Somewhat off the subject of BULLFROG SNOT traction tires for model railroads is a mystery on the desert of southern California known as the "Desert Megaphone"

See http://www.panoramio.com/photo/3469672

What is it and how and why did it get there?

The Megaphone sits atop of a rocky hill near a small pass where once ran the Tonopah & Tidewater RR, south of it’s UP connection at Crucero. The T&T got started late, and the boom was over before it was completed, never reaching either Tonopah or Tidewater. The route from the Santa Fe connection (the Tidewater part) at Ludlow to Crucero ceased operation in October of ’33, and the tracks were removed for the war effort in ’43. This would represent the last time heavy equipment would have been in the area, except for the daylighting of the tunnel in Afton Canyon in May of ’57.

It’s heavy steel, welded together. It makes no apparent sounds and points to nothing in particular. It has the look of 30’s or 40’s ‘Buck Rodgers’ spaceships, and is anchored firmly in the rocks. Someone when to a lot of effort to put it there, but no body seems to know it’s history. It could be from the crew tearing up the tracks in ’43, but they don’t seem like they’d be the type to do this.

So it’s a mystery. Have any ideas?