"People say, well how do you like the sound? I say, don't move here".
For years residents on the west and south side of Windsor, Ontario Canada – a city of 210,000 people that sits just across the river from Detroit, Michigan USA, have been haunted by a strange, disruptive noise. It's so low (near-infrasound between 30-40Hz) that most people can't hear it. But sometimes it gets so strong that it makes your dishes rattle. Residents say the noise has damaged people’s health and quality of life.
Nobody knows what the sound is or where it comes from, but it keeps people up at night. It's known as the Windsor Hum.
Map of the Windsor area
Most laptops and most computer systems won't be able to make the sound audible so you will need a good pair of headphones to listen to the following sound which has been filtered to remove everyday ambient sounds in an effort to highlight the hum.
In Windsor–Essex County, there are salt mines, the McGregor Quarry and surrounding automotive plants, so Industrial noise can be common. For most people, these are minor nuisances and usually those disturbances follow predictable business hours.
The Windsor hum is different. It’s a low-frequency sound that has been plaguing residents of the southern Ontario city, and surrounding Essex County, since at least 2011
A Facebook Group has been created to coordinate reports and centralise information.
United States Steel Corporation Zug Island
The hum has sparked many conspiracy theories; from a PhD thesis that pin the hum on UFOs or covert tunnelling by the Canadian military.
Studies suggest a more mundane source; pointing to Zug island, an American industrial area located a few miles down the river from the bridge that separates Windsor and Detroit.
Zug Island is a highly guarded, smoke and steam belching, wasteland that is home to a US Steel plant owned by United States Steel Corporation and sits downriver from Detroit.
Authorities on both sides of the border continue to avoid the issue said MP Brian Masse (NDP — Windsor West). He issued a letter in late June to Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland, but received no response.
Masse said. “We need an international agreement on this. There is no legislation in terms of (noise) enforcement capabilities. Right now, it has to be done out of professional courtesy on the U.S. side".
The lack of access, and secrecy has made it very hard to make progress. Perhaps the hum should be re-branded as The Detroit Hum to raise awareness about where it is coming from?
Health concerns
People worry about the long term health issues associated with exposure to this noise.
One study has suggested that infrasound may cause feelings of awe or fear in humans. It has also been suggested that since it is not consciously perceived, it may make people feel vaguely that odd or supernatural events are taking place (1)
"Welcome to Windsor, the coke is actually fentanyl, the kids are all on pills, and you'll never find a job but at least you can spend your entire cheque at the casino or get stabbed downtown!"
Windsor Hum documentary
A Toronto filmmaker Adam Makarenko has driven all around Zug Island in Michigan and Windsor and La Salle in Ontario.
He spent hours in Delray, a Detroit neighbourhood near Zug Island. He's also been near the island, looking for answers and shooting footage. He describes the area as a "zombie apocalypse."
He's never set foot on the island, though.
"Homeland Security is everywhere, I mean everywhere. You have to be very careful when you're over there. It's heavily guarded. Why that is, I don't know,"
Video about Delray
What does this have to do with the Windsor Hum? There has always been the claim that Americans can't hear the hum. However, American's do hear it, but there are not many people living in Delray to complain about it. In the past the air pollution was so harsh that it drove many people away.
It was around the same time that the city started to neglect the area, and cut off many essential services.
Are there other hums?
Hums are heard all around the world. Some can be explained by the shape of concrete structures or large industrial complexes, others remain unexplained - like chasing ghosts. The website 'thehum' has a database of reported hums around the world.
Over the years, residents from New Zealand to Bristol, England, have also reported low, possibly mechanical drones, the sources of which are often never discovered.
Whenever I wake up it is there and it is unbelievably loud. When nobody else can hear it you think you are going nuts, and it just wears you down,”
says Simon Payne, 55, from Cambridgeshire. Payne is a hearer of the mysterious global phenomenon known as the Hum.
“I have been desperate to get away from it, so I have stayed with friends – and even moved house.”
Radio signals (including WiFi) can elicit an auditory response in humans. This is caused by radiant energy interacting with soft tissue in the skull that stimulates the auditory nerve. The effect has apparently been researched by the Pentagon as a sonic weapon.