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.
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