I missed seeing this phone booth. Am sad that it's now gone. Don't know why the Park Service and BLM feel the need to destroy every artifact, relic, structure, and man-made object in the desert.
As a telephone installer and technician for many many years, I am saddened that I never got the chance to go out and check out this phone booth, I am actually in the Albany, New York area which is only 35 Mi east of Amsterdam, New York where you took your first phone call! This is one of the nicest informative videos I have ever seen, right down to the music and the captions, so nice to know you were a part of an amazing Venture that no longer exists, the romance and the Intrigue of a phone booth to communicate with the rest of the world in the middle of a desert is just absolutely amazing to me! so very sad that it is no longer there.😢
Greetings from Portugal, I have been following this phone since 1997, when I started on the Internet, with those fantastic analog modems. And it had its end like everything. I enjoyed reviewing your video, many hits for everyone!
Seems like something straight out of the twilight zone, a random phone booth in the middle of nowhere. Like some sort of dimensional portal or something paranormal going on with the thing. Like callers were deceased or from different timelines. It just fits that kind of look.
When I lived in San Bernardino from 86 to 92, there was a group of us that would go 4 wheeling in the Mohave on long weekends. On one of our trips, we came across this phone booth. We didn't even know it existed until we came upon it. We made some phone calls from it, which surprised the folks we called. Too bad it became so well known that the government decided to remove it. A good memory though.
Delighted to watch/see/find this. I saw an item on the NZ News one night. I quickly jotted down the number and keyed it into my cellphone. Whenever I was about and had a minute, I'd hit the number. One night in Invercargill, after leaving the Lone Star Restaurant, waiting for my then fiance, now wife of 20 years to get to the car, she was talking to a friend, I hit the number & viola! finally success. After that, so many wonderful connections. A film producer and crew, stopped for a cup of tea, on way to do a documentary about lava tubes, a couple from L.A. out in the desert with their VW beetle for the weekend, a camera shop owner from Las Vegas, camping with his daughter, and another guy who kindly scratched my name inside the booth vicariously, just for me. It was fantastic to have these kind people to describe just what they could see. The Joshua trees, lights of Las Vegas. So sad that it was pulled down and destroyed. I had hoped that the booth, (and my name) would have been preserved in some sort of museum. At least it exists still here and in my memory. Thank You!
I can't believe people easily got acquainted in old days without internet and social networks, just with simple phone booth in a desert. Modern world totally sucks
I visited three times 1997, 1998, 1999. Im on one of these videos, 1999 was definitely the busiest of course. Day trip once stayed in a tent twice. Got shot towards by joyriders and found scorpions under our tent in the morning. At one time I had a logbook of the calls, but may have lost it in an early 2000's move.😢But yes, it rang non-stop. HI LAURIE 👋
It was just a few months after my high school graduation and my older brothers decided to get me and go out to the Mojave...to see a ringing phone booth. I thought they were crazy. We drove to the middle of surrealwhere, chat with Charlie and got directions (this might have been something akin to following the 'second star to the right'). We continue on a straight line on the sand road, following the utility poles and phone line. It is near sunset and there, in the distance, is this old-school superman style phonebooth. We drive up to it. There is no way that this can happen. There is no one else in sight. There is no noise other than the desert wind...and the ringing of a phone.
Twentyish years later, during 'The Great Plague', one of my brothers and I ended up in that region on another road trip. The power lines and utility polls were all showing their neglected age. During our previous trip, our sister, and father, both knew we were going to a phone booth...at different times, they both called and we answered. Like our former known callers, the phone booth now has only left behind artifacts, glimpses of the past and fond memories. The main power pole is halfway chopped into, but a skull, flowers and a cell phone were left behind, high upon the pole; under the immortal words of: " Bob Bendig was here". There is a Shiner Bock beer, lovingly burried very nearby. My brother and I are saving it for our next, twenty year trip, to to Mojave Desert Phonebooth.
I have the same type of payphone (Western Electric Model 1C) on my living room wall and it rings even if the receiver is off the hook. That's because it's a "smart" payphone though (Protel 8000 chassis). The payphone in the Mojave phone booth was most likely a "dumb" payphone, i.e., connected to a special coin line and controlled by the phone company. All Western Electric payphones started out as dumb payphones which could only work properly on a coin line, but in the '90s and '00s a lot of them were converted to smart payphones by removing the original dumb chassis and replacing it with a Protel 8000 chassis, which was specifically designed to work in Western Electric single-slot payphones. Smart payphones can work on coin lines or regular lines, and they have programming that allows them to function independently without any help from the phone company.
I would have screwed with the callers by telling them they had reached area 51 and then asked them for their agent code number, after that things would have gotten crazy!
Thanks for sharing your video. The Mojave phone booth is long gone, but the line is still in place. I wonder... has anybody tried connecting via a Beige Box? Just because it would be cool to use that twelve-mile stretch of line for something, even temporarily.
I am so sad for the loss of the phone booth. I am fascinated by it. I also feel so bad for Lorene. I believe her family loss the Cinder Mines. The only real information I could find was from DOC and it hadn't been updated in awhile regarding the mines. :( Thank you for this video and leaving your web page up for the world to remember!
Thanks for the upload. I just learned about this place yesturday via a random internet article. Well I'm still in high school so even if it was still around I would not be able to venture out there but hey, what can we do? Lol thanks again!
Back in the early 1980's i called here all the time from ohio.. I got the number from calling a computer before the internet. The people who had computers to call never had anything interesting to read, they just gave out other numbers to other computer pages... I remember being on the first computer chatline too and had many great conversations... I forgot the name of it... It was in california..
It's stuff like this that make love the U.S and it's people. You only find weird stuff like this there. If that boith would still be around I would surely call from where I live (in Québec)
I wondered if the light worked. I would like to have seen the booth but am 11 years too late. Never knew it existed until Glenn Beck used it in The Overton Window.
Ok so the phoneboot was siting there since the 1960's then some genious from pacific bell had a brilliant idea "lets send a truck there and take it away"'
You can still call the # it's a party line now. Somebody is keeping the spirit alive. Call and wait a few secs listen to recording and wait on line :) i'm calling now if you get this message now.
I can understand being interested enough to want to stop by for a quick photo and maybe talk to a random caller, but I can't understand wanting to spend a couple of days out there. But hey, whatever floats your boat.
Do you understand the act of a quest or a pilgrimage? Can you relate to searching for and forging a human connection with othes? Have you never yearned for a sense of camaraderie?
I’m not understanding the fascination with this. I read the story about when and why it was put there.An interesting read but that’s it .It looks like a great place to go riding around.Muddin’,four wheeling.
![Exploring the Abandoned Internet [Vol. 3]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/44efzvauw2I/mqdefault.jpg)
I missed seeing this phone booth. Am sad that it's now gone. Don't know why the Park Service and BLM feel the need to destroy every artifact, relic, structure, and man-made object in the desert.
This comment aged pretty well 😂
Incase anyone is wondering they mean bureau of land management
@@lovehumans5516 lol I thought he meant Black Lives Matter he'd still be right
they havent destroyed anything in the desert though
@@intj4978 I guess that depends I consider Las Vegas the desert so
As a telephone installer and technician for many many years, I am saddened that I never got the chance to go out and check out this phone booth, I am actually in the Albany, New York area which is only 35 Mi east of Amsterdam, New York where you took your first phone call! This is one of the nicest informative videos I have ever seen, right down to the music and the captions, so nice to know you were a part of an amazing Venture that no longer exists, the romance and the Intrigue of a phone booth to communicate with the rest of the world in the middle of a desert is just absolutely amazing to me! so very sad that it is no longer there.😢
It was nice to see it there even though it’s gone now. I enjoyed the video. Good old days
Damned shame that we can't have nostalgia, or ANYTHING dear to our hearts anymore.
What do you mean by that?
Greetings from Portugal, I have been following this phone since 1997, when I started on the Internet, with those fantastic analog modems. And it had its end like everything. I enjoyed reviewing your video, many hits for everyone!
I passed there in October 2016, I knew it was gone, but I wanted to see where it had been. Thanks for the movie. Stefan from Sweden.
Seems like something straight out of the twilight zone, a random phone booth in the middle of nowhere. Like some sort of dimensional portal or something paranormal going on with the thing. Like callers were deceased or from different timelines. It just fits that kind of look.
I love this kind of stuff! Figures I'm out of the loop by a decade.
The payphones is beautiful. I would like my own bell payphone.
When I lived in San Bernardino from 86 to 92, there was a group of us that would go 4 wheeling in the Mohave on long weekends. On one of our trips, we came across this phone booth. We didn't even know it existed until we came upon it. We made some phone calls from it, which surprised the folks we called. Too bad it became so well known that the government decided to remove it. A good memory though.
How neat is this video. I’m glad it’s preserved on RUclips
"being so alone yet so in touch with the rest of the world." Welcome to 2018
So, so fucking sad but true
More like 2020
Delighted to watch/see/find this. I saw an item on the NZ News one night. I quickly jotted down the number and keyed it into my cellphone. Whenever I was about and had a minute, I'd hit the number. One night in Invercargill, after leaving the Lone Star Restaurant, waiting for my then fiance, now wife of 20 years to get to the car, she was talking to a friend, I hit the number & viola! finally success. After that, so many wonderful connections. A film producer and crew, stopped for a cup of tea, on way to do a documentary about lava tubes, a couple from L.A. out in the desert with their VW beetle for the weekend, a camera shop owner from Las Vegas, camping with his daughter, and another guy who kindly scratched my name inside the booth vicariously, just for me. It was fantastic to have these kind people to describe just what they could see. The Joshua trees, lights of Las Vegas. So sad that it was pulled down and destroyed. I had hoped that the booth, (and my name) would have been preserved in some sort of museum. At least it exists still here and in my memory. Thank You!
I can't believe people easily got acquainted in old days without internet and social networks, just with simple phone booth in a desert. Modern world totally sucks
Wow. It's awesome that you went out there. The booth was so cool. I used to call when I was about 14. It was cool to just connect with random people.
I visited three times 1997, 1998, 1999. Im on one of these videos, 1999 was definitely the busiest of course. Day trip once stayed in a tent twice. Got shot towards by joyriders and found scorpions under our tent in the morning. At one time I had a logbook of the calls, but may have lost it in an early 2000's move.😢But yes, it rang non-stop. HI LAURIE 👋
Brings back a fun memory.
It was just a few months after my high school graduation and my older brothers decided to get me and go out to the Mojave...to see a ringing phone booth. I thought they were crazy. We drove to the middle of surrealwhere, chat with Charlie and got directions (this might have been something akin to following the 'second star to the right'). We continue on a straight line on the sand road, following the utility poles and phone line. It is near sunset and there, in the distance, is this old-school superman style phonebooth. We drive up to it. There is no way that this can happen. There is no one else in sight. There is no noise other than the desert wind...and the ringing of a phone.
Twentyish years later, during 'The Great Plague', one of my brothers and I ended up in that region on another road trip. The power lines and utility polls were all showing their neglected age. During our previous trip, our sister, and father, both knew we were going to a phone booth...at different times, they both called and we answered. Like our former known callers, the phone booth now has only left behind artifacts, glimpses of the past and fond memories. The main power pole is halfway chopped into, but a skull, flowers and a cell phone were left behind, high upon the pole; under the immortal words of: " Bob Bendig was here". There is a Shiner Bock beer, lovingly burried very nearby. My brother and I are saving it for our next, twenty year trip, to to Mojave Desert Phonebooth.
I have the same type of payphone (Western Electric Model 1C) on my living room wall and it rings even if the receiver is off the hook. That's because it's a "smart" payphone though (Protel 8000 chassis). The payphone in the Mojave phone booth was most likely a "dumb" payphone, i.e., connected to a special coin line and controlled by the phone company. All Western Electric payphones started out as dumb payphones which could only work properly on a coin line, but in the '90s and '00s a lot of them were converted to smart payphones by removing the original dumb chassis and replacing it with a Protel 8000 chassis, which was specifically designed to work in Western Electric single-slot payphones. Smart payphones can work on coin lines or regular lines, and they have programming that allows them to function independently without any help from the phone company.
I would have screwed with the callers by telling them they had reached area 51 and then asked them for their agent code number, after that things would have gotten crazy!
Thanks for sharing your video.
The Mojave phone booth is long gone, but the line is still in place. I wonder... has anybody tried connecting via a Beige Box? Just because it would be cool to use that twelve-mile stretch of line for something, even temporarily.
Great video! Things like this always fascinate me
Great piece of History!!
Simply awesome!!! I wish I could have been there!! Thank you for uploading this!!
wow ... came here via Art Bell
historically cozy
I am so sad for the loss of the phone booth. I am fascinated by it. I also feel so bad for Lorene. I believe her family loss the Cinder Mines. The only real information I could find was from DOC and it hadn't been updated in awhile regarding the mines. :( Thank you for this video and leaving your web page up for the world to remember!
3:50 when there were no smartphones or gps. Nostalgic af
3:15 we really lost something with smart phones
What an amazing video. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for the upload. I just learned about this place yesturday via a random internet article. Well I'm still in high school so even if it was still around I would not be able to venture out there but hey, what can we do? Lol thanks again!
wow this is one of most bohemian things I've ever seen
*Americana ftfy
Very cool video. I'm going to try and make a ringtone out of the actual ring of the phone. I think that would be pretty cool.
Back in the early 1980's i called here all the time from ohio.. I got the number from calling a computer before the internet. The people who had computers to call never had anything interesting to read, they just gave out other numbers to other computer pages... I remember being on the first computer chatline too and had many great conversations... I forgot the name of it... It was in california..
LMFAO "Riiing" "Mojave desert". Man, what a trip !
*I wish I was one of the calleRs*
Happy 25th Anniversary!
It's stuff like this that make love the U.S and it's people. You only find weird stuff like this there. If that boith would still be around I would surely call from where I live (in Québec)
I wondered if the light worked. I would like to have seen the booth but am 11 years too late. Never knew it existed until Glenn Beck used it in The Overton Window.
Thank you for sharing this! :)
"phone's not ringing, that's weird...." *RIIIING* lol
The number now is a Cicada 3301 puzzle: good luck.
3:56 his wife talks about the other phone. were is it please,
Yes, I have! Certainly not as cool as the booth with all the spam and people who just troll, but I've had a few interesting convos on there :D
Any other phones out in the dessert?
I think thats crazy in the '90s that they were paying $0.35 for a phone call....I hope thats for long distance.
I called that night!
Also, we're there any subsequent trips? Referring, of course to the fact that it's called Trip #1.
+Chuck Rowe I made one more trip. I plan to post the video of it in the near future!
Great video. What was the first phone booth video?
Hotel California, nice!
Cicada 3301
That's what I'm saying! I'm glad someone else knows about it.
That's Crazy Lol Interesting
Jesus Christ! Sasquatch just exited the rear of the tent! Hey, man you OK in there!!!!!!!!
Is it still there?
yea then the govt shut it down
way to ruin our fun California
Ok so the phoneboot was siting there since the 1960's then some genious from pacific bell had a brilliant idea "lets send a truck there and take it away"'
no the park manager didn't like all the attention it recieve, she had it removed. She was eventually fired
LMFAO "Riiing" "Mojave desert"
They weren't happy with just removing the booth they had to destroy it too.... Just put it in a museum.
i wounder if people still call?
Nah mate, the National park service removed it cause they don't like fun!
You can still call the # it's a party line now. Somebody is keeping the spirit alive. Call and wait a few secs listen to recording and wait on line :) i'm calling now if you get this message now.
Jim Hopper?)
Wholly crizap!
Wait so was he pranking is by making it seem like someone was on the other line
0:20
You ain't seen nothing yet ! (Bachman Turner Overdrive)
.
Go to Central Australia, much more isolated and more friendly !
I rang this twice, nobody picked up :(
the park manager had it removed in 2000-2001
I can understand being interested enough to want to stop by for a quick photo and maybe talk to a random caller, but I can't understand wanting to spend a couple of days out there. But hey, whatever floats your boat.
Do you understand the act of a quest or a pilgrimage? Can you relate to searching for and forging a human connection with othes? Have you never yearned for a sense of camaraderie?
Why the thumbnail looks like Pablo Escobar
I think it's off the hook :(
I remember I dated this big hairy man I always found his to be off
have you tried omegle?
I’m not understanding the fascination with this. I read the story about when and why it was put there.An interesting read but that’s it .It looks like a great place to go riding around.Muddin’,four wheeling.