Vanishing Things
Not so many years ago, there were hundreds, no thousands, of small roadside attractions. They sprouted everywhere after the Second World War. The website Roadside America has cataloged a lot of those that have survived. But those small oddities are disappearing one by one as the years pass and tastes change. There used to be one around every bend in the road in the Adirondack Mountains when I lived there. But they declined and became tatty and shopworn over time and eventually they started to fail one by one and vanish.
Another one is gone now in Wisconsin. A "Mystery Spot" where gravity does not seem to work right.
After more than half a century of wowing tourists (and causing probably more than a few cases of nausea), the Wonder Spot, a mysterious cabin where people can't stand up straight, water runs uphill and chairs balance on two legs, is no more.
Owner Bill Carney has sold the iconic attraction to the village of Lake Delton for $300,000. The village wants to build a road through the crevice where the Wonder Spot has stood since the 1950s.
Now, the Wonder Spot, one of more than a dozen sites around the nation dubbed "gravity vortexes" and a throwback to postwar, family-oriented tourist attractions, has a date with a bulldozer.
"We're kind of wondering how the town is going to deal with the gravitational forces under the road. That might be an issue with driving and how you bank a curve," joked Doug Kirby, publisher of RoadsideAmerica.com, which catalogs odd tourist attractions.
Kirby's site lists the Wonder Spot as one of 21 so-called "mystery spots." Lake Wales, Fla., has Spook Hill. Irish Hills, Mich., has the Mystery Hill. California has the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz.
The story behind each one is similar — gravity doesn't work in them. People seem to grow smaller, can't stand up straight and can barely walk.
Promotions boast that strange forces in the spots trump the laws of physics. Others say they're just elaborate hoaxes.
"It seems like to spend a lot of scientific effort to debunk these places you're just sucking the fun out of a tourist attraction a lot of people enjoy," Kirby said.
There's a bit of sadness at losing these old standbys of tourism. In the days before mega theme parks and massive tourist destinations where you get herded like cattle and stand in long lines waiting for your three minute ride of pre-programmed fun, these small attractions were things you remembered. Vacations, trips meant stopping at several of these as you drove along the highways. I can still remember The old North Pole, New York, which is still open these days under new ownership. It was the first "theme park" and was studied by Disney to develop the monster parks of today. But the old Frontier Town is dead and gone now, a victim of the demise of the drift away from the Western movie and TV shows of the '50s and '60s. But then, one can find anything on the internet these days, can't one?
Uncategorized | Gaius Sunday, 4 February , 2007
By Chris, Tuesday, 6 February , 2007 @ 6:49 am
You will be pleased to know that there is still a “Mystery Hole” on U.S. Route 60 in West Virginia, between Gauley Bridge and Ansted.
By Gaius, Tuesday, 6 February , 2007 @ 8:37 am
It’s too bad those attractions are fading away, though.
By Chris, Wednesday, 7 February , 2007 @ 6:09 am
It’s also too bad that the interstates are so much more efficient as routes of travel. I just can’t take the back roads, as James Lileks does, when I travel, because the purpose of the journey is to get there, as quickly as possible. Sigh.