phone at the site before, but the
booth was installed to keep the weather out, and keep the phone equipment
operational for longer periods of time. Originally, the booth had a full
complement of glass panels, and they lasted a few years, until a "bunch of
bikers" (grandad's words) broke it all out. I seem to recall him talking
about them using guns, but do not remember seeing a lot of bullet holes.
He used the phone regularly, and even used to keep a can full of change in
(or near) the booth, so he would not have to carry it with him to call. That
practice stopped when he found the can empty several times, and had to make
a 20 mile round trip just to make a phone call. He also made the last phone
call of his life from the booth in February 1975, although he did not expire
in that location.
My first recollection of the booth was my first trip from Pasadena to the
desert to visit him in his own environs in 1964. The sight was really
impressive to me, a 10 year old city kid, not at seeing a booth, but the
starkness of the location. I have told many of my friends over the years
about it, to varying degrees of interest and belief. The last time I saw the
booth was in 1976, after my grandfather was gone, and there was little
interest from the rest of the family to collect many of his belongings. I
persuaded my maternal Grandfather to accompany me and a friend out to pick
up an old 1940 army command car that Harry had left, and I wanted to drive
out of the desert.
thanks for sending that. i do like very much to hear any bits of booth history at all -- especially now that it's gone.
by the way, the booth was indeed riddled with bullet holes, and they looked as though they'd been there for quite a while.
From: Kathleen E.
Subject: Phone repair
Date: Thu, 07 Dec 2000
Hi Deuce,
Really enjoying your website-very interesting and entertaining. I had the opportunity to visit the Mojave desert as a kid, and wish that I had known that there was a phone booth out there! My parents are, well, different and I would have probably been able to talk them into finding the booth.
mine, on the other hand, couldn't possibly have been convinced of it -- which is probably why i find myself trying to make up for lost time, i guess...
Anyhow, my purpose in writing is to let you know that if you ever have any problems with your phone booth my husband would be happy to offer his services, as he fixes pay phones for a living.
The good part about this is that he likes his job.
The bad part about this is that we live in North Dakota, and it's damn cold up here for 7 months out of the year and most of the phone booths are outside.
He also knows how to do custom phone installations. I'm sure that he would enjoy the winter work environment of AZ much more than ND.
Let us know if you have any problems!
Katress
extremely kind of you! thank you
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000
From: Craig B.
Anyone who wants the Phone Booth or the Cinder Mine saved clearly has no idea what is really there. At first glance
the East Mohave looks like a lot of nothing. Go there, hike, camp, explore, read, research the history, geology, plants,
etc. Spend at least three or four weekends. You will change your mind, in many ways.
you've made some large assumptions about someone you don't even know.
From: sLhAcKeR
Subject: Watching The X-Files right now?
Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2000
Hey man.
This may be a dumb question, but are you watching The X-Files at the moment?
In particular, did you see the first few minutes of the current episode?
There was an interesting scene that included a phone booth surrounded by
Joshua trees in the middle of the desert. This phone booth still had mostly
unbroken glass, but it sure looked familiar...
Date: 9 Nov 2000
From: Courtney J.
Subject: canadian phone booths..
Hey!
I'm a Canadian chick who was surfing around and somehow managed to land on your site, not sure if it's still maintained by you but I thought I would send an email just to say I thought it was super cool and in it's own way, extrordinary.
I've always wanted to do a road trip across the states, if i ever go, you can be sure that I will stop by where the phone booth once stood.
If I can find a canadian phone booth out in the middle of a forest (no deserts here) I will sure to send you the number, just wanted to say thanks for the interesting content of your website.
Courtney
From: Jonathan K.
Subject: Missing sleep
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2000
Jeez, only on the innernet ..
I started out looking for DJ friendly MP3 players and ended
up spending four long hours on your site. I was supposed to
be writing some software but now I miss a phone booth I'd
hadn't heard about until 7:45pm.
"Thanks" for the engaging site.
From: Jered S.
Subject: Pacific Bell Conspiracy??
Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2000
I called +1 800-286-8343 (Pacific Bell Payphone Repair) today, the 6th of October, and spoke with a young lady there and told her I was having problems with a payphone, she asked for the number and I gave her 760 733 9969. She said there was already a trouble 'ticket' as Ma Bell likes to call them and I asked her what the ticket was about.. She said are you calling about a payphone in Cedar Park, Mojave California.. I said Yes.. she said the ticket showed that the payphone was missing. She told me they got an inter-office memo about that payphone 1 week before it's removal and that she knew it had been disconnected from reading what the Media had wrote so I asked her if the Ticket said it was disconnected, she said the ticket showed it as missing but she knew it was disconnected. I made conversation about I thought the phoneline its self was probably still connected because it still rings when you call it. Shortly after my chat with her, now when I call the number you get a 'were sorry you have reached a number that has been disconnected or no longer in service.'
Damnit.. and I was gonna put my PacBell phone booth out there too :(
From: dshaw
Subject: Well dang.
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000
Hey Deuce. Just spent the morning perusing your website and here I was
hoping that I had something I could swap for a bit of phone booth glass.
Alas, the best I have is a couple of quills from a porcupine we found
alongside the road on a trip in PA. Not as good as a tiger whisker, to be
sure! :)
Really enjoyed the site and wish I'd gotten the chance to visit the phone
booth before it was gone. Or even give it a ring!
Thanks for sharing it!
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000
From: Wolf
Subject: Wolf fur
Hi there :)
Recently, whilst driving back roads and generally exploring ( Me? Lost?
Bite yor tongue! ), I came upon some Park Service types. They were
parked across an intersection of trails/roads/mine fields, blocking my
progress. Since I had no clue where I was at the moment, I climbed out
of my poor ol' truck and walked over to ask the direction "out". These
wonderfully polite public service employees shone their spot light into
my face, demanding that I display my hands, etc.
While spitting sand and things best left unthought of from my teeth and
standing from the prone position, they demanded to know if I was
"another of those damn phone booth weirdos". Having no clue what they
were refering to, I stared stupidly, while again they demanded to know
if I was one of "those booth assholes". I allowed as I was simply lost,
and gee, Sir, I sure would apereciate some directions. The pair apparently decided I did not meet their
criteria of "booth asshole", and I was allowed to leave with a vague
hand wave indicating the way out of the area.
I recounted the above events to a teenaged member of my congregation,
knowing he is into wierd stuff (no offence). After hearing my tale,
and asking me to show him where I was on a map, asking several questions
about the landmarks and the like, directed me to your Site.
Thought you might get a kick out of knowing what happened.
Now, to the subject.. I'll trade you a few strands of Cannis Lupus
(Timber Wolf) fur for a small piece of glass from the infamous booth (see? I read the entire thing ;^) ). The aforementioned wolf fur would be generously donated by Phantom, my defacto wife's "son"/pet.
Sincerely,
Rev. James
From: Greg L.
Subject: Sent my letters!
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000
Hey Deuce-
The Mojave Phone Booth is being discussed tonight on The Route 66 Mailing List. I knew of the booth, but had no idea things were out of service.
Anyway, your link was posted on the list, and I wanted to let you know all 6 of my letters to in the mail tomorrow.
Good luck with getting it back up and running.
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2000
From: phil a.
Subject: Mojave phone booth recon 09/10/00
Not only have they removed the booth they have now removed the slab, and the cinder blocks. Some chowder head also seems to have tried chopping the pole down.
From: Borys
Subject: I can`t believe...
Date: Sat, 2 Sep 2000
Hello Deuce!
During last month I`ve been preparing to my exam, so day by day, for many hours, I`ve been spending my life-time among wise books and codes.Today I was so tired that I had deciced to free my mind for a while and made a small miracle of ringing telephone on the other side of the planet.I dial the magical number and I heard the signal, but then a voice of some lady informed me that ''They are sorry, but I`ve reach the number that`s has been disconected..." I think, that those bastards cut off the line because many people were calling, but they didn`t have any incom ( because hardly ever the telephone was get...).In addition the rangers didn`t like people coming to see the phone, so maybe they also had some influence over the disconecting of the booth...It would be a big lose for us, people calling there.A lot of us, living from Warsaw to Lima, from Bueno to Copenhegen, will never have a chance to travel to the Mojave Desert to see the place.Folks having different boring jobs, till today, had a possibility to get out for a while from their every day life.While they were hearing that signal of the booth, they wondered what the weather was there, what time and so long.For a minute they didn`t think about any problems...I suppose it was the most valuable aspect of the booth...
I wish I had a chance of calling there again.That sound of ringing telephone is my only way of being there...
Borys from Poland
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000
From: Justina
Subject: phonebooth and mine
The removal of the phone booth and the closure of the Cima Cinder mine are not unique in the Mojave
Desert,unfortunately. I urge everyone to write letters in support of both the phone booth and the mine and
get your family and friends to write also. Beyond that, register to vote and vote.
Justina
Lifelong resident of the Mojave Desert
From: Robb
Subject: When worlds collide
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000
Was just flipping through the cable channels, and did a sort of digital
double-take when my brain parsed that one of the channels showed some guys
looking at your Mojave Phone Booth (may it Rest in Peace) web site. Dunno
who they were or even what channel it was (one of those channels on digital
cable up in the high 300's), but it was some kind of "cool web sites" show
that looked like it had barely graduated from public access. Nonetheless, I
had to flip back long enough to see them talk briefly about how "strange"
your sense of humor is, etc. They seem to have thought it perfectly normal
that one would make a living visiting other people's web sites and talking
about it on a television show that nobody watches. But YOU, sir, YOU are
the weird one.
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000
From: Miss Amelia G.
Subject: cork, dork, spork, fork, ork, björk
my piece of booth came
in the mail, wrapped in cotton;
why, it so little!
I wonder what I
am going to do with it;
perhaps a necklace?
thank you, miss amelia, for the heartwarming haiku.
hm. yes.
I like your stationary. With Abe Lincoln. And those coffee stirrers with 'deuce of clubs' stamped on them
have been a hit at the office! Really!
No. Not really.
Muchas gracias. I am now the envy of all my friends.
Granted I have to explain every time the entire story behind what makes that chunk of glass so special, but
AFTER that, then they think I'm rad.
So here's some answers to the questions in your letter.
1. No.
2. Only during Mardi Gras.
3. Are you kidding? Of course everyday!
4. Maybe.
Trick!
~miss amooglia
p.s. When I put the piece of booth in my ear, it hurts. I hear ringing.
guess that wouldn't happen if the piece of booth were larger than your elbow.
Mojave Mail Archive #5 | Non-Mojave Mail
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