June 16, 2021 • 12 mins
What is the Mojave Megaphone? Well, nobody really knows. Listen in today to learn about this desert mystery.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. Find Mohave Josh,
And there's Mohave Chuck, and Mohave Jerry's out there somewhere,
and so is Mohave Dave. And this is short stuff
about something I had never heard of before, Chuck the
Mohave Desert megaphone, Yes, mohab, how are you, Mohave. I'm good,
I'm Mohave Mohave you sure? So dumb? Have you ever
(00:26):
been to the Mojave Desert? I guess you have to
have been if you've ever driven from Los Angeles to
Las Vegas? Right, yeah, boy, that's a that's not the
most fun ride in the world. I gotta say, barren,
isn't it. Yeah, it's pretty barrens everywhere, Yeah, exact tumbleweeds
and dead mafia bodies and and me and my old
(00:49):
friend John Pendell driving to Vegas to get him a
Crispy Creme Las Vegas T shirt and then driving that
does it just does not seem right to call him John.
I know him as Johnny, and I always wi Johnny
Pendell sounds like a bad kid at school. He was,
you know, he was a decent kid. He's probably laughing
because he gets in touch with me every time we
(01:10):
mentioned him, so he'll laugh at that, so I know
he is. That's why I can out him as a
bad kiddo. So, um, did you guys ever go see
the Mojave megaphone or had you heard of it before?
I had not heard of it until I found this
article on how stuff works. Actually nice work, well, nice
workhouse stuff works for really turning us onto something. No,
(01:32):
I hadn't already said. Okay, I've never heard of this before,
and it's mohave okay. Um. So in the Mojave Desert,
it is a matter of fact, in the Mojave Desert
National Preserve, there is what looks a lot like a
giant um weathered steal megaphone bolted pretty much permanently to
(02:00):
a couple of boulders on the top of like a
hill um and it weighs a lot and no one
can make heads or tails of not only how it
got there, but what it is and how long it's
been there. It's a bona fide mystery. Yeah, this is
nuts to me that nobody has come out and knows
the origin of this thing. I know, like surely by
(02:21):
now somebody would have been like, oh, I know the
guy who put it there, and here's here's what it is,
you know, and by the way, this is Banks. He's
real identity kind of person, you know what I mean. Yeah,
so the Majabi Desert is uh or this thing is
located actually in the Mojave Desert National Preserve and sort
of a it says, a remote corner, but they're all
fairly remote, and it's just you know, it could be art, uh,
(02:47):
it could be a horn of some sort, like maybe
a siren, and you know, we'll get to some of
these in a little more detail, but it's it's just
crazy to me that no one knows how this got there,
especially because it has, you know, sort of shape like
a megaphone. But it's the kind of thing where it
seems like one would be able to say, oh, well, no,
(03:08):
that used to be a thing, because there were other
things that are shaped just like this, right exactly, there's
nothing like that. And like you're saying, nobody's come forward
to be like this is what it is, or everyone
has to preference what they're saying with with I think
or I I see it as you know, like it's
all just interpretation, which is great um and if you
(03:30):
just describe it a little further, it looks like two
slightly different sized rocket boosters um placed top to the
top or mouth to mouth. I like to think that
the fire comes out of the butt, you know, So
this is mouth to mouth bolted together like that. There's
(03:50):
a couple of like triangular fins. I think there's a
pair of them, at least towards the end on each
side as they flare out. Then inside there's cross hairs
basically made of rebar. It looked like to me, and
the whole thing has no markings. There's no numbers, there's
no letters, there's no nothing on it, not even what
(04:12):
seems like it was maybe used for before. And then
if you look at like the rebar in the welding job,
it doesn't seem like it was part of any kind
of mass production. Like it almost gives you the idea
is like a one off kind of thing, you know, yeah,
which means it could be art. It's big. It's about
eight ft long, and if you see where it is,
(04:34):
you know it took some effort. Uh maybe two people,
but probably at least three or four people to get
this thing up there, get it bolted onto the side
of this cliff. Uh, And it has led to a
lot of speculation over the years as to you know,
there's some pretty decent ideas I think as to what
this thing could be. And maybe we should take a break,
(04:57):
Yes we should come back, Yes, mojave, and we'll be
right back to really mahabi this mohave, Okay, mohave chuck alright.
(05:32):
So some people think it might be a siren of
some kind from the nineteen forties or fifties, Like, you know,
they tested nuclear bombs not too far from here. It's
near some army and air force activity. Maybe it was
an early warning signal. Other people say, I don't know
(05:54):
about that, Like this thing is really out in the
middle of nowhere. You would have something like that closer
to where people area. So that idea is okay, but
has also largely been shot down by a bunch of
other people. So that to me, it still makes sense
because while it's not it never was very heavily populated place.
I think there's a a ghost town called crusero Um nearby.
(06:19):
I mean it's between the existing towns of Baker and Ludlow,
and they're not exactly like Beijing and Shanghai or anything
like that, you know, but there's a rail line and
all the banded rail line that runs right through there,
and apparently they used to run chemical agents to um
the military bases out that way. So while you wouldn't
(06:40):
have had a lot of people to warn, you would
have had a potential situation to warn about, even if
it was just a few people of like a major
chemical spill or a gas leak or something like that.
So to me, the idea that it was some sort
of warning system it does make sense. But at the
same time, it doesn't make sense that they would use
(07:00):
some handmade one rather than one that was, you know, available,
because there were huge air raid sirens that were around
in World War Two that look kind of similar, but
we're obviously a raid sirens and they look like they
would work a lot better than whatever this thing was. Yeah,
I saw on YouTube there was this woman who did
a siren tests, like, got a crank siren and put
(07:23):
it in the small end, then had her friends down
on the ground and see if they could hear it,
and they could, but it wasn't It didn't amplify things
that much. UM And interestingly, in the YouTube comments, and
so believe me, I'm not saying that this this is
like the worst research possible to say. A YouTube commenter
said this, But there was a YouTube comment that said, hey, listen,
(07:46):
I think it might be something from an old salt mine,
like hot brine might have been pumped at high pressure
through this thing, because it's just made of such thick
iron and steel. Like it doesn't he said, you could
make something a megaphone out of something a lot lighter,
and that sort of made sense a little bit. That's
the only reason I mentioned it. Um other people said that.
(08:08):
They said something like a rocket booster maybe, or maybe
what's called a venturi, a pipeline venturi, which is an
enclosure that's is our glass shape that controls the flow
of fluids through a pipe, which is legitimate too. I
mean they're like, and wouldn'ty have some record of a
pipeline through there? That's the thing, Like, there's no apparent
(08:29):
either some no one's looked in the right place yet,
or it's it just wasn't documented, which which means it
was either secret or it is a more recent art installation.
But if you look at it, I think one of
the people who run tours out there, um said that, Um,
they think that it's been there for thirty or more years.
This thing looks like it's been around for a lot
(08:50):
longer than you know. Um, so it looks very old.
And it's possible it's use was just so mundane that
it didn't need any kind of documentation or you know. Yeah,
it is possible as secret and I kind of I
don't want to know, But at the same time, I
think I would find it pretty fascinating to know it's
(09:11):
used to. Like, I think that that also makes mysterious
objects really interesting, you know, knowing their history. Yeah. Another
thing that feels plausible to me is that it, uh,
it was not something that sent out a sound, but
something that maybe was used to detect something like if
(09:32):
they were doing nuclear testing at the Nevada testing site,
that maybe it was something that like measured or detected
long range shock waves or something like that. Uh, And
then it could make sense that the government, you know,
it was it might have been sort of a one
off and not have manufacturing numbers, and the government wouldn't
readily come out and say anything like that, yeah, you
(09:54):
know existed. Plus also, Edwards Air Force Base is kind
of nearby, which is where um, Chuck Yeager broke the
sound barrier. Yeah, sure, and he very famous. He said, Uh, folks,
mohab over and that was it. Uh should we tell
people how to get there? I think so sure. I
(10:15):
mean it's all over the place. We even have the
exact coordinates. Yeah, the exact coordinates. Are you at your
pencil everyone in Mahabi. Just down on your Mojave thirty
five point zero zero five six degrees north a hundred
and sixteen point one degrees west. And that's the use
your Dakota pins, the little or fan any secret message
(10:37):
if you want to go there. Um, you cannot just
walk there or drive there in your Toyota's her Cell
no shade on the r Cell. Great car, but you
need a four wheel drive because you're gonna have to
drive through the Mojave River, You're gonna be on dirt roads,
you're gonna be driving through sand, through canyons, and uh,
(10:58):
you know it's not the easiest thing to get you No,
not at all. But if you want to get there,
you can. People have before and you can take a
photo with it, or do a bring a cranks iron
and do a test of your own, or you can
look for gold. There's a legend that it actually points
to a gold horde underground, but yeah, I'm not sure
I buy that one. No. I think they mentioned the
(11:20):
crosshairs for that reason. But I don't know. It's just
really interesting. It doesn't it doesn't look like any megaphones
that were used at any period in anyone's history. So uh,
I don't know. I think sometimes people just then they
find something like a monolith in Utah recently. Yeah, that
definitely was an art installation, you know. Yeah, that's just
(11:40):
this isn't necessarily so well, if you do, go, let
us know, we want to hear about it, get in
touch with us. And in the meantime, everybody short stuff
is mohabby Stuff you should know is a production of
iHeart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the
iHeart Radio app. Apple podcasts are where ever you listening
to your favorite shows. H
Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. Find Mohave Josh,
And there's Mohave Chuck, and Mohave Jerry's out there somewhere,
and so is Mohave Dave. And this is short stuff
about something I had never heard of before, Chuck the
Mohave Desert megaphone, Yes, mohab, how are you, Mohave. I'm good,
I'm Mohave Mohave you sure? So dumb? Have you ever
(00:26):
been to the Mojave Desert? I guess you have to
have been if you've ever driven from Los Angeles to
Las Vegas? Right, yeah, boy, that's a that's not the
most fun ride in the world. I gotta say, barren,
isn't it. Yeah, it's pretty barrens everywhere, Yeah, exact tumbleweeds
and dead mafia bodies and and me and my old
(00:49):
friend John Pendell driving to Vegas to get him a
Crispy Creme Las Vegas T shirt and then driving that
does it just does not seem right to call him John.
I know him as Johnny, and I always wi Johnny
Pendell sounds like a bad kid at school. He was,
you know, he was a decent kid. He's probably laughing
because he gets in touch with me every time we
(01:10):
mentioned him, so he'll laugh at that, so I know
he is. That's why I can out him as a
bad kiddo. So, um, did you guys ever go see
the Mojave megaphone or had you heard of it before?
I had not heard of it until I found this
article on how stuff works. Actually nice work, well, nice
workhouse stuff works for really turning us onto something. No,
(01:32):
I hadn't already said. Okay, I've never heard of this before,
and it's mohave okay. Um. So in the Mojave Desert,
it is a matter of fact, in the Mojave Desert
National Preserve, there is what looks a lot like a
giant um weathered steal megaphone bolted pretty much permanently to
(02:00):
a couple of boulders on the top of like a
hill um and it weighs a lot and no one
can make heads or tails of not only how it
got there, but what it is and how long it's
been there. It's a bona fide mystery. Yeah, this is
nuts to me that nobody has come out and knows
the origin of this thing. I know, like surely by
(02:21):
now somebody would have been like, oh, I know the
guy who put it there, and here's here's what it is,
you know, and by the way, this is Banks. He's
real identity kind of person, you know what I mean. Yeah,
so the Majabi Desert is uh or this thing is
located actually in the Mojave Desert National Preserve and sort
of a it says, a remote corner, but they're all
fairly remote, and it's just you know, it could be art, uh,
(02:47):
it could be a horn of some sort, like maybe
a siren, and you know, we'll get to some of
these in a little more detail, but it's it's just
crazy to me that no one knows how this got there,
especially because it has, you know, sort of shape like
a megaphone. But it's the kind of thing where it
seems like one would be able to say, oh, well, no,
(03:08):
that used to be a thing, because there were other
things that are shaped just like this, right exactly, there's
nothing like that. And like you're saying, nobody's come forward
to be like this is what it is, or everyone
has to preference what they're saying with with I think
or I I see it as you know, like it's
all just interpretation, which is great um and if you
(03:30):
just describe it a little further, it looks like two
slightly different sized rocket boosters um placed top to the
top or mouth to mouth. I like to think that
the fire comes out of the butt, you know, So
this is mouth to mouth bolted together like that. There's
(03:50):
a couple of like triangular fins. I think there's a
pair of them, at least towards the end on each
side as they flare out. Then inside there's cross hairs
basically made of rebar. It looked like to me, and
the whole thing has no markings. There's no numbers, there's
no letters, there's no nothing on it, not even what
(04:12):
seems like it was maybe used for before. And then
if you look at like the rebar in the welding job,
it doesn't seem like it was part of any kind
of mass production. Like it almost gives you the idea
is like a one off kind of thing, you know, yeah,
which means it could be art. It's big. It's about
eight ft long, and if you see where it is,
(04:34):
you know it took some effort. Uh maybe two people,
but probably at least three or four people to get
this thing up there, get it bolted onto the side
of this cliff. Uh, And it has led to a
lot of speculation over the years as to you know,
there's some pretty decent ideas I think as to what
this thing could be. And maybe we should take a break,
(04:57):
Yes we should come back, Yes, mojave, and we'll be
right back to really mahabi this mohave, Okay, mohave chuck alright.
(05:32):
So some people think it might be a siren of
some kind from the nineteen forties or fifties, Like, you know,
they tested nuclear bombs not too far from here. It's
near some army and air force activity. Maybe it was
an early warning signal. Other people say, I don't know
(05:54):
about that, Like this thing is really out in the
middle of nowhere. You would have something like that closer
to where people area. So that idea is okay, but
has also largely been shot down by a bunch of
other people. So that to me, it still makes sense
because while it's not it never was very heavily populated place.
I think there's a a ghost town called crusero Um nearby.
(06:19):
I mean it's between the existing towns of Baker and Ludlow,
and they're not exactly like Beijing and Shanghai or anything
like that, you know, but there's a rail line and
all the banded rail line that runs right through there,
and apparently they used to run chemical agents to um
the military bases out that way. So while you wouldn't
(06:40):
have had a lot of people to warn, you would
have had a potential situation to warn about, even if
it was just a few people of like a major
chemical spill or a gas leak or something like that.
So to me, the idea that it was some sort
of warning system it does make sense. But at the
same time, it doesn't make sense that they would use
(07:00):
some handmade one rather than one that was, you know, available,
because there were huge air raid sirens that were around
in World War Two that look kind of similar, but
we're obviously a raid sirens and they look like they
would work a lot better than whatever this thing was. Yeah,
I saw on YouTube there was this woman who did
a siren tests, like, got a crank siren and put
(07:23):
it in the small end, then had her friends down
on the ground and see if they could hear it,
and they could, but it wasn't It didn't amplify things
that much. UM And interestingly, in the YouTube comments, and
so believe me, I'm not saying that this this is
like the worst research possible to say. A YouTube commenter
said this, But there was a YouTube comment that said, hey, listen,
(07:46):
I think it might be something from an old salt mine,
like hot brine might have been pumped at high pressure
through this thing, because it's just made of such thick
iron and steel. Like it doesn't he said, you could
make something a megaphone out of something a lot lighter,
and that sort of made sense a little bit. That's
the only reason I mentioned it. Um other people said that.
(08:08):
They said something like a rocket booster maybe, or maybe
what's called a venturi, a pipeline venturi, which is an
enclosure that's is our glass shape that controls the flow
of fluids through a pipe, which is legitimate too. I
mean they're like, and wouldn'ty have some record of a
pipeline through there? That's the thing, Like, there's no apparent
(08:29):
either some no one's looked in the right place yet,
or it's it just wasn't documented, which which means it
was either secret or it is a more recent art installation.
But if you look at it, I think one of
the people who run tours out there, um said that, Um,
they think that it's been there for thirty or more years.
This thing looks like it's been around for a lot
(08:50):
longer than you know. Um, so it looks very old.
And it's possible it's use was just so mundane that
it didn't need any kind of documentation or you know. Yeah,
it is possible as secret and I kind of I
don't want to know, But at the same time, I
think I would find it pretty fascinating to know it's
(09:11):
used to. Like, I think that that also makes mysterious
objects really interesting, you know, knowing their history. Yeah. Another
thing that feels plausible to me is that it, uh,
it was not something that sent out a sound, but
something that maybe was used to detect something like if
(09:32):
they were doing nuclear testing at the Nevada testing site,
that maybe it was something that like measured or detected
long range shock waves or something like that. Uh, And
then it could make sense that the government, you know,
it was it might have been sort of a one
off and not have manufacturing numbers, and the government wouldn't
readily come out and say anything like that, yeah, you
(09:54):
know existed. Plus also, Edwards Air Force Base is kind
of nearby, which is where um, Chuck Yeager broke the
sound barrier. Yeah, sure, and he very famous. He said, Uh, folks,
mohab over and that was it. Uh should we tell
people how to get there? I think so sure. I
(10:15):
mean it's all over the place. We even have the
exact coordinates. Yeah, the exact coordinates. Are you at your
pencil everyone in Mahabi. Just down on your Mojave thirty
five point zero zero five six degrees north a hundred
and sixteen point one degrees west. And that's the use
your Dakota pins, the little or fan any secret message
(10:37):
if you want to go there. Um, you cannot just
walk there or drive there in your Toyota's her Cell
no shade on the r Cell. Great car, but you
need a four wheel drive because you're gonna have to
drive through the Mojave River, You're gonna be on dirt roads,
you're gonna be driving through sand, through canyons, and uh,
(10:58):
you know it's not the easiest thing to get you No,
not at all. But if you want to get there,
you can. People have before and you can take a
photo with it, or do a bring a cranks iron
and do a test of your own, or you can
look for gold. There's a legend that it actually points
to a gold horde underground, but yeah, I'm not sure
I buy that one. No. I think they mentioned the
(11:20):
crosshairs for that reason. But I don't know. It's just
really interesting. It doesn't it doesn't look like any megaphones
that were used at any period in anyone's history. So uh,
I don't know. I think sometimes people just then they
find something like a monolith in Utah recently. Yeah, that
definitely was an art installation, you know. Yeah, that's just
(11:40):
this isn't necessarily so well, if you do, go, let
us know, we want to hear about it, get in
touch with us. And in the meantime, everybody short stuff
is mohabby Stuff you should know is a production of
iHeart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the
iHeart Radio app. Apple podcasts are where ever you listening
to your favorite shows. H
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