West Virginia has a mystery hole. Santa Cruz, California has a mystery spot. And Gold Hill, Oregon has a vortex. The stories behind them are all mysteriously alike. A UFO or strange magnetic force has pulled a wooden shack down a hill. And everything in the now-crooked building is topsy-turvy.
Justin Adamson: "I can’t get a grip on what’s right, what angle is right or straight up and down."
Justin Adamson, his daughter Katerina and Brennam Richardson are inside the House of Mystery at the Oregon Vortex.
Brennam Richardson: "I’m feeling dizzy. I’m just wobbling back and forth. I know I’m not but it just seems to be magnetic forces kind of fussing around with my body."
The Oregon Vortex is the original mystery spot. It opened to the public in 1930. That’s when scientist and mining engineer John Litster announced his discovery of a three-quarter-acre plot in the woods where he believed that the laws of gravity were somehow set askew by a confluence of magnetic fields.
Today, Maria Cooper and her son Mark run the place. And they say inside the vortex all sorts of strange phenomena occur. Even a short person can seem taller.
Mark Cooper: "I’d like you to take your right hand and touch your left shoulder. Reach up and touch Maria’s shoulder next to yours. Got that? Yeah. Now Maria is going to walk around to your other side. And I’d like you to take your left hand and try the same thing.
Harriet Baskas: "Now it feels three inches taller. Why do I keep getting taller and shorter?"
Mark Cooper: "We don’t know!