The Hum

The first reported incident of what would become known as ‘the hum’ goes back to a university study from 1973 involving the cases of fifty people who claim to be hearing a “low throbbing background noise” that apparently the people around them could not. Since then, there have been many cases of persistent and invasive low-frequency humming, rumbling, or droning noise reported in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

The most famous case is that of the ‘Taos Hum’. This unassuming north-central New Mexico town found itself the center of an auditory mystery since the early 1990s when some residents and visitors started hearing a constant low-frequency buzzing or rumbling noise. According to the people who heard this sound, it was constant and began interfering with their ability to sleep.

So troublesome was this hum to the residents of Taos, that they voiced their concerns to Congress in 1993, and that’s when the experts came to town determined to locate the source. A wide range of sound detecting equipment was placed all over the town and the residents who were interviewed described the hum as a faint droning sound, similar to a diesel engine idling in the distance.