Beyond Reality: Mexico's Zone of Silence
By Scott Corrales
There exist a number of "accursed sites" on the surface of our planet. Some of these locations are the sites of gravitational or atmospheric disturbances that still remain unexplained by twentieth century science. Such anomalous areas possess properties, which interfere sporadically with humans and their equipment. One area worthy of mention surrounds the Mediterranean island of Elba (famous for being Napoleon's first place of exile), and is the bane of maritime aviation in the Mediterranean; another spot is Mt. Stredohori in Czechoslovakia, where an unknown force drains car engines of power throughout the length of a 75-foot stretch of road.
However, we need not travel so far to encounter a part of the world that is
even more perplexing than these others, although it remains little known to
most people: Mexico's mysterious, magical zona del silencio--the Zone of Silence,
just four hundred miles away from El Paso, Texas. Deserts are often considered
to be mysterious enough without the added weirdness that this patch of earth
some four hundred miles from El Paso has to offer. It is a place which gobbles
up radio and TV signals, and which has of late been associated with the UFO
phenomenon.
Centuries of Mystery
According to Dr. Santiago Garcia, there has been an awareness of the unusual
properties of the area since the mid-nineteenth century, when farmers trying
to eke out a living in the forbidding environment became aware of the "hot
pebbles" which routinely fell to earth from the clear sky. In the 1930s,
Francisco Sarabia, an aviator from the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, reported
that his radio had mysteriously ceased to function, earning him the distinction
of being the Zone of Silence's first victim.
Nonetheless, it wasn't until 1970 that the zone first entered public awareness
when an American missile, an Athena, fired from the White Sands Missile Base,
went off course inexplicably, heading for the Zone of Silence, where it ultimately
crashed. A few years later, an upper stage from one of the Saturn boosters used
on the Apollo project broke up over the very same area. The U.S, military sent
a team down to the region to investigate its surprising natural properties.
Engineer Harry de la Pena was the first outsider to discover the zone and its
perplexing radio interference properties. Humans have been resided in and around
the scrub and cactus filled desert area since Prehistoric times, when an unknown
tribe of natives clustered around a watering hole, which is still in existence.
The community of Ceballos, Durango, some 25 miles away, is the settlement nearest
to the zone, and it is the starting point of any venture into its unreal atmosphere.
The visitor will find vast expanses of flat terrain, pinpointed with thorny
desert bushes and infested with poisonous snakes. No
different from any other desert in that respect.
Pena and his group became aware of the "silence" when they found that
it was impossible to communicate with one another via walkie-talkies: radio
waves are not transmitted at the accustomed speed and frequency. Portable radios
would emit but the lightest whisper when turned on at full volume. To this day,
television signals cannot be received in Ceballos or in the neighbouring ranches.
Some magnetic force, with the power to dampen radio waves, seems to exist in
the region.
Since the engineer's initial visit, scientists from around the world have visited
the zone, flocking to the research facility erected at its very heart by the
Mexican government. The zone's somewhat foreboding name has been changed to
Mar de Tetys--The Sea of Thetys, due to the fact that it was once under water
millions of years ago--and the research lab has been dubbed the “biosphere.”
Curiously enough, the zone lies just north of the Tropic of Cancer and south
of the 30th parallel, which places it in the company of a number of other planetary
anomalies such as the Bermuda Triangle. UFOs and the presence of
nonhuman life have been recorded in this anomalous region. Until a few years
ago, there were people still alive who could remember having had encounters
with allegedly extraterrestrial creatures in the early decades of this century.
Close Encounters
On October 13, 1975, Ernesto and Josefina Diaz, an enterprising couple, drove
into the zone in a brand new Ford pickup to collect unusual rocks and fossils,
which can be found in great abundance. As they busied themselves in their activity,
they noticed that a desert rainstorm was heading toward them. Hoping to avoid
being caught in a flash flood, they wisely packed their vehicle up and sped
off, but not fast enough to avoid the relentless rain: the track ahead of them
turned into a swamp: the pickup was quickly trapped and began to sink in the
soft terrain.
While the couple struggled to keep their vehicle from submerging into the mud,
two figures approached them, waving at them amid the torrential rain. Two extremely
tall men in yellow raincoats and caps, with unusual but by no means alarming
features, offered their assistance to help them get underway again. The men
instructed the totally drenched couple to get inside the pickup again while
they pushed. Before the couple realized, their vehicle had popped out of the
hole and on to firmer ground.
When the husband got out of the pickup once more to thank the two men, he realized
they were gone. There were no footprints in evidence or any surface feature
that could have concealed their departure.
Travellers crossing the zone regularly report seeing strange lights or fireballs
manoeuvring at night, changing colours, hanging motionless and then taking off
at great speed. Two ranchers heading back from a festivity witnessed how a coruscant
light floated down from the dark sky and disgorged humanoid occupants, who glowed
with the same eerie light and were walking toward them. The ranchers broke into
a frantic run.
Physical traces of these nocturnal visits can be found. One witness returned
one morning to the site where he had seen the mysterious lights cavorting the
previous night, and found that the scrub vegetation “had been set on fire.”
Dozens of similar reports emerge from the zone, told by reliable witnesses.
Dr. Santiago Garcia, who has devoted much of his life to the investigation of
this anomalous region, has speculated that some of lights seen by the residents
could well be from a roving vehicle left behind by the U.S. military, recharging
its solar cells by day and conducting furtive analytical missions under cover
of darkness. Garcia points out that when the Air Force came to collect the Athena
missile's wreckage, they took along several truckloads of desert sand for analysis.
There is the widespread belief that huge deposits of magnetite exist in the
area, and that this iron ore is responsible for the
dampening of electromagnetic waves. It has also been proven that considerable
deposits of uranium exist in the mountains ranges fencing the Zone of Silence.
In 1976, a visitor to the region took the first photograph ever of a UFO landed
near a topographic feature known as "Magnet Hill" by the locals. The
photos clearly show a shiny silver object resembling a large stewing pot. The
lucky shutterbug was able to take more shots of the UFO as it rose upward with
a roar, disappearing toward the west. Yet not all of the "extraterrestrial"
visitors have been as elusive. The staff of a small local ranch was visited
regularly by three tall, blond, long-haired visitors--two males and one female--who
were described as being polite to a fault, extremely handsome and dressed "in
a funny way". Their Spanish was flawless and had a musical ring to it.
The reason for these visits was to secure water from the ranch's well: the "funny"
visitors would ask their hosts to please fill their canteens with water, never
requesting food or anything else. When asked where they came from, the visitors
would limit themselves to smiling and saying "from above."
Could these visitors be the "Nordic" types referred to by ufologists? Spanish researcher Antonio Ribera described similar "Blonds" operating in the vicinity of Rosellon, in the Pyrenees, where they would only trouble their human hosts for bread and milk, paying for them with gold nuggets. Almost white-haired "Nordics" were reported along the Sierra Nevada, in California, were they would come down to barter with townspeople every so often. There exists a connection of sorts between certain enigmatic deserts and these angel-like creatures.
No experience in the Zone of Silence is easily forgotten, and journalist Luis
Ramirez Reyes will almost certainly never forget his own. During the month of
November of 1978, Ramirez visited the Zone as part of a news team assigned to
cover a story on the bizarre site.
Choosing to go ahead of the main team, Ramirez and his photographer charged
into the desert, navigating by intuition rather than by hard knowledge of where
their final destination was located: the "biosphere" constructed by
the Mexican government, a laboratory dedicated to investigating the unusual
biological life forms found in the area and to conducting psychic research.
No closer to their target than when their reckless
impulse drove them into the wasteland, Ramirez became painfully aware that he
lacked water or the provisions necessary to survive in this hostile environment
should they become hopelessly lost. Having reached a "Y" intersection
in the unpaved desert road, they had chosen the wrong one. Suddenly, he noticed
that there were three figures walking up ahead, coming toward them. Hoping that
these locals might be able to point them toward the biosphere, the journalist
told his companion, who was doing the driving, to slow down to talk to them.
He was startled when the driver passed them by, as if not having seen them.
Ramirez began wondering if the desert hadn't gotten to him already. The trio
were ordinary people, clad in the outfits usually worn by the inhabitants of
that part of the country. As they drove along, he experienced the shock of running
into them again--in a different part of the desert! Sternly ordering the photographer
(who couldn't see anyone at all) to stop the car, Ramirez got his chance to
speak to the three locals. He asked them if they had seen another vehicle like
theirs in the area. They said that they hadn't, but that if they drove cross-country
amid the rocky desert terrain of the "Sea of Thetys" they would reach
the biosphere. The three locals claimed to be out looking for some stray animals
of theirs, but they had no water bottles or other gear that would indicate that
they were able to survive in the menacing terrain.
After completing the cross-country trek, both men were relieved to find the
structure of the biosphere rising in the distance. Upon arriving, and meeting
up with their team, they discussed their unusual encounter in the desert with
Harry de la Pena. In a sobering tone, Pena told them that there were no people
in the desert who weren't part of the biosphere team and certainly no flocks
for peasants to look for. An aerial survey in later days convinced the investigator
of the utter desolation of the region that stretched for hundreds of miles.
But if they weren't people, what were they?
"Nordic" visitors and other humanoids are not the only kind reported
in the region. There have been sightings of oddly clad beings only a few feet
in height as well. Ruben Lopez, driving through the zone one night in a van
on his way to visit to a relative in Ceballos, noticed that his vehicle's engine
began to sputter. This troubled him no end, as he had recently serviced the
van. Abruptly, he became aware of five small figures that were standing along
the roadside some hundred feet ahead. Lopez believed at first that they were
lost children, until he noticed that they wore unusual silver one-piece outfits.
The little beings' heads were covered by helmets resembling those used by football
players. Through the helmets' open front, Lopez could tell that they had adult
faces. They approached the stalled van with curiosity, filling the driver with
genuine fear: Lopez raced the van's engine in neutral, which caused the dwarfs
to scatter into the desert darkness. The van continued functioning normally
after the creatures had vanished.
The Archaeological Enigma
The extremely ancient ruins in the Zone of Silence pose another disquieting
enigma of their own. Archaeologists have been unable to determine their age,
but they undoubtedly form an astronomical observatory thousands of years old.
There is no connection between this Mexican Stonehenge and the primitive tribes
that clustered around the watering hole, which constitutes an oasis in the arid
region. At some point in antiquity, someone was quite active in the Zone.
Perhaps they were interested, as are modern astronomers and geologists, in the
large number of small meteorites that are attracted to the Zone's magnetic properties.
A meteorite that crashed in Chihuahua in the late 1950s contained crystalline
structures that far outdated the Solar System itself. Researcher Luis Maeda
Villalobos concluded that the meteorite contains "material as old as the
Universe": Our solar system is some 6 billion years old, while the meteorite's
age has been estimated at 13 billion years.
Whether we are dealing with UFOs, dimensional visitors who find the magnetic
aberrations facilitate their journeys, or merely a poorly understood part of
our world with unsuspected properties, no easy answers apply to the riddle posed
by the Zone of Silence. The builders of the mysterious ruined observatory would
have probably agreed.