MADELEINE BRAND, host:
Well if open pit mines aren't your cup of tea, you might consider heading to Santa Cruz, California. It's home to one of the quirkiest tourist spots in the country. It's called the Mystery Spot, and it's a place where objects roll uphill and the laws of physics, well, those laws are not enforced. NPR's Carrie Kahn went there to see for herself.
CARRIE KAHN: I got to the Mystery Spot early. I had heard the parking lot fills up fast and tours often sell out in the summer. At five bucks a ticket, it's the best bargain in town.
Ms. FELICITY HATFELD (Tour guide): All right ladies and gentlemen. Good morning and welcome to the Mystery Spot. My name is Felicity and I'm going to be your tour guide today.
KAHN: Felicity Hatfield(ph), a local college student, leads me and a dozen other skeptics up a wooded hillside. Hatfield makes lots of stops, pulling out a trusty carpenter's level to prove the surface really is flat. As for her jokes, it's downhill from here.
Ms. HATFIELD: All right, for my first demonstration I'm going to need two victims - volunteers. One and two. Come on down, guys.
KAHN: Two young boys take Hatfield up on the challenge. One is visibly shorter than the other. The short boy stands on a level board just outside the imaginary border delineating the Mystery Spot. The taller one faces him and stands on a similar board just inside the zone. Looking at the two side by side, it appears they are exactly the same height.
Ms. HATFIELD: Ladies and gentlemen, the Mystery Spot has done what politicians have been trying to do for years, make people see eye to eye.
KAHN: Not only do people seem to mysteriously shrink at certain points along the tour, everyone begins to lean at a 17 degree angle. The effect just becomes more dramatic in a two-room woodshed at the top of the hill.
Ms. HATFIELD: We're about to enter in to the first courtyard of the Mystery Spot cabin. I have to warn you, you may experience a little bit of nausea, some dizziness, some uncontrollable laughter. Don't worry, it should go away by next week. Come on in.
KAHN: Inside, balls appears to roll up level wooden planks, children easily climb up slanted walls, and a 35-pound metal ball hangs from the ceiling at a gravity-defying angle. As the crowd closely examines the mysterious evidence for themselves, I pull Hatfield aside.
Do you believe this is really a mystery spot?
Ms. HATFIELD: Heck yeah.
KAHN: None of the other guides would give up anything either. Andrew Smith, a construction engineer from San Francisco just shook his head.
Mr. ANDREW SMITH (Construction Engineer): I think it's crazy.
KAHN: Is it not real?
Mr. SMITH: I think it's real, but it's nothing like I've ever seen.
KAHN: Another engineer on the tour, Jim Ping(ph), drove down from Oregon to try and uncover the mystery.
You don't think it's, just like, a hoax or something?
Mr. JIM PING (Engineer): No, I don't think it's a hoax. There must be something, you know, I believe physics, you know. This is a violation of physics law.
Ms. ANNIE FITZ (Guide): Would you guys like someone to tell you what's going on here? So would I. I unfortunately have no idea what's going on. This is after all the mystery spot. It's not the solve spot.
KAHN: Apparently there are many theories about what could be causing physics to flip, from a hole in the ozone causing the light to refract differently, to CO2 gas leaking from an earthquake fault making everyone hallucinate. Guide Annie Fitz(ph) has her favorite.
Ms. FITZ: Well, the last theory is my most popular and that is that millions of years ago an alien spacecraft came from the sky right over there, and it crash-landed in our hillside, and the engine of that spacecraft is still running today.
KAHN: Local scientists have actually studied the mystery at the Mystery Spot and relate it to the power of perception. Something called the size -weight illusion. Matthew Clark (ph) wasn't looking for answers, just some good cheap fun.
Mr. MATTHEW CLARK: I thought it was great. Campy, but fantastic value.
KAHN: Carrie Kahn, NPR News.
Ms. FITZ: I hope you guys have a great rest of your day in Santa Cruz. Please be careful walking down the hill. If you fall down that hill, you will not roll back up. Trust me.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. FITZ: All right, guys, have an awesome day.
(Soundbite of clapping)
BRAND: IndyMac customers in line and enraged when NPR's Day to Day continues. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
