00:00.00 archpodnet Hello and welcome back to the pseudo archeology podcast episode 104 and today we are talking about the mystery spot in lovely Santa Cruz California when I last left you guys me and my ragtag. Group of friends was driving up towards the windy road of the mystery spot now. What is the mystery spot precisely all right here's the deal and as we talk about this story I think you guys will really um, notice how similar it is to so many other stories that we've talked about. Here on the pseudo archeology podcast now. The mystery spot was first opened in 1939 by this guy named George Prather and George was I don't know kind of a handyman of sorts. He was kind of like an electrician mechanics inventor. Kind of guy and even when I tell you guys that aren't you like huh? Yeah I've heard this before right? it it sounds so similar. You know again to to like ah the backstory to something like the thing right? So similar where you have this person who kind of has this. Wild idea to kind of take advantage of the roadside attraction craze of this time right? The automobile is now very ah reachable to a average. 01:33.41 archpodnet Kind of middle class family and they can take these road trips and then they want to stop to see these oddities and ah what I found was that George picked the site of the mystery spot in the hills above Santa Cruz because he actually felt a little woozy. While he was walking around and that wooziness is the key to the mystery of the mystery spot right? And actually I got to tell you guys I mean the mystery spot is popular ever since 1939 I mean people have been coming to this and and experiencing it now. What? What do I mean by like feeling Woozy. There's there's certain very specific areas in kind of hilly Woody terrain. 1 of the keys to this is that it's a forested area where as you walk around, you just feel kind of woozy now is that the gravity vortex taking hold now. Actually this is a phenomenon called the gravity hill so this is one of those ones where a slight downhill slope will appear as an uphill slope if that makes sense. You guys have probably seen this in in. Other times and places you may be seen Youtube videos on it or seen it in shows where they're like mysteries of the unexplained. The reality is it. It messes with your equilibrium a bit and the reason why these gravity hills work. 03:03.81 archpodnet Is because there's a ton of trees and you can't see the horizon right? That's what's key with all this so you just get a little off kilter and what is truly a slightly downhill slope appears uphill and then in actually a genius move George. Like found this location basically by feel and was like all right I'm going to buy this property and then he builds this like really tilted sort of silly cabin where when you walk up to it. You can tell it's obviously tilted and it's it's almost. Disneyfied in a way to make it look like some old loggers cabin or something that is just sort of naturally tilted due to time and the elements but it hasn't when you come off up on it. It's built that way. It's built to take advantage. Of the wooziness of the of the natural gravity hill and augment it right? and so it's actually in terms of um construction or planning is is really well done and so when you when you. Go experience the mystery spot you kind of walk on to the property and you're met by a guide a guide will take you around right? So the little cabin is the main part when you look at the cabin from the outside. It's all tilted and the guide is there to add the cover story. 04:34.00 archpodnet Right? He's there to be like the reason this is the way it is is because well we are standing friends on the place of a mysterious meteor strike again where compasses do not work and planes do not fly overhead. After this cabin was built it naturally fell to its side a little bit due to the vortexes pull right? and the the host is part of this show. He kind of keeps it going keeps it true I got to say when my 14 year old friends and I were were walking around. You know we were in our in our 14 year old world being like whatever dude but I got to say the host the the guide rather it was he was like an older guy and he was kind of crotchetty and it worked. Perfectly right? He seemed like some old prospector who just was down on his luck and had to like take us around. You know he's like ah so anyway, well oh you want to know about you want to know about gravity vortex as well. So there I was eighteen fifty nine right it it felt like that it it felt honest to his truth if that makes sense so you walk into the cabin and the tiltedness of it will is immediately sort of disconcerting I remember that the mom who had brought us there was like guys I feel kind of sick. 06:02.66 archpodnet Because that's what it'll do that's that wooziness that George felt years before and it's because you're sort of offalance out of equilibrium and the house is tilted in a way where if 1 person stands like to the further corner and once person stands close you will look. Like taller or shorter or you will look like you are standing at an impossible angle and that's just because your equilibrium is off and you forget where true updown is so it looks like everyone is naturally standing too far sideways right? Um, and so that of course is the. Gravity vortex at work and of course it's not It's just your perspective is so messed up and you are starting to feel a little second you're like wow, everybody's sideways because of the sort of wrong facing slope of the area. They also have other things beyond the cabin I think there was like a. Log you could stand on and um, you would stand on either end and a tall person would look short and the short person would look taller right? all because of this ah messing with your perspective and there's there's a couple other things as well and you just sort of walk around. Tour guide takes you around he augments the stories of the meteor strike and the electromagnetic field that is you know in in awry and and sort of messing everything up in this mystery location I remember our guide also talked about that Nasa had come by. 07:36.32 archpodnet Right? And because they'd written to Nasa and Nasa had sent a specialist out and he the guy told us he's he's like and the specialist said and I quote this is interesting. Which is of course what a guy is going to say if the guy from Nasa even came out which I think they did I think it was actually true, but the guy was like oh this is interesting. You know and of course the rest of the quote is but it's a natural gravity hill which is just sort of a fun thing that they left that part of the quote out. How dare they. 08:14.96 archpodnet So as we walked around with our guide our old crotchety guide telling us about meteors and magnetic fields. We all semi secretly took our compasses out of our pocket. And we looked at them and they worked what the compass worked on now the mystery spot demystified and I have to say. It was a lot of fun though right as we were doing it as we as our 14 year olds were like he lookke look. It's still pointing north and it's real there I remember there was a grownup guy who just happened to be walking by with his snuck encompass as well and he was triumphantly whispering to himself. Another mystery solved I totally remember that right? and so honestly in a place like the mystery spot right? We're going. We're going for for 2 reasons right? where we're we're we're going to enjoy the messing with our own senses right? We're going to enjoy the fun. We're going to enjoy the even the history to a degree of like oh look at this funky cabin I remember my uncle talking about this, you know it's been there for a long time right? We go to debunk I'm sure we weren't the worst I'm sure we weren't the first stranger things. Kids. 09:48.77 archpodnet To come with our secret compasses right? with our scientific angle to expose the mystery spot and there's the fun in that right? and I think maybe there's a third reason too that we go to the mystery spot to say we've been there right because people know it. In that area and then you can go um, when the mystery spot comes up. You can go yeah, been there, you know people go? Oh really what was it like right? It's this known roadside attraction that has just been popular for what is that now 80 years pretty impressive when we come back what to do with the mystery spot.