In an effort to discourage any paranormal chatter, scientists often stress the fascinating biological abnormalities found by researchers: strange reptiles and vegetation that is unique to the area, which aeons ago was underwater, as evidenced by the fossilized marine life that can be found scattered throughout the location. It is interesting to note that some official websites do not eschew mentioning the supernatural legend that has grown around the Zone of Silence, such as the belief that a region having similar characteristics must exist somewhere on the other side of the world, lost in Central Asia, a place where “earth energies” are concentrated.

Even though famed Mexican aviator Francisco Sarabia first reported radio trouble while flying over the area in the 1930s, the “Zone” would probably have been another expanse of desert had it not been for engineer Harry de la Peña, an organic chemist who visited the area in 1966 on what was meant to be a photographic survey, and suddenly found himself unable to contact other members of his team on handheld radios: these devices would emit little but faint whispering sounds when cranked to full volume. Television and cell phone reception is likewise hampered as far as Ceballos, Durango – some twenty-five miles distant -- and the outlying desert settlements. Contrary to rumor, verbal communication is not at all impeded by the forces at work in the area.

Full awareness of the Zone of Silence as an anomaly emerged in the early 1970s. Mexican journalist and educator Santiago García, a resident of Torreón in the state of Coahuila, decided to visit this bizarre location that was basically in his back yard (some 60 miles distant) and compile one of the first reports available to the unspecialized reader. Prof. García, quoting the research available at the time, mentioned that a senior NASA official – Dr. W. Richard Downs – noted that maps of the Ceballos region were marked with an “X” due to the fact that Earth’s planetary motion produced “an electronic tornado that impeded the free transmission of Hertz waves” in places like the Zone of Silence, while attracting metallic particles of extraterrestrial origin, as attested by the nearly constant falls of small metallic balls in the area, known locally as “guíjolas” in the area. Hence its importance to researchers. These minute orbs are collected by locals and visitors alike, and treated with great reverence (a visitor to one of the desert communities near Ceballos reports that these are often placed on altars, along with votive candles and religious imagery)

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