For the benefit of our non-US Fortean Brethren: In the US, if a phone number is not used and is disconnected, after a time (this used to be ten years but I don't know what it is currently), the phone number is assigned to a different customer. So, even if this Mojave phone number rings now, it may not be in the phone booth in the desert.
In the US, phone numbers can be assigned or reassigned to any geographic location in the area code, if it is a "landline." Or, to any customer who wants a cellphone initiated in that geographic area. After the cellphone is set up, the customer can use it anywhere service is available. A landline number is not permanently attached to a building or street address.
The US has multiple service providers, both for landlines and cell phones. I do not know how the potential numbers are divided up or how they are kept track of. For the traditional landlines, there are only a limited set of possible numbers in any area code: 10 to the 7th for the US local number designation of xxx-xxxx. Once that maximum number looms close in actual assignments, a new area code is initiated and the landline numbers are divided into the new geographic areas.
When I first lived in Arizona 40 years ago, the entire state had a single area code. Now it has multiples because the population has increased, and the number of phones per person, street address, or business entity has increased.