This story has been making the news services with surprising frequency the last few days:

http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/wisconsin-wonder-spots-days-are-numbered/20070205091709990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

I had been to the Wonder Spot a few times in my life. It was basically the same thing as Knott's Berry Farm's old (now gone) "Haunted Shack" attraction...only designed as a "main attraction."

I always loved these kinds of roadside amusements. Such simple pleasures. Sad to see so many of them headed into the "remember when" file.

Wisconsin Dells used to be filled with these kinds of attractions. A handful still exist. Growing up in Chicago that was THE place to go when you couldnt getaway for a Disney or other week long vacation. Or for just taking small weekend trips. The Dells have become commercialized in so many ways, those of us who grew up there in the summers during the "good old days" will miss these small, yet still entertaining attractions.

The one at Knott's Berry Farm is the one I am familiar with. But I do remember seeing one other wonder spot somewhere, probably in California.

You know, even when I got older and figured it out, I was still willing to go in and check it out one more time. You would think that once you figure out how the effects work, you'd lose interest. But the design and the over-all fooling is indeed well done, and was worth a re-viewing, despite knowing its secrets.

Maybe it is to see when and how I "get" the changeover, from "normal" to "abnormal" as I walk from one point to the other. Maybe I challenge myself to say, "Am I aware of what is truly vertical, despite the suggestions of lines per the Haunted Shack?"

Certainly, to an 8 year old or 10 year old, the Haunted Shack was pretty interesting.

The one at Knott's Berry Farm is the one I am familiar with. But I do remember seeing one other wonder spot somewhere, probably in California.

You might be thinking of the Mystery Spot (http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/CACRUspot.html) up in Santa Cruz, California.

There's actually a small slice from these gravity-defying places in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. It's the "Magnetic Mystery Mine" on Tom Sawyer Island. Through tricking the eye via a slant-perspective cave...cave water in this section appears to flow uphill.

:)