Sunday,
September 10, 2006
The Oregonian You
have to see this one to believe it. Even then, after taking the tour of the Oregon
Vortex, you're liable to leave rubbing your eyes in disbelief. Where
else in the world can you see two people change height simply by swapping places
with each other? Or see a broom stand on end? Or watch an unpushed golf ball defy
gravity and roll uphill? It
all happens at the vortex's House of Mystery, in the mountains of Southern Oregon
near Gold Hill, about 260 miles from Portland. The
tour guide explains that a spherical field of force causes the craziness, and
it's been that way for a long time. Native Americans avoided the vortex altogether;
so did most birds and animals. Prospectors' mules would have nothing to do with
it, but that didn't stop an assay office from being built there. The mystery house
was level when it was built in 1904, but assumed its current crazy position when
it fell off its foundation. That
turned out to be a good thing, because the signature feature of the vortex has
been imitated scores of times, including most famously at California's Knotts
Berry Farm amusement park. I
entered the house with great skepticism, but it really did look like the golf
ball rolled uphill on its own. I don't claim to understand it, only that I saw
it. The vortex is worth seeing yourself. More
info: Open March through October. Hours and admission vary. Take Exit 43 off
Interstate 5 south, turn onto Oregon 99 south, then left onto Sardine Creek Road.
541-855-1543, www.oregonvortex.com.
-- Terry Richard, The Oregonian | 
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