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Mysterious spots pockmark the tourist landscape, promising to show Nature and Physics gone berserk. Mystery Spots offer an amazingly similar menu of wall-walking, seat-balancing, body-shrinking and -growing tricks; most are placed suspiciously near interstate interchanges and bloated tourist meccas.

The drama of the unexplained is best conveyed by an old codger, wise to government coverups and the shifty vagaries of science. Listening to the ravings of the expert at the Mystery Spot Santa Cruz, California, is half the fun. Unfortunately, many mystery spots fail this crucial test, employing 14-year-olds to convince skeptical summer visitors of their spot's veracity. "Scientists think it's caused by the 'igmmeous' rock in the hill, I think. . . " offered one bored, gum-clicking expert.

For our money, America's premier mystery spot is the Oregon Vortex near Gold Hill, Oregon, open to the public since 1930. Tennis balls really do seem to roll uphill here, brooms really do stand on end.

After subjecting many spots to rigorous, very scientific tests, our Mystery Spot Test Kit ™ indicates that the Oregon Vortex is the most disturbed.

What causes the mysterious goings-on here? No one knows.

One theory is that a great beam of "high velocity soft electrons" exits the earth through the vortex. Another claims that a giant underground device produces the weird effects.

Skeptics usually write off the effects observed in Mystery Spots as nothing more than optical illusions manipulated to mysteriously lighten the wallets of tourists. But when was the last time you enjoyed a vacation accompanied by a skeptic?

For the true believers, there's always a new scientific theory on the gift shop shelves, explaining how TIME speeds up and S-S-L-L-O-W-W-W-W-S-S-S down in a vortex, depending on where you stand and when.

A broom stands on end at the Mystery Spot in Blowing Rock, North Carolina.

One man who apparently knew the secret of the Oregon Vortex -- John Litster -- studied its effects first-hand for more than forty years. He even corresponded with Einstein on the subject. What he uncovered no one will ever know, for he burned all his notes before his death.

"The world isn't yet ready for what goes on here," he warned.