Thursday, April 30, 2009

Two Years Ago Today: The Loneliest Phone

Two years ago today, just past the western sign marking the turnoff to Sand Mountain, near Churchill County milepost 47 east of Fallon, Nevada...
...the loneliest phone in America - or at least the sign for the loneliest phone - was in plain view on Highway 50 on the side of the road. The two photos above were taken on April 30, 2007.
This photo of the sign on the east side of the Sand Mountain turnoff was taken on December 28, 2006. The sign is a bit shot up, which is a fairly standard thing in Nevada. I have no photos of the so-called loneliest phone, but you can read about it here and here, and see a great photo of it here. It is described as a microwave, solar-powered phone.
By April 12, 2008, the signs and phone were both gone. The phone was removed by the phone company, according to this site, for getting shot up by passing drivers and Sand Mountain recreators too many times. I don't know exactly when the phone disappeared, and I never made a call from it.

There are, or have been, phones and phone booths farther out in the middle of nowhere - and probably far lonelier, given that Sand Mountain is a major recreation area near Fallon and is only about 1.5 hours from Reno - including this now-gone loneliest phone booth near Cima Dome in the Mojave Desert of California.

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