The Quiet Zone: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence

In this riveting account of an area of Appalachia known as the Quiet Zone where cell phones and WiFi are banned, journalist Stephen Kurczy explores the pervasive role of technology in our lives and the innate human need for quiet. Deep in the Appalachian Mountains lies the last truly quiet town in America. Green Bank, West Virginia, is a place at once futuristic and old-fashioned: It’s home to the Green Bank Observatory, where astronomers search the depths of the universe using the latest technology, while schoolchildren go without WiFi or iPads. With a ban on all devices emanating radio frequency interference (RFI) that might interfere with the observatory’s telescopes, Quiet Zone residents live a life free from constant digital connectivity.

But a town that on the surface seems idyllic is a place of contradictions, where the provincial meets the seemingly supernatural, and where quiet can serve as a cover for something darker. Kurczy’s deep-dive into this community introduces a menagerie of eccentric residents: a digital-ghostbuster patrolling the town for illegal radio waves; “electro-sensitives” who claim that WiFi is deadly; a sheriff’s department with a record of unsolved murder cases; a camp of neo-Nazis hiding out in a mountain hollow; and ordinary citizens seeking a return to the simple life.

Walden meets Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in this portrait of a community where those seeking refuge confront a reality that is often stranger than fiction. Kurczy takes readers down the rabbit hole on a fascinating journey that explores an alternative to our hyperconnected society and challenges us to rethink the role of tech in our lives.