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Zone of Silence · Voices Off The Map

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: What's going on, everyone? Welcome to Voices Off the Map.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I'm your host and pilot, B. Along with me is
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: my co-host, co-pilot, and brother, Nico. What's going on, man?
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: What's going on, dude? I'm looking forward to this next
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: adventure we got planned.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I know. Tell me about it.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Because last week, we were in Jackson, Michigan, learning about
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Little Mary's Grave. And today, our guest is going to
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: take us to northern Mexico to learn about an area
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: known as the Zone of Silence. So let me introduce
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: our guest today. Justin from Florida. What's going on, man?
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: And it's a pleasure to have you.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: Hey, thanks for having me. Just, you know, looking forward
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: to being on the show tonight.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's going to be a great time.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: And we appreciate you being here. Yeah, anytime.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Excellent.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: So tell us about the Zone of Silence. How did
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: you come across it? What do you know about it?
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: What piqued your interest with it?
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I was visiting my in-laws. My wife happens
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: to be from Mexico, and her father is very interested
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: in this specific area, and it's called the Zone of Silence.
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: It's also got another name. It's called the Mappy Me
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: Silent Zone. And so it's an interesting place where electronics
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: fail to work correctly, and that's where it was kind
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: of– you know, found, uh, this one of the anomalies
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: that goes on in this area. So, um, yeah, I've
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: got a couple storylines that go with it. Um, but first, um,
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: I could tell you about the geography. If you'd like
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: to hear about that, then get into the story.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Okay. Excellent.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: So, um, I'm a geographer by trade, so this is
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: interesting to me, but basically, um, The Zone of Silence
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: sits in the reserve of a basin of mapimi, which
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: in Spanish is like the Bolsón de Mapimi, and it's
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: a basin, so all of the water in this particular
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: area is … Uh, it's kind of like a bowl.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: The water goes into, you know, the center instead of,
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: you know, spreading out to like, uh, you know, other areas, um,
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: and being like a watershed. So that's part of, I
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: think the reason this area has these anomalies, um, Now,
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: this area is in Durango, the state Durango in Mexico,
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: and that's very close to the border of Coahuila, which
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: is another state in Mexico. And this area, the Zone
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: of Silence, is kind of on that border, but it's
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: actually in Durango. They're both very northern states in Mexico,
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: and they're both in the Chihuahuan Desert. So if you've
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: heard of the Chihuahuan Desert, it's a huge, huge desert area.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: And this is just one little spot. So it also
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: happens to be an ancient seabed called the Tethys Ocean.
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: And that was a prehistoric ocean of the Mesozoic era.
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: And so you'll also find left behind marine fossils and
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: large salt deposits that are actually mined there today. So
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: it's kind of interesting. You can go to this desert
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: in the middle of this country. Mexico is a large country,
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: as you know, and it's the middle of the country.
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: This was underwater many, many, many thousands of years ago,
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: millions of years ago. So there's the geography of it.
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: So story one... here on this. So in July 11, 1970,
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: there was an Athena RTV test rocket out of Utah.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: It was part of the White Sands Missile Range where
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: we were testing rockets in the U.S. And this missile
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: lost control and it fell right in the middle of
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: this desert area of the Zonas Islands. So part of
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: that rocket, it had two containers of radioactive cobalt-57 And
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: so that's bad stuff apparently. They had to be removed.
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: So basically there was an expedition. They sent Wernher von
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: Braun down, who was kind of like the famous Nazi U.S.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: American rocket scientist through the 70s who helped build our
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: space program. So he came to investigate the scene on
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: behalf of the U.S. And they gave him a team
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: of 300 people. And they built a rail system like
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: 16 kilometers long to the center of this impact crater
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: where the rocket fell and exploded. Warner Von Braun was
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: given a team of about 300 people to build a
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: rail system. And they built this rail system like 16
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: kilometers long to the center of the impact crater where
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: the rocket had landed. And they built temporary labs. They
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: had kitchens and medical facilities, dorms, all set up there
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: in the middle of this desert. See, after that, they
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: brought in, I guess, more American lab technicians, and they
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: analyzed and studied and things like that. There was even
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: a runway to transport cargo directly to Houston. And the
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: train was transferring all of the soil out of there
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: that was contaminated. And so what's interesting is now every
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: bit of that is gone. You can't find any evidence
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: of the rocket, the crater, the railway, the buildings, anything.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: It's all gone.
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: And so that's kind of the first story of what
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: happened there. So since this crash occurred and since the recovery,
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: that's when the myths and the legends and rumors started up.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: And reportedly there's a local resident who was hired to
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: guard the crash debris and the recovery operations who spread
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: these rumors. Legends include strange magnetic anomalies that prevent radio transmission,
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: mutations of flora and fauna, extraterrestrial visitations, which have been
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: used actually by locals to help promote tourism in the region.
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: That's kind of story number one of this region from
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: the 1970s on. That's the backstory, which leads to story
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: number two here. The part that I'm involved in this
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: and not really involved, but where I found out about
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: this is, see, my wife has an uncle who married...
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: a woman named Gretel. So she married into her family,
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: and it was her father is the man who discovered
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: the anomalies occurring in this area in 1966, which was
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: like four years before the rocket had crashed. He is
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: the person who named this the Zone of Silence, and
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: his name is Augusto Harry de la Pena. And he
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: was apparently working for Pemex, which is an oil expedition company,
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: when he was frustrated that his radio was always acting
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: up in the area. That he was driving to, which
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: was this area. And see, the story that I was
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: told is that he was a professor and he was
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: working for Pemex at the time also. And he was
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: just driving really long distances because Torreon is the city
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: that they live in. And this area is about 85
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: miles north of Torreon. Anyway, he was driving long distances.
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: He was getting frustrated with his radio not working. And
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: all these other electronics were going out on him as well.
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: I'm not sure if lights. I think I heard that
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: he said his lights wouldn't work. His watch stopped working.
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: This is the lore that's coming in from the family
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: that I have married into. That's part of the story
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: that's interesting to me. Since then, other interesting things have happened.
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: After Coroner Von Braun came there, he was dealing with
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: a mayor of that area. And today, there's a man
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: named Benjamin Palacios. uh who was the son of that
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: mayor but he uh he's kind of continuing on a
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: lot of the uh history of this whole anomaly so
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: he believes that it's caused by large deposits of subterranean
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: magnetite as well as debris from meteorites which also fall
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: you know frequently in this area and so um There's
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: a little excerpt that talks about throughout the 20th century,
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: large meteorites landed in this zone with two falling in
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: the same ranch, one in 1938 and one in 1954.
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: And a third one fell in 1969 in a nearby
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: Allende Valley just to the west. And so he says–
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: Benjamin says, it woke me, and I saw the firmament light.
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: And people from miles saw that light and heard the
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: tremendous noise, and it broke windows, and it attracted scientists
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: from around the world.
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: At that point.
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: Other stories include extraterrestrial anomalies occurring, UFO sightings in the area.
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: He one time said that he lost track of time
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: of two hours after witnessing some lights from above. They
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: were encircling him and his brother when they were like
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: 12 years old. And he says that there's large flora
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: and fauna anomalies there. And he says that he's never
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: been sick and that the area has been good to
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: him and his family. As well as his daughter and
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: her husband, they were told by all these doctors that
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: they could never have children. So they came to the zone,
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: they conceived, and then two years later they came back
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: to the zone and they conceived again. There's a lot
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: of things with this area that are very strange. So
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: that's about it.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: You see, that story is wild. First off, do you
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: know how big this Zone of Silence is?
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: Like what it actually covers?
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's not huge. It's about 50 kilometers wide,
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: and I think if you just kind of did that
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: in order, it might be like a circle. It's not
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: quite a circle, but it's not gigantic, but it's you know, significant,
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: I guess.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, 50 kilometers isn't just in the corner.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: I mean, you're not walking that. Right, right.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: I find the history of it actually really interesting, especially
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: with the rocket launch and when you have Von Braun
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: down there.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: That's like, it's a pretty significant name, especially for the time.
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, so part of the thing
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: that makes it weird with the rockets and makes me
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: think is the magnetism in that area is what maybe
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: drew the rocket there.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's very possible.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, have there ever been any scientific conclusions to
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: what they're talking about being within the area? I know
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: meteorites for sure, because I completely agree with you. I
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: know that's like a hotbed and you have all the
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: little asteroid hunters that are out there, you know, constantly.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: But from what else was being said possibly is underneath
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: the surface, has that been proven as like a cause?
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, as far as the magnetite, I'm not really sure.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: I mean, that's what Felicia said. And then also we
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: do know that it is an ancient seabed with a
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: lot of salt that's being mined out of there. But yeah,
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: as far as like what they found with the rocket...
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: You know, that's something that I've been actually looking to
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: investigate myself and see what the U.S. official statement on
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: that rocket. Because, you know, sometimes our, you know, what
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: they tell us isn't always the whole story. Oh, yeah.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: Tell us what we want to hear.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I will say there are some conspiracy theories.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: Out there that are, like, way left field.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: But then there are those ones that, like, hit a
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: little close to home and you're like, maybe. right and
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: so but i was looking like oh no god dude.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: No you're good i was just gonna say i was
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: looking up like what like some of the reason reasoning
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: possibly could be for the interference with technology and all
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: that while being down there and it i was looking
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: it up and it said it sits on a similar
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: latitudinal alignment as a the bermuda triangle and the egyptian
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: pyramids which lead to conspiracy theories about like energy grid
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: within the earth.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, that makes complete sense. Yeah, I was like, interesting, okay. Right?
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, that's why, oh, but going back to, like,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: you're talking about the.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: Desert, the Chihuahua Desert, Chihuahuan, I don't know.
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Chihuahuan Desert.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like, when you talk about, like, finding, with it
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: being an ancient seafloor and whatnot, I don't think it
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: was that long ago that they actually found, like, a
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: whole whale skeleton in the Sahara.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. Right, yeah.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Or you find, or they've been finding, which we're kind
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: of like, I'm going to say this and it's going
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: to sound like a freaking Pokemon.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: The Ammonite.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Like that weird little Nautilus looking thing. They've been finding
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: shells like that, like on Everest.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: You ever hear about that?
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the Ammonite.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, those. Thank you. And so, I mean, it's definitely wild. Yeah.
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: It goes back to, brings in the plate tectonics theories,
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: you know, and says these continents were once underwater and
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: people wouldn't believe it unless you start to see, well,
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: there's a, you know, fossil there.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. Well, then you.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Talk about like ancient land bridges that, you know, used
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: to be there that aren't there anymore.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: Definitely.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: And so, yeah, plate tectonics plays a huge, a huge role.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's why you explain like how, what was it?
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember because we actually did a story
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: on this. Talking about the lemurs of Madagascar. There was
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: a guy trying to figure out how they got there.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: And it literally led to Tartaria.
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: An ancient landmass that they thought was just everything that
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: you think of of ancient city broke off of this
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: one particular landmass like atlantis free and moo there you
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: go that's another one oh yeah cool but yeah i
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: mean that's definitely cool and then you add ufos in
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: there and then it just ups it oh 100 so
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: you said i mean tourism oh yeah like have you
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: been justin.
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: I have not been, but we had planned to go
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: the last time I visited, which was last year around
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: Christmas time. And we are planning on going this Christmas,
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: and I hope that we actually get to go out
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: there because my wife's father is very interested in this
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: area and wanted to take us there. So I might.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: Get to go. That would be wild.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: If you do, you should start reporting however far out
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: and see what happens as you keep getting closer.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely. I'll have my cell phone and I should,
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: you know, maybe get some recording. And I can also,
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: you know, check the watch and check some other, take
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: a radio with me and just test some things, you know.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. Or just see if the car just flat out,
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: the battery just dies. Just coasting along. Right.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Man, that's crazy.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, well, thank you for sharing. I mean, that's awesome.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: And the fact that, I mean, it's within the family
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: that may have actually discovered or put a name to it.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: That's the cool part.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: Crazy. right that's pretty cool.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah i can you imagine you're just like when you
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: go visit and you look around and be like yeah
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: yeah this is ours right we named this right mine
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: so all right justin well again man i really appreciate
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: you coming on and you know telling us about it
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: i hope you do get a chance to visit it
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: if you do definitely like let us know what happened uh.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah keep us updated For sure. Yeah, we'll definitely have
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: you back on the show.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: So if you ever have any more stories or adventures
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: or even conspiracy theories that you want to throw out
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: there or just even.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: An update, let us know. We'd love to have you back.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely will.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: Definitely will.
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: Thanks for having me. It's a lot of fun.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, of course. All right, man. Well, go ahead and
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: take care.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: And to everybody listening, thank you for joining us on
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Voices Off the Map.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: We will catch you next time. Same time, same place.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: We'll see you then. Take care.