Lake Delton, Wis. – In a wooded ravine tucked away from the water parks, restaurants and mega-resorts that dominate this tourist town, a piece of history is quietly dying.
After more than half a century of wowing tourists (and causing probably more than a few cases of nausea), the Wonder Spot, a mysterious cabin where people can’t stand up straight, water runs uphill and chairs balance on two legs, is no more.
Owner Bill Carney has sold the iconic attraction to the village of Lake Delton for $300,000. The village wants to build a road through the crevice where the Wonder Spot has stood since the 1950s.
Now, the Wonder Spot, one of more than a dozen sites around the nation dubbed “gravity vortexes” and a throwback to postwar, family-oriented tourist attractions, has a date with a bulldozer.
“We’re kind of wondering how the town is going to deal with the gravitational forces under the road. That might be an issue with driving and how you bank a curve,” joked Doug Kirby, publisher of RoadsideAmerica.com, which catalogs odd tourist attractions.
Kirby’s site lists the Wonder Spot as one of 21 so-called “mystery spots.” Lake Wales, Fla., has Spook Hill. Irish Hills, Mich., has Mystery Hill. California has the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz.
The story behind each one is similar: Gravity doesn’t work in them. Visitors seem to grow smaller, can’t stand up straight and can barely walk.
Promotions boast that strange forces in the spots trump the laws of physics. Others say they’re just elaborate hoaxes.
“It seems like to spend a lot of scientific effort to debunk these places, you’re just sucking the fun out of a tourist attraction a lot of people enjoy,” Kirby said.
The Wonder Spot lies just off U.S. 12, the main drag between Lake Delton and Wisconsin Dells in south-central Wisconsin.
Together, the two cities constitute Wisconsin’s answer to Las Vegas. The corridor between them is packed with water parks, giant resorts, museums, hotels and restaurants. The area convention bureau boasts that the region is the water-park capital of the world.
