Quiet Time

in Roswell, New Mexico. Whether that was a weather balloon like the Army said, or evidence of alien life, we may never know the truth. But there is another location that defies explanation. It's eight hundred miles south of Roswell, in a quiet patch of the Chihuahua Desert in Durango, Mexico. Very quiet in fact, hence its nickname the Zone of Silence. There isn't much to speak of in the Zone of Silence,

mostly dirt and sand, shrubs and desert wildlife. The closest town is twenty five miles southwest, and if you ask anyone there about the strange location, they're sure to have some stories to tell. Many of the tales date back to the nineteen thirties, when a pilot by the name of Francisco Cerebia was forced into an emergency landing. He'd been flying over the desert when he noticed his gauges and instruments went on the fritz and his radio couldn't

get a signal. He didn't know it at the time, but the zone of silence practically blocked all radio transmissions, both on the ground and in the air thanks to magnetic fields. But it wasn't until nineteen sixty four when a pem X engineer named Harry de la Pena visited the area. He had been hired to survey the land for a planned oil pipeline that would run all the way to Jamenez, and Harry noticed two things. First, just like the pilot before him, his radio seemed to cut

in and out. In fact, it was Delepena who coined the term zone of silence to describe this particular part of the desert. Secondly, he couldn't figure out where the zone of silence started and stopped. They never stayed in one place and always seemed to be moving. However, it was what happened several years later that really made people wonder what was going on down in Mexico. You see, an Athena RTV test rocket had been launched out of

Utah in June of nineteen seventy. The missile was headed toward White Sands, New Mexico, but went way off course, landing in the Zone of Silence instead and missing its target by five dred miles. It could have been a malfunction, or, as many have pointed out, it might have been something more serious. Just as they had done in Roswell, the US government turned to evasion to hide what had really happened.

It wasn't just a rocket they had lost, You see, there had been a payload on board, consisting of cobalt the seven A radioactive element. Officials asked Mexican authorities for permission to enter the desert and search for the missing rockets. The Americans then hired locals to watch over the site as they worked to remove the missile. During the process, they realized their radios weren't the only malfunctioning technology in

the zone. Televisions and satellites also lost their signal. It was a dead zone for almost anything technological In the end, the Athena rocket, along with two hundred tons of radioactive soil, was carded off to New Mexico, the missile's original destination. Although magnetic fields weren't the only unusual phenomena in the zone, those who live relatively close by have talked about an eerie trio of individuals who have popped up from time

to time. They're described as highly attractive people wearing clothing not meant for the desert climate. Each has blonde hair, speaks Spanish and behaves politely. An employee of a local ranch once asked where they had come from, and the group merely replied from above. And in ninety six the residents of nearby Sebaios claimed to have seen a UFO. Their witnesses reported a thousand foot long rectangle flying over their heads. It emanated a low hum, and it had

lights flashing all around it. Dogs barked and howled until it left, which it did after only a few seconds. Those who witnessed it said it disappeared going south towards the Zone of silence. Suffice it to say, the Mapeemi Zone of Silence has been a hotbed of unusual activity over the years. Skeptics claim that the only unusual thing is how many people believe the stories. But for those

who have actually been there, some things just don't add up. Ironic, I think that people cannot stop talking about a place called the Zone of Silence. M It was Forrest Gump who famously said, I just started running. But Forest wasn't alone in his impulse to just get a move on. Allow me to introduce you to Huberta. One day in November of nine, hubert To just started walking south. No one is sure why. Some say she was in search of love. Some say she had witnessed her mother's murder

and fled out of fear. Still others say she was on a quest to find the land of her ancestors. But whatever the case, she walked south. It began at the St. Lucia Estuary in Zululand, South Africa. Huberta showed up in Natal, and the local paper, the Natal Mercury, reported her arrival in the area. You might say they weren't exactly expecting her. About one miles along the road, hubert To set up camp briefly in the lagoons at

the mouth of the Milonga River. By this point she had already become something of a celebrity, and crowds showed up to give her food and gifts for her pilgrimage. It was here that she faced the first obstacles of her seemingly spontaneous journey. There was an attempted kidnapping the price of fame, I suppose, but Huberta escaped, crossing into Durban,

and there she lived a luxurious life. By day, she walked the city streets and swam the beautiful beaches spanning the Golden Mile from the Bay of Plenty to Dairy Beach. And by night she hit the links at the famed Beechwood golf course that even bathed in a pond of a moonlit monastery garden. She even crashed lavish country club parties. By now everyone was tuned into Huberta's journey. News stands

around the world reported her travels. More kidnapping and assassination attempts were made, but through it all she proved elusive. Things did get a bit dicey when she stalled out on the train tracks. Literally thoroughly exhausted, she fell asleep and required a gentle awakening from the locomotive workers to help her off the tracks and move forward in request, and so hubert To continued to walk for three whole years. She covered a thousand miles on her mission to find well,

whatever it was she was looking for. No one ever asked, but she probably wouldn't have answered the question anyway. That's how mysterious she was. Unfortunately, with celebrity comes risk. While taking a swim in a river, Huberts's assassins finally caught up with her. Three separate men shot her, ending her tireless journey for good. When her body was found, it had washed up on the shore downriver. The following day, the Natal Mercury told the world of the grizzly news.

The public was furious. Numerous international publications, including the Chicago Tribune and Nigeria's The Punch, published tributes to the life of this mysterious wanderer. Even South Africa's Parliament discussed her life as well as what was to be done about the end of it, and well wishers sent sympathy, wreaths, cards and donations in her honor. Just an independent gal determined to find her place in the world, out for

an innocent walk. Even more tragic, the three men who assassinated her, pleaded ignorance and were slapped with a measly twenty pound fine, further stoking the fire of public outrage around the death of an international celebrity, Hubert to the Hippo. Eventually, her body was shipped all the way to England where

she was stuffed and sent back to South Africa. When she was finally put on display at the Durban Museum, twenty thou people came to see her and to this day she's still there, standing proudly at the museum in King Williamstown. End of the Road or a Curious Journey. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership

with how Stuff Works. I make an other award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,