Digital life encroaches on US ‘quiet zone’ refuge

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Friday, 15 Oct 2021
3:40 PM MYT

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Wallech looks at her mobile phone while connected to a WiFi signal from her property while tending to her gift shop in Green Bank, West Virginia. Wallech loves the digital respite and sense of community in her tiny US town, where cellphone service is effectively barred and some outsiders come in search of that quiet. — Photos: AFP

GREEN BANK, United States: Yvonne Wallech loves the digital respite and sense of community in her tiny US town, where cellphone service is effectively barred and outsiders come seeking the shelter of that quiet.

She has Internet at her property in Green Bank, West Virginia but as soon as she leaves home – and is not on someone else’s connection – there are no pings, dings or rings.

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Wallech looks at her mobile phone while connected to a WiFi signal from her property while tending to her gift shop in Green Bank, West Virginia. Wallech loves the digital respite and sense of community in her tiny US town, where cellphone service is effectively barred and some outsiders come in search of that quiet. — Photos: AFP

Coleman, the owner of a Bed and Breakfast, speaks on the porch of his property in Green Bank, West Virginia. Coleman, 70, says that the lack of cell service in the area is dangerous and needs to end.

The Green Bank Telescope (right), the largest of eight radiation detecting dishes at the Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, points into space on Oct 7, 2021. The Green Bank Telescope is the largest fully steerable radio telescope in the world.

Wallech smiles as she is interviewed while tending to her gift shop in Green Bank, West Virginia. Wallech says that her favourite item she has for sale is the sign that can be seen behind her and that reads ‘And I think to myself what a wonderful world’.

Cars drive past a pay phone that no longer works in the parking lot of a gas station in Green Bank, West Virginia. The tiny US town of Green Bank, where cellphone service is effectively barred, is changing: WiFi is discouraged but has become common, property values are climbing and not everyone agrees about what comes next for this seeming digital age refuge that is fraught with complexity.

A steam driven locomotive pulls tourists in wagons near the train station in Cass, West Virginia on October 7, 2021. The Cass Scenic Railroad State Park is one of the many tourist attractions in the area near the Green Bank Observatory which houses eight dishes that can detect radiation from objects in space in the form of radio waves and that is located in a 13,000-square-mile expanse that restricts human-made radio transmissions so that the observatory telescopes can work without interference.

A 45-foot telescope points up to space at the Green Bank Observatory near a restrictive gate in Green Bank, West Virginia on Oct 7, 2021.

A vehicle belonging to the US Government and running on a diesel motor passes a gate with warning signs near a 45-foot telescope at the Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia. The Green Bank Observatory contains eight dishes that detect radiation from objects in space in the form of radio waves. Despite its population of under 200 people and remote location among rolling hills, dense forests and farms about four hours' drive from the capital Washington, Green Bank is a place of international fascination.

Wallech answers a call on her mobile phone while connected to a WiFi signal from her property while tending to her gift shop in Green Bank, West Virginia.

A tourist from Indiana, Nancy Showalter speaks while visiting the Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank West Virginia. Showalter was surprised to learn why her phone couldn’t get a signal, but she also said she had quickly come to like the silence.

A United Parcel Service (UPS) truck driver makes his rounds in the small West Virginia town of Green Bank, West Virginia, near a pay phone that no longer works in the parking lot of a gas station.

George Deike, who owns a horse retreat in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, sits in front of the house that he built with the help of two workers many decades ago, near Cass. Cass is located within a zone that imposes limits and oversight on man made radio waves in the 13,000 square miles (almost 34,000 square kilometers) that surround Green Bank, where restrictions are officially supposed to be tightest on electronic noise makers like WiFi routers.

Tourists stand on a viewing platform while visiting the Green Bank Observatory where the Green Bank Telescope (background), the largest of eight radiation detecting dishes in Green Bank, West Virginia is located on Oct 7, 2021.

A barn is surrounded by bales of hay in a field across the road from the six-decade-old Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia.

The colour in the leaves begin to change near a country road in the vicinity of Cass, West Virginia. Cass is located within a zone that imposes limits and oversight on man made radio waves in the 13,000 square miles (almost 34,000 square kilometers) that surround Green Bank, where restrictions are officially supposed to be tightest on electronic noise makers like WiFi routers.

A US 25 cent coin can be seen stuck in a long dead public phone on the main road in the town of Green Bank, West Virginia.

A warning sign can be seen near a 45-foot telescope pointing to space at the Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia on October 7, 2021.

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Digital life encroaches on US ‘quiet zone’ refuge