A Scientific Search for the Most Remote Places in the United States

For the past four years, Ryan and Rebecca Means have been identifying and documenting the remotest place in each of the 50 states for their ongoing research expedition, Project Remote. The feeling of remoteness, of course, is a qualitative metric; how remote someone feels depends on experience and perspective. (Have I been up Mt. Monadnock, the favored peak of Emerson and Thoreau? How about Everest?)

The Meanses, being scientists, wanted a quantitative definition, and to establish a simple standard assessment that could easily be repeated. A state's "Remote Spot," as the two wildlife biologists and ecologists define it, is that point that is the farthest from a road or a town. They are now two states away from documenting the entire Eastern United States. The average distance from a road for the 19 states they have documented so far? A scant five miles. In all but one of these spots, they heard or saw evidence of other humans during a 15-minute evaluation.