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House of Mystery At the Oregon Vortex
Rating Details »
Categories: Landmarks & Historical Buildings, Local Flavor [Edit]
4303 Sardine Crk L Frk RdGold Hill, OR 97525
(541) 855-1543
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
7 reviews for House of Mystery At the Oregon Vortex
Supposedly, this is one of the most impressive vortex/mystery spot roadside attractions out there. Like other reviewers, I figured that we'd pay our admission, see a little bit, and get back on the road, but it ended up being a nice tour in a group of fellow thrill-seekers.
The "House of Mystery" isn't the main attraction, but rather the vortex's ability to manipulate the sense of vertical alignment. Things (and people) look taller or shorter depending on how they are aligned in the area. We arrived and paid our $9 each and joined a tour that had just started, but missed our cheerful tour guide's name. She gave a history of the site, and then took us to a spot to see the odd effects of the vortex, and pulled out several members of our group to showcase the effects of the vortex.
Then she took us up to see the House of Mystery, which is an old assay office that slid down the hill and is at a steep angle compared to the vertical. She showed us some vortex-related tricks in and around the house, like a ball that looks like it is rolling uphill and then let us try our hand at things like broom-balancing.
Then, behind the house, we did a few more vortex photo ops, and our guide managed to even draw out the "i'm not a participator" old lady in the group to be the object of perspective-skewed attention.
Finally, we got pulled into the gift shop where they showed us mysterious photos taken at the site. These weren't all that exciting to me.
My wife was skeptical about the site, but hasn't come up with explanations for it all. most of it seems like it could be optical illusion but since she was the one invited to do a height comparison by touch, she can't quite explain that bit.
Well run and entertaining, it's worth checking out if you have the time - probably about 45 minutes or an hour, plus the driving time from the 5.
They do take Mastercard and Visa, but not American Express or Discover. Also, while you can take all the photos you want, they don't allow audio or video recording, and are very particular about that.
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This is movie-ticket-sized entertainment ($9 per adult) that does have a little mystery to it. Yes, the strange things they show you here are duplicated in other places (see the Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.or...), but this is THE original!
The tour with my family of four took about 45 minutes. We were placed in a group of about 20, men, women and children. The perky little gal (a teenager, I think) looked and sounded like she'd done the tour a million times, but she made it interesting, fun and funny. The only way to see the place is with a tour guide.
The things they show you, the ball rolling up hill, the broom standing up by itself, the changing heights of people when they change positions at certain points in the vortex area, the tendency to lean 7 degrees to one side when standing in other points in the vortex area, the strange photographs taken previously showing odd lights and other phenomenon in the picture...apparently have all been explained by some smart-aleck scientist somewhere. But so what?!
At the end of the tour you are free to go back into the vortex area, all except the house itself, and try measuring yourself and another person to see if you changed heights. We captured some of this phenomena on camera and he's a little eerie looking at it. Really. My kids were stumped.
While we were there a black tailed deer, a little buck about 1-2 years old, wandered through the edge of the forest near us. If nothing else, you get to commune with nature while you're there! One guy quipped that the deer looked taller when he entered the north end of the vortex area. There's always one guy in the crowd, huh?
At the every end, the perky little tour guide took us into the "gift" shop and tried to sell us a little bit of everything, some of which may have been worth the money, most of which was not. We got one of those flattened souvenir pennies for .50 cents.
By the way, to get there you need to drive about six miles off the I-5 corridor about 10 miles north of Medford through a sleepy little town called Gold Hill. There's a sandwich shop, a market and a restaurant, grade school and a few other businesses, but not much else.
At the Oregon Vortex, there's a gravel parking lot, which was nearly full when we visited. The place can accommodate large RVs, even RVs with trailers or boats; I saw a sign that said there was a large turnaround at the end of the road.
Conceivably, you could take the tour in a wheelchair, but it would be challenging and I don't recommend it. For one thing, you won't be able to go through the crooked little house, which is the centerpiece attraction. For another, there are steps you'll have to navigate, so you'll need someone to help you up and down those.
Don't go into the house if you are prone to seasickness or can't stand at an angle for the 10-minutes you're in there. The back row can lean against the back wall and grasp the handrail there, but it's still a steep fall if you lose your balance or faint. You get practically the same show by standing at either end of the house on solid ground.
One last word: You can scoff if you want, and you can wave your "scientific proof" around if you want, but this is simple entertainment. You're spending the same $9 you would at Regal Cinema for Star Trek without the $8 bin of popcorn and $3 Snicker's. This is fun for the whole family without the negative hit to your cholesterol level. So leave your skepticism and smart-ass remarks at the door (gate); you're probably the same guy who talks during the movie!
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My friend and I saw a sign for the House of Mystery at the Oregon Vortex along the I-5 from Medford on our way to Grants Pass and were enticed enough to make a detour to this place. Honest to say, I wasn't expecting much. I figured that it would be a place where you take a look and then decide to leave within a few minutes. I had no idea that there would be a tour included as well. Our tour guide did a good job with the demonstrations and with incorporating the tour group to make things interactive. If you're ever in the area, I think that this place is worth the visit.
I can't help my weakness for roadside attractions. I have wasted so much money taking tours, and so much time going out of the way, because some billboard beckoned me.
Oregon Vortex is a good one- their tour guides give wonderful demonstrations on why you should be impressed by the Vortex! Bottles rolling uphill, tall people appearing shorter than short people, no animal sounds, all kinds of weird stuff. This one is kind of out of the way but fun if you let it be.
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We went on a tour http://www.oregonvorte.../, the guide helps you to see the subtle affects of the strange forces at work in this small area.
Most mammals refuse to go in this area, birds too. I can't blame them, the area made us both feel ill, and the effect didn't subside until an hour after we left.
Our tour guide (Brighton?) was great, she was fun, funny, and engaging. She took a few picture of us.
We have a 3 inch height difference in real life, but we have one picture in which we're the same height and are standing on level ground. I have another picture where we swapped positions and I look 6 inches taller.
Definitely a good side trip, I recommend it to anyone near Medford.
i know you oregonians can be known for your hydroponic gardening and such, but dang. what you folks do with your gravity over there is messed UP!
favorites: the creepy feeling you get when you're there, the ball rolling uphill, and wondering if rod serling is around the corner ready to narrate your visit.
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Wierd! Seeing a road sign can draw you in, but it's not until you're there that you realize what a strange and truly extraordinary place you've stumbled upon. No tricks or gimmicks (or good explanations for that matter) with height shifts, dizzyness, and a general sense of strangeness.