Wisconsin "Wonder Spot" to Close After 50 Years

The Village of Lake Delton, WI has bought the famous "Wonder Spot" - a cabin located in a ravine where it will be bulldozed to make way for a new highway. The place has attracted throngs of people since the 1950s. Gravity seems to be turned on it's head when you visit this spot. Photographs show people leaning to one side even though they feel they are standing up straight. Chairs will balance on two legs, and even water flows up instead of down. It is a throwback to the old post-war attractions that drew thousands of families traveling around the country on the new freeway systems. Much like attractions located on Route 66, the Wonder Spot is truly a gem that has amused countless visitors.

Florida, Michigan, and California all have similar mysterious 'gravity vortexes', and there are 21 known locations in the United States where the laws of gravity seem not to apply. I remember driving up to "Gravity Hill" in Rohnert Park, CA. At night, friends and I would take the winding road up the rolling hills overlooking the valley til we reached the special spot. Once parked at the foot of the gradual incline, we would put the car in neutral. After a second the car felt as if it was being pulled uphill. We would ride this ghostly, slow trip to the until the car would settle at the top. We would put the car in drive, go back down half way and then put it in neutral again. The car would then be pulled backwards to the same resting place. It became such a local attraction to local teenagers that eventually the road was closed and deemed private property.

Skeptics are quick to point out that these phenomenons are nothing more than powerful optical illusions. Even if that were the case, it's still a lot of fun to experience something that doesn't seem naturally possible. As for my experiences with Gravity Hill - There's enough of an incline to see that it's not an illusion, and it certainly isn't going downhill! What causes cars to be pulled upward while in neutral is still a mystery.

Reading the story about The Wonder Spot brought back memories. It saddens me to know that these types of offbeat attractions are slowly disappearing around the country. Even though the Wonder Spot will no longer exist as an official tourist destination, the strange vortex probably isn't going anywhere.