The Mystery Spot sits near downtown Santa Cruz on land bought in 1939 by George Prather. Prather noticed dizziness, excessive effort climbing, and a misbehaving compass focused in about 150-foot diameter area. Prather opened the site as a roadside attraction in the early 1940s. Tours run daily through a tilted cabin that produces striking visual and physical effects: a leaning structure makes visitors appear to lean uphill, water appears to flow uphill on an inclined board, people seem to change height, a pendulum swings asymmetrically, and patrons may experience disorientation or motion sickness.
Today, the Mystery Spot runs tours 365 days a year to the spot and through a cabin that helps demonstrate the quirks of the area. The wooden structure leans sharply downhill, but visitors standing in front of it appear to be leaning uphill. The effect is an illusion that they're standing almost diagonally. Water poured on a board demonstrated to be on an incline runs in opposition to gravity.
Walking through the cabin's rustic interior, the discombobulation intensifies, with visitors sometimes experiencing motion sickness as a result of an unusual shift in perspective. The angle of the cabin allows folks to climb up the walls and stand balanced in seemingly impossible positions. A large weight at the end of a pendulum swings widely when pushed one way, but half the distance when it swings back. People appear to change in height when standing in different areas around the cabin.
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