Green Bank is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a 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 counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

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 ...

's Potomac Highlands inside the Allegheny Mountain Range. Green Bank is located along WV 28. 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 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, 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 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 The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a federally funded research and development center of the United States National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. for the purpose of radio a ...

(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 presented the Drake Equation, 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 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 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