“In the southwest of the USA, between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, there is a desert \u2013 the driest in North America. It is the Mojave Desert. It has a unique geological character \u2013 with sand dunes, volcanic cinder cones, canyons, mountains, geological mesas, dry lake beds\u2026 where more than 1000 different species of animals and plants live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1997, a man from Los Angeles found the symbol for a public telephone drawn on a map of the desert, and decided to visit the place. In the middle of nowhere, at the junction of two dirt tracks, about 60 kilometers from the nearest town and 20 kilometers from the nearest main road, surrounded by Joshua trees, he found a telephone booth. It was just as he had imagined it: a lonely communications post, with all its glass broken, at the very end of a long chain of telephone poles. He posted details of his trip, including the phone number of the booth, on the internet \u2013 and from that moment people from all over the world began calling and visiting the booth…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On May 17th 2000, the national park authorities and the telecommunications company that owned the booth decided to dismantle it. They released the following statement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After weighing environmental issues and public need, Pacific Bell and the National Park Service agree to decommission the pay phone at this remote location in the Mojave Desert. Although the payphone has become a novelty to some in recent months, the increased public traffic has had a negative impact on the desert ecosystem.<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our imaginings of that dusty patch of open desert, and of its wind worn phone lines and booth, included these sounds:<\/p>\n\n\n\n