The Sentinel Enigma – A Mystery in the Mojave Desert
Perched on a lonely hilltop in a remote area of the Mojave Desert National Preserve sits something of an enigma.
Some have surmised that it is a giant megaphone, gunsight, sentinel, or even a device used to communicate with aliens. Why is it always aliens?
The Sentinel Enigma
Others think that it may have been used to locate an entrance to a “303-mile California cave system” and “great underground river of gold” in the Mojave Desert. Stories of the cave system and underground river were first reported in San Bernardino Sun and Los Angeles Evening Herald Express in the early 1930s.
According to Earl (E.P.) Dorr’s official type-written/sworn statement (December 10, 1934), the black sand beaches along the underground river are loaded with a fortune of placer gold and nuggets.
Earl (E.P.) Dorr
Whatever it is, nobody knows how long it’s been there, how it got there, or who put it there. The object is about 8-feet long and has been securely fastened to the granite boulders on top of a 150-foot high hill. There are also no markings on it of any kind (numbers or letters). It may weigh up to 600 lbs. and would have been a beast to carry up that hill.
Getting to the site is not for the meek. And also takes a long time.
The area is very remote and desolate. The roads are definitely less traveled and you’ll also navigate some pretty deep sand at times. Directions and coordinates are provided at the end of the article . . if you’re still interested in making the journey.
The object’s alignment is north and south. Here’s the view looking south:
Here’s the view looking north:
The northern alignment points directly at a distant hill with some peculiar features of its own. Scattered around the hill are large boulders with many petroglyphs (rock pictures). The nomadic Chemehuevi people mostly likely drew these hundreds of years ago. The Chemehuevi knew much about the Mojave Desert resources, including water sources like Mesquite Spring. They probably stayed here at certain times of the year and/or used the spring as a water source during their travels. The sentinel enigma.
The sentinel enigma
A Chemical Warfare Connection?
The purpose of the mystery sentinel is anyones guess, but one explanation is that it was related to chemical weapons testing. Such tests were conducted in secret and remote areas of the Mojave Desert in the 1940s and 50s.
Military exercises have been conducted in California deserts as far back as 1859 (when Fort Mojave was built). Today, there are four major, active military installations within the West Mojave including the Naval Air Weapons Station (“China Lake”), National Training Center (“Fort Irwin”), Air Force Flight Training Center (“Edwards AFB”) and the Marine Corp Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms.
Transporting the chemical agent to the locations was usually done by rail (train). The remains of an old rail road track exists in the pass below the hill. Perhaps the object was a type of siren to warn troops that a train carrying chemical weapons was on its way.
World War II Siren (British) The sentinel enigma
Or perhaps, it does point to an entrance of an underground river of gold. And just maybe the Chemehuevi left a map and guardian to protect the secret.
Location of the Sentinel Enigma
Reaching the sentinel enigma of the Mojave will take some time and effort. It is located close to Mesquite Spring – about half way between the towns of Baker and Ludlow, and Afton Canyon Campground and Glasgow. The sentinel is 13 miles (east) from Afton Canyon Campground, or about 21 miles via Crucero Road (north) from Highway 40. Both roads are rough and have sections of deep sand (4-wheel drive vehicles recommended). The sentinel is west of Crucero Road on top of the hill. Google Map coordinates: 35.005612, -116.196422
In addition to Afton Canyon campground, Hole-In-The Wall and Mid Hills campgrounds are about 90 miles from the sentinel enigma site.
Update (December 15, 2020)
Recently a reader (David B.) visited the area and saw that someone had installed an animal skin over the openings and used it as a drum. This probably wasn’t the original intention of the “Mojave Mystery,” but who knows. A clever adaptation at the least!
Update (January 11, 2024) – Enigma Solved?
Apparently the “Mojave Megaphone”, or “Mojave Sentinel”, or whatever you want to call it is actually a drum after all. Back on December 8, 1990 the Desert Dispatch published an article by Karen Kunde that may put the mystery to rest once and for all. According to the article, Dennis Daraghy (a BLM ranger out of Needles) met the makers in 1989. They told Dennis that it was (ta dum!) a drum. The maker/drummer would attach skins to the ends of it and even wire up a generator-power amplifier. Unfortunately the maker of the drum was never identified so we still have a bit of a mystery. Aliens perhaps?
If you visit, please remember that all archaeological resources are protected. Do not collect or otherwise disturb plants, rocks, fossils, historical objects, or artifacts, and do not feed or disturb the wildlife. Also remember that the Mojave Desert is extremely hot during the summer. Temperatures can exceed 105 degrees. Thank you!
33 Replies to “The Sentinel Enigma – A Mystery in the Mojave Desert”
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Hello author of this wonderful campground adventure. I am wondering if I could reach out to you about potentially being a part of tv series we are developing on American mysteries?
Let me know if that would be something of interest to you.
Thank you for your time,
Bill
The Mojave megaphone is mis-named. It is not a megaphone and would never function as a proper megaphone. It is in fact a pipeline venturi flow Meter. How or why it got to this location is a mystery though.
Thanks Doug, I can see a resemblance to the venturi flow meter.
If this were the case then there would be pictures of other identical items on the web. Got any?
Do you not have google?
You guys are so funny. It is not a venturi flow meter or anything else speculated upon in this column. It does not point to anything unless someone mounted the two rocks upon which we drilled the holes and poured the concrete lined them up for something. God, maybe??? We carried the thing up the mountain in two pieces and if you want to know what it is, pay attention to the fittings on both ends. What might go there?
Hi RT,
Love it! Seems like you have the ‘secret intel’ to solve this mystery that has stumped people over many years!
It’s a Mucket !!!
RT it looks like a drum to me, I have seen the skins stretched on it last October.
Hi David,
Very cool – for sure it would work as a drum. Not sure if that was its original purpose, but I like the adaptation.
RT — would you be willing to answer a few questions for an article I’m writing about the enigma? It will be posted to HowStuffWorks.com in the next few weeks.
Hi Nathan,
Should not be a problem. I’ll respond to your email tomorrow.
RT, I am a youtuber and putting together a documentary with a big name sponser, about the Mohave Megaphone. Could I chat with you, over email or even do a recorded video call for the video?
Hi Scott,
Very exciting about your documentary. You can email me (Eric) at campranger@campsitephotos.com to get the conversation started. Looking forward to it.
Camp Ranger, I have a photograph of the use of the drum if there is somewhere to send it to.
Hi David,
That’s awesome and thank you. You can send it to campranger@campsitephotos.com and I’ll post it to the article.
Stumbled across this during some downtime at work today. Curiosity got the best of me and I went to searching. Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier right there close. Stands to reason there would be several more sound breaking runs following. If you unbolt the two they could probably place a rupture disk in there and measure the pressure from breaking the sound barrier. Just a thought
That is a good theory Ty!
This looks more like an amazing kd steam locomotive steam/smoke stack, or at least the core of one. The Venturi shape to disperse smoke and sparks away from the engine so the engineer could see.
It makes sense since considering an old railroad operation left behind.
I wasn’t sure what it was either till I was pointed out that there was a railway that passed through. My theory… two old locomotive smoke stacks bolted together as possibly a memorial for a train crash that happened near there. Like the two in the Cajon pass.
I think it’s an anchor. Not for a ship on the sea but something in the air. A weather balloon experiment, or the testing of the blimps from WW2. The housing held the “chain”. Cable of some kind. Strange guess I know, but I’m trying to thing outside the box.
Hi Greg,
I like it! Thinking outside the box will help solve this mystery. It was definitely close to an area where they were doing some WWII training, etc.
This is the faulty pipe from a coal powerplant, it was placed here in memorial of the man who lost his life in the accident. The timeline all adds up, and it explains the willingness of a large group of people to hoist it to the top.
Hi Thomas,
Do you know about when it was placed there (what year)?
It’s a heavy duty train smoke stack. Or one of the 1st rocket thruster cones. Want to blow your mind go to Google Earth it’s close by. 35* 50′ 17.38″N 117* 45′ 12.54″W ELV 2365 feet. An ancient road 100 miles long in a straight line even through China Lake. Follow it east and west. It’s not recent or military at all. It goes under lava flows, has massive lava spit rock in the road. It disappears & re-emerges under mountains, wash out & ash flows. It ends at the mountains with some strange underground structures. It must be 1,000’s of years old. At one time it mist have gone to the ocean around Laguna Beach CA before volcanic eruptions. It is absolutely a straight line and not normal. Never heard about it or seen it before. Can anyone explain this ancient road? Follow this enigma on Google Earth. You can even see it under ground on Google Earth. I want to know who built it and when. It is so old must be far older then the petroglyphs even. I would love to go investigate. Anyone know about it?
Wow Steve – that road sure sounds interesting. I’m going to check it out. Maybe someone can comment on it as well.
Looks like 2 halfs( parts of) 2 old ww2 bombs ( missiles) . Don’t think they were intended to be bolted together, rather each bolted to other parts of of some type of bomb. The fins with holes on outside perhaps for loading. Just doesn’t look lie meant to be bolted to each other, someone had both and noted they COULD be bolted together to make something odd, them mounted on rocks in desert to make people question and for those who handled such to remember how using such bombs made no more sense then putting odd pieces of them together. Just my opinion.
Thanks Mohpepper! That’s a different idea that I don’t think anyone else has thought of. It certainly is a mystery as to what it is, who did it and when.
copy of the “Desert Dispatch” of Saturday, December 8, 1990. On the front page was this article.It talk about Bill Mann of the Mojave Museum talking about the megaphone, which turn out to be a drum. The BLM office had visited the site and spoke to the builder.. It no secret device from outer space but a drum ..
Hey Joe,
That makes a lot of sense to me. It sure must have been quite the effort to build that drum. Recently someone attached ‘drum skins’ to it.
I’ll try and get a copy of the article and post here later.
file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/a9/09/D3F1451C-4111-411F-AECB-2F2DB23BD16F/IMG_2188.PNG
Hi Joe,
Would you mind email me the picture. It didn’t post in the forum. My email: campranger@campsitephotos.com
Thanks!