Why the Mojave Phone Booth Became the Most Called Number in America

In 1948, a hand-cranked telephone was installed in the Mojave Desert to serve miners at the Cima Cinder Mine. For nearly fifty years, nobody called it. Then, in 1997, a man named Godfrey "Doc" Daniels found its number in an underground zine, started dialing obsessively, and eventually posted it on the internet. Within months, the abandoned phone booth at the intersection of two dirt roads — twelve miles from the nearest pavement, deep inside what had become the Mojave National Preserve — was ringing day and night with calls from strangers around the world. Pilgrims drove hours down desert roads to answer it. One man camped beside it for thirty-two days. The phone booth that had been forgotten in a ghost town landscape became one of the most called numbers in America. On May 17, 2000, Pacific Bell removed it without warning. The Park Service later destroyed the concrete slab, the tombstone fans built, and every plaque they tried to leave behind. Today, nothing marks the spot. The number still works. Sources Licalzi O'Connell, Pamela. "If a Pay Phone Rings, Who Will Answer?" The New York Times, May 14, 1998. Glionna, John M. "Reaching Way Out — The Mojave Desert Phone Booth." Los Angeles Times, September 18, 1999. Daniels, Godfrey "Doc." Adventures with the Mojave Phone Booth. Owl's Head, Sonoran Desert: Deuce of Clubs, 2018. Rosenberg, Joe. "The Mojave Phone Booth." Snap Judgment / NPR, August 22, 2014. "Mojave Phone Booth." 99% Invisible, Episode 381, November 2019. National Park Service. From Neglected Space to Protected Place: An Administrative History of Mojave National Preserve.