Nolan and I picked
up a brochure at a fuel stop on The Oregon Vortex. Michael said he'd heard
about it before. To be honest, he was skeptical. It looked interesting to
us....the campground was FULL of campers communing with nature by smoking and
drinking outside their trailers. We, no longer being campers, can commune with nature when they all go home.
We decided it would be a great day to explore the area, rather than the
campground.
Michael taped my
ankle and told us to load into the car. I was able to ride with my foot
elevated and with it taped it felt pretty good. We headed out to find things
which would have little hiking.
We checked out the
little town of Gold Hill, Oregon and ended up at The Oregon Vortex. I did a bit of internet research and ran
across the comment that the owners claim to be involved in the paranormal -
that is not at all what we experienced or were told. This area was known to the Native Americans
of the area as the "forbidden ground." Their horses would stop at the edge of the
vortex and refuse to enter it. Animals still don't come into the area on their
own. There are no birds, rabbits, raccoons...only snakes and insects - which I
think has deep meaning. In the 1850's a
gold assay office in the center of the vortex consistently weighed the gold wrong.
That assay office is now the "House of Mystery." You may be able to blow these info boards up if you are interested in more details.
There are a series
of level platforms around the area for
various demonstrations. Most involve perspective change. People seem to be
taller when they move to the magnetic south of the platform.
 |
| She certainly appeared taller when she moved north |
All seem to lean
towards due north when in the area. We experienced this. When we got to the
center of the vortex, many got motion sick.
Inside the House
of Mystery, you step UP to appear shorter and things rolls down and then return
and roll uphill....Poor Nolan never got to catch the rolling bottle as it
stopped short and started rolling uphill each time. They stress the HOUSE can
be replicated but they only use the house so you can see the dramatic perspective
change....all the effects are duplicated outside of the house. The height
change effect has not been duplicated in any of the "copy cat"
mystery houses around the world. ::grin::
It was fascinating.
Some of the demonstrations were very interesting, while some seemed to be
manipulated. Like this one which was to
demonstrate the blind sense the
difference as well....on the south side his shoulder was lower and supposedly
on the north side it was higher...I
discovered this with my eyes closed. Michael rightfully points out that he does
seem to be standing with a different shoulder deliberately raised higher each time....one
of those demonstrations which seem to have been exaggerated.
There is no doubt
the angle changes on this platform.... I was fairly excited to be nearly as
tall as Nolan.
We still have one
dedicated skeptic and the rest of us are in the "hmmm" category. Even
our skeptic admits there were some interesting, unexplainable
phenomenon. We all admit there were a couple of instances where we think we
caught the guide manipulating the demonstration to exaggerate the effect.
We found this
excursion to be interesting, quirky and fun - just our sort of outing. They
gave a $1 military discount - never hurts to ask.
