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Short Stuff: Mojave Megaphone · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. Find Mohave Josh,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: And there's Mohave Chuck, and Mohave Jerry's out there somewhere,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and so is Mohave Dave. And this is short stuff
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: about something I had never heard of before, Chuck the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Mohave Desert megaphone, Yes, mohab, how are you, Mohave. I'm good,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I'm Mohave Mohave you sure? So dumb? Have you ever
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: been to the Mojave Desert? I guess you have to
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: have been if you've ever driven from Los Angeles to
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Las Vegas? Right, yeah, boy, that's a that's not the
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: most fun ride in the world. I gotta say, barren,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: isn't it. Yeah, it's pretty barrens everywhere, Yeah, exact tumbleweeds
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: and dead mafia bodies and and me and my old
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: friend John Pendell driving to Vegas to get him a
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Crispy Creme Las Vegas T shirt and then driving that
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: does it just does not seem right to call him John.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I know him as Johnny, and I always wi Johnny
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Pendell sounds like a bad kid at school. He was,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: you know, he was a decent kid. He's probably laughing
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: because he gets in touch with me every time we
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: mentioned him, so he'll laugh at that, so I know
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: he is. That's why I can out him as a
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: bad kiddo. So, um, did you guys ever go see
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the Mojave megaphone or had you heard of it before?
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I had not heard of it until I found this
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: article on how stuff works. Actually nice work, well, nice
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: workhouse stuff works for really turning us onto something. No,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: I hadn't already said. Okay, I've never heard of this before,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: and it's mohave okay. Um. So in the Mojave Desert,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: it is a matter of fact, in the Mojave Desert
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: National Preserve, there is what looks a lot like a
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: giant um weathered steal megaphone bolted pretty much permanently to
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: a couple of boulders on the top of like a
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  Speaker 1: hill um and it weighs a lot and no one
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: can make heads or tails of not only how it
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: got there, but what it is and how long it's
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: been there. It's a bona fide mystery. Yeah, this is
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: nuts to me that nobody has come out and knows
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: the origin of this thing. I know, like surely by
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: now somebody would have been like, oh, I know the
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: guy who put it there, and here's here's what it is,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: you know, and by the way, this is Banks. He's
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: real identity kind of person, you know what I mean. Yeah,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: so the Majabi Desert is uh or this thing is
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: located actually in the Mojave Desert National Preserve and sort
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: of a it says, a remote corner, but they're all
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: fairly remote, and it's just you know, it could be art, uh,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: it could be a horn of some sort, like maybe
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: a siren, and you know, we'll get to some of
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: these in a little more detail, but it's it's just
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: crazy to me that no one knows how this got there,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: especially because it has, you know, sort of shape like
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: a megaphone. But it's the kind of thing where it
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: seems like one would be able to say, oh, well, no,
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  Speaker 1: that used to be a thing, because there were other
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: things that are shaped just like this, right exactly, there's
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: nothing like that. And like you're saying, nobody's come forward
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: to be like this is what it is, or everyone
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: has to preference what they're saying with with I think
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: or I I see it as you know, like it's
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: all just interpretation, which is great um and if you
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: just describe it a little further, it looks like two
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: slightly different sized rocket boosters um placed top to the
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: top or mouth to mouth. I like to think that
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: the fire comes out of the butt, you know, So
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: this is mouth to mouth bolted together like that. There's
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: a couple of like triangular fins. I think there's a
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: pair of them, at least towards the end on each
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: side as they flare out. Then inside there's cross hairs
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: basically made of rebar. It looked like to me, and
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the whole thing has no markings. There's no numbers, there's
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: no letters, there's no nothing on it, not even what
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: seems like it was maybe used for before. And then
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: if you look at like the rebar in the welding job,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like it was part of any kind
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  Speaker 1: of mass production. Like it almost gives you the idea
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: is like a one off kind of thing, you know, yeah,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: which means it could be art. It's big. It's about
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  Speaker 1: eight ft long, and if you see where it is,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: you know it took some effort. Uh maybe two people,
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  Speaker 1: but probably at least three or four people to get
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  Speaker 1: this thing up there, get it bolted onto the side
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  Speaker 1: of this cliff. Uh, And it has led to a
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: lot of speculation over the years as to you know,
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  Speaker 1: there's some pretty decent ideas I think as to what
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: this thing could be. And maybe we should take a break,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Yes we should come back, Yes, mojave, and we'll be
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: right back to really mahabi this mohave, Okay, mohave chuck alright.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: So some people think it might be a siren of
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: some kind from the nineteen forties or fifties, Like, you know,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: they tested nuclear bombs not too far from here. It's
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: near some army and air force activity. Maybe it was
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: an early warning signal. Other people say, I don't know
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: about that, Like this thing is really out in the
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: middle of nowhere. You would have something like that closer
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: to where people area. So that idea is okay, but
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: has also largely been shot down by a bunch of
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: other people. So that to me, it still makes sense
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: because while it's not it never was very heavily populated place.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: I think there's a a ghost town called crusero Um nearby.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: I mean it's between the existing towns of Baker and Ludlow,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: and they're not exactly like Beijing and Shanghai or anything
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: like that, you know, but there's a rail line and
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: all the banded rail line that runs right through there,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: and apparently they used to run chemical agents to um
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: the military bases out that way. So while you wouldn't
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: have had a lot of people to warn, you would
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: have had a potential situation to warn about, even if
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: it was just a few people of like a major
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: chemical spill or a gas leak or something like that.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: So to me, the idea that it was some sort
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: of warning system it does make sense. But at the
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: same time, it doesn't make sense that they would use
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: some handmade one rather than one that was, you know, available,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: because there were huge air raid sirens that were around
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: in World War Two that look kind of similar, but
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: we're obviously a raid sirens and they look like they
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: would work a lot better than whatever this thing was. Yeah,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: I saw on YouTube there was this woman who did
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: a siren tests, like, got a crank siren and put
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: it in the small end, then had her friends down
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: on the ground and see if they could hear it,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: and they could, but it wasn't It didn't amplify things
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: that much. UM And interestingly, in the YouTube comments, and
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: so believe me, I'm not saying that this this is
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: like the worst research possible to say. A YouTube commenter
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: said this, But there was a YouTube comment that said, hey, listen,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: I think it might be something from an old salt mine,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: like hot brine might have been pumped at high pressure
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: through this thing, because it's just made of such thick
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: iron and steel. Like it doesn't he said, you could
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: make something a megaphone out of something a lot lighter,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: and that sort of made sense a little bit. That's
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: the only reason I mentioned it. Um other people said that.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: They said something like a rocket booster maybe, or maybe
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: what's called a venturi, a pipeline venturi, which is an
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: enclosure that's is our glass shape that controls the flow
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: of fluids through a pipe, which is legitimate too. I
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: mean they're like, and wouldn'ty have some record of a
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: pipeline through there? That's the thing, Like, there's no apparent
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: either some no one's looked in the right place yet,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: or it's it just wasn't documented, which which means it
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: was either secret or it is a more recent art installation.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: But if you look at it, I think one of
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: the people who run tours out there, um said that, Um,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: they think that it's been there for thirty or more years.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: This thing looks like it's been around for a lot
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: longer than you know. Um, so it looks very old.
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  Speaker 1: And it's possible it's use was just so mundane that
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: it didn't need any kind of documentation or you know. Yeah,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: it is possible as secret and I kind of I
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: don't want to know, But at the same time, I
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: think I would find it pretty fascinating to know it's
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: used to. Like, I think that that also makes mysterious
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: objects really interesting, you know, knowing their history. Yeah. Another
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: thing that feels plausible to me is that it, uh,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: it was not something that sent out a sound, but
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: something that maybe was used to detect something like if
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: they were doing nuclear testing at the Nevada testing site,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: that maybe it was something that like measured or detected
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: long range shock waves or something like that. Uh, And
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: then it could make sense that the government, you know,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: it was it might have been sort of a one
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: off and not have manufacturing numbers, and the government wouldn't
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: readily come out and say anything like that, yeah, you
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: know existed. Plus also, Edwards Air Force Base is kind
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: of nearby, which is where um, Chuck Yeager broke the
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: sound barrier. Yeah, sure, and he very famous. He said, Uh, folks,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: mohab over and that was it. Uh should we tell
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: people how to get there? I think so sure. I
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: mean it's all over the place. We even have the
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: exact coordinates. Yeah, the exact coordinates. Are you at your
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: pencil everyone in Mahabi. Just down on your Mojave thirty
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: five point zero zero five six degrees north a hundred
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: and sixteen point one degrees west. And that's the use
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: your Dakota pins, the little or fan any secret message
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: if you want to go there. Um, you cannot just
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: walk there or drive there in your Toyota's her Cell
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: no shade on the r Cell. Great car, but you
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: need a four wheel drive because you're gonna have to
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: drive through the Mojave River, You're gonna be on dirt roads,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: you're gonna be driving through sand, through canyons, and uh,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: you know it's not the easiest thing to get you No,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: not at all. But if you want to get there,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: you can. People have before and you can take a
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: photo with it, or do a bring a cranks iron
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: and do a test of your own, or you can
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: look for gold. There's a legend that it actually points
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: to a gold horde underground, but yeah, I'm not sure
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: I buy that one. No. I think they mentioned the
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: crosshairs for that reason. But I don't know. It's just
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: really interesting. It doesn't it doesn't look like any megaphones
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: that were used at any period in anyone's history. So uh,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I think sometimes people just then they
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: find something like a monolith in Utah recently. Yeah, that
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: definitely was an art installation, you know. Yeah, that's just
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: this isn't necessarily so well, if you do, go, let
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: us know, we want to hear about it, get in
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: touch with us. And in the meantime, everybody short stuff
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: is mohabby Stuff you should know is a production of
• 11:54
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