One Square Inch in the Rainforest
Posted September 28th, 2007 in [hide]It’s bitterly ironic that the Pacific Northwest is home to one of the world’s remaining pockets of linguistic diversity - the others are in the Amazon, Siberia and 
Oklahoma - and at the same time home to the quietest place in North America. It should come as no surprise that both are in danger from the Brave New World.
One Square Inch of Silence is a research institution, independent of the National Park Service. Gordon Hempton traveled the country measuring soundscapes and their makeup. His projects don’t quiet with silence; the results of the national survey showed the quietest spot in continental America to be in the Hoh rain forest. Woodpeckers, owls and eagle, bear, caribou, and other wildlife aren’t exactly abundant, but they aren’t rare either. However, in the northwestern corner of the Continental US, with almost no roads into the park, the isolation is extreme. Combined with a usual blanket of fog and deep forest, the entire peninsula feels like a sanctuary from the modern world.
