Green Bank is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the count ...

in Pocahontas County in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

Potomac Highlands The Potomac Highlands of West Virginia (or just the Potomac Highlands) () centers on five West Virginian counties (Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Mineral, and Pendleton) in the upper Potomac River watershed in the western portion of the state's Eastern ...

inside the Allegheny Mountain Range. Green Bank is located along

WV 28 West Virginia Route 28 is a north–south route through the Potomac Highlands of the U.S. state of West Virginia. The southern terminus of the route is at West Virginia Route 39 in Huntersville. The northern terminus is at the Maryland state l ...

. Green Bank is home to the

Green Bank Observatory The Green Bank Observatory (previously National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank) is an astronomical observatory located in the National Radio Quiet Zone in Green Bank, West Virginia, U.S. It is the operator of the Robert C. Byrd Green Ba ...

and is also close to the

Snowshoe Mountain Snowshoe Mountain is a ski resort in the eastern United States, located in Snowshoe, West Virginia. The resort has skiable terrain across and covers a total area of in the Allegheny Mountains, which are a part of the vast Appalachian Mountain R ...

ski resort. As of the 2020 census, its population was 141. The community was named for a green riverbank near the original town site.

National Radio Quiet Zone

Green Bank is located within the

National Radio Quiet Zone The National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) is a large area of land in the United States designated as a radio quiet zone, in which radio transmissions are restricted by law to facilitate scientific research and the gathering of military intelligence ...

, which means that radio transmissions are heavily restricted by law. This policy is enforced by a "radio policeman" who uses specialized equipment to detect signals from unauthorized electronics. Green Bank is home to the

Green Bank Telescope The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in Green Bank, West Virginia, US is the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope, surpassing the Effelsberg 100-m Radio Telescope in Germany. The Green Bank site was part of the National Radi ...

, the world's largest fully steerable

radio telescope A radio telescope is a specialized antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the radio frequency ...

, which was operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) until September 30, 2016. Since October 1, 2016, the Telescope has been operated by the

, which is no longer part of the NRAO. It was at the Green Bank Site in 1961 that

Frank Drake Frank Donald Drake (May 28, 1930 – September 2, 2022) was an American astrophysicist and astrobiologist. He began his career as a radio astronomer, studying the planets of the Solar System and later pulsars. Drake expanded his interests ...

presented the

Drake Equation The Drake equation is a probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy. The equation was formulated in 1961 by Frank Drake, not for purposes of quantifying ...

, which was developed to provide an estimate of the total number of detectable extraterrestrial civilizations in the

Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...

galaxy. As Green Bank is located within the Quiet Zone, many people who believe they suffer from

electromagnetic hypersensitivity Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) is a claimed sensitivity to electromagnetic fields, to which negative symptoms are attributed. EHS has no scientific basis and is not a recognised medical diagnosis. Claims are characterized by a "variet ...

are finding new homes within its borders. "Escape" from cellular radiation is the main attraction to Green Bank for these people. , around 30 people had moved to Green Bank to escape the supposed effects of electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

Notable person

Bruce Bosley Bruce Lee Bosley (November 5, 1933 – April 26, 1995) was a former American football Guard and Center who played for the San Francisco 49ers and the Atlanta Falcons in a fourteen-year career in which he was selected to appear in 4 Pro Bowls (1 ...

, a four-time

All-Pro All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list t ...

for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

and a standout player at West Virginia in the 1950s, starred as

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

at the now-closed and demolished Green Bank High School.

References

External links

* Gaynor, Michael J
"The Town Without Wi-Fi,"
'' Washingtonian'' (January 2015). * Kennedy, Pagan
"Opinion: The Land Where the Internet Ends: To find real solitude, you have to go out of range. But every year that’s harder to do, as America’s off-the-grid places disappear,"
''New York Times'' (June 21, 2019) * Frazier, Kylie
Broadband Comes To Rural America, But How Many Will Use It?
''Internet Providers by Zip News'' (August 18, 2014) {{Authority control Census-designated places in Pocahontas County, West Virginia Census-designated places in West Virginia