![]() “And that," Mike told me, "was when I saw Bigfoot.” Wait, what? He'd actually had a close encounter with the legendary humanoid creature said to inhabit the local forests? You can see why I’ve had a lifelong love affair with California’s roadside attractions. You expect the unexpected, and even so, they always surprise you. Rich and I recently set off in our trusty red VW to explore some of my home state’s most mysterious locales. As we listened to various outlandish tales, we found most were obvious exaggerations or outright whoppers, but a few weren't so easy to explain in rational terms (something that's often said of California itself). The Mystery Spot Our first stop was The Mystery Spot, a roughly circular area 150 feet in diameter within which (allegedly) the laws of gravity and physics don’t apply. This “gravitational anomaly” was discovered (or invented) by George Prather in 1939; supposedly he was surveying the land for development when he noticed his compass jittering and his mind reeling. He bought three steeply sloping acres of redwood forest near Santa Cruz and constructed a house with radically skewed angles designed to disrupt your visual perceptions. It was entertaining to see billiard balls (apparently) rolling uphill, to hear people (including Rich) insist they're standing upright while leaning at impossible angles, and to feel the predicted dizziness and nausea (although the latter may have been due to a dubious veggie burger I’d rashly consumed at the Mystery Spot Snack Shack). And then, as we walked back down the hill, there was one last stop. When two women of the same height stood at opposite ends of an apparently flat piece of concrete, one appeared eight inches taller. We weren't in the skewed house with its massive visual distortions. Hmmm... The guide invited me to try it, and I walked all over the slab; it sure seemed level. And yet… What’s the logical explanation? (Cue spooky music.) I don’t have one. Bigfoot Discovery Museum Next we arrived at the tiny, cluttered Bigfoot Discovery Museum in nearby Felton and met the proprietor, Mike Rugg. He’s a friendly fellow, with a bushy white beard and twinkling eye, and with scarcely any prompting from me, he told us the story of his encounter with Bigfoot. Camping in the woods with his family at the age of four, Mike wandered off early one morning and came face to face with a large, hairy, ape-like figure. Mike ran back to his parents, who insisted it must have been a tramp. The incident became a repressed memory that was revived decades later. “I’d always been interested in apes and large, man-like creatures,” Mike told me. “When the memory surfaced, I finally understood why.” Mike opened the museum in 2004 to house his collection of maps, books, sighting reports, and videos. A vintage Apple computer runs a loop of the Patterson-Gimlin film, the most famous “proof” of Bigfoot’s existence. The sighting took place in 1967 in Humboldt County, which at the time (and I’m not saying there’s a connection) was establishing a flourishing marijuana industry. The film, which did not turn out to be as clear or convincing as Patterson hoped, has been endlessly analyzed. “The breasts,” Mike said, “clearly show she’s a female.” The Milpitas Monster Seeking lodgings that night, Rich and I checked the Wikipedia page for Milpitas, which sounded eye-glazingly dull until I came across the town’s cinematic claim to fame: a 1976 high-school film project that became a feature-length movie called The Milpitas Monster. A no-budget film of a 50-foot creature that consumes garbage cans – how bad could it be? I’ll let you be the judge. Our stay in Milpitas wasn’t quite that thrilling, but we found a comfortable hotel, a great diner, and a garbage can that somehow escaped being ravaged by the monster. The Winchester Mystery House Strip away the hype and legends surrounding the Winchester Mystery House, and it’s still a very odd place. Doors open onto walls or sheer drops, stairs lead nowhere, secret passages run everywhere. The tour guides tell you this: owner Sarah Winchester was driven mad by guilt over the Native Americans slaughtered by the guns her husband’s family manufactured — the famous Winchester rifle that “won the West.” Widowed in 1881, Sarah was warned by a medium that the only way to appease the vengeful spirits was to leave Connecticut and move west to live in a home under constant construction. She settled in San Jose, had builders working around the clock for 38 years, and was constantly trying to elude ghosts. “This house is a manifestation of Sarah Winchester,” says actress Helen Mirren, who plays Sarah in a movie due out in 2018. “And in that sense, it’s haunted. I don’t feel the remotest sense of spookiness in this house.” Me either. The creepiest phenomena in that house wasn't some specter on the warpath but a widow with a deeply troubled soul and the wealth to indulge her dark fantasies. Whatever you choose to believe, there’s a certain delicious thrill about encountering the offbeat and inexplicable. Such moments are a powerful reminder that the universe is far more vast and interesting than we can possibly imagine. We’ll never fully grasp the big picture, let alone all the details, so we simply have to enjoy the enigmas. “Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved,” said … well, I went to look up the source and found that quote attributed to Nietzsche, Gandhi, Kierkegaard, guru Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, novelist Adriana Trigiani and others. Which just shows how gullible people can be; we all know the first one to say it was Bigfoot. YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY
14 Comments
Denise San Antonio Zeman
9/6/2017 05:17:44 pm
Loved this post, Karen! Always looking for interesting places to visit in California when we're visiting our son or our Tahoe cabin. We've been to the Winchester Mystery House, so we're excited to read about the movie. Thanks for adding a few more things to our bucket list.
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Karen McCann
9/6/2017 06:51:39 pm
Glad you liked the post, Denise! There's so much fun stuff to do in CA that my list keeps growing. We visited the Winchester Mystery House back in the 1980s, when you could just wander around on your own; now the guides give you lots more lore, which is great fun. Happy exploring!
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Janet Spilman
9/6/2017 05:43:28 pm
This is so fun! I was sure that I was going to read about Confusion Hill, a roadside attraction in Piercy (which we mistakenly call the Mystery Spot...). Here is their website - http://www.confusionhill.com/.
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Karen McCann
9/6/2017 06:54:38 pm
Janet, I can't believe I've never heard of this place. Confusion Hill looks spectacular! Rich and I will certainly be taking a trip there as soon as we can manage it. More mysteries to discover — can't wait!
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9/6/2017 05:54:05 pm
Love these quirky places. We will have to check them out now that we are spending more time in California.
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Karen McCann
9/6/2017 06:58:43 pm
Great to hear from you, David and Veronica. California is famous for its roadside attractions, which came into their own after WWII when the booming auto industry encouraged leisure travel. Happy exploring, you two! I know you both love zany road adventures, and CA certainly has plenty to offer. Enjoy!
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Karen McCann
9/7/2017 04:00:51 pm
Shéa, I certainly hope you have the chance to tour some of California's zany hotspots. They are a hoot!
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Trish
9/6/2017 08:17:47 pm
We are being stationed in Ca!ifornia (leaving our beloved Andulacia) and so excited to see some of these West Coast attractions.
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Karen McCann
9/7/2017 04:05:23 pm
California is particularly rich in goofy roadside attractions so you'll have plenty to keep you entertained. Two great resources of information on the region's loonier offerings are Atlas Obscura (atlasobscura.com) and Weird California (weirdca.com). It's never easy to leave a place as wonderful as Andalucía, but I think you'll find California is tremendous fun. Good luck with your move, Trish, and let me know how you like the Golden State!
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Carolyn Saunders
9/7/2017 05:27:08 pm
I loved trailing round the backroads of CA - little towns where the inhabitants looked hard at you when you dropped in for a coffee at the diner. Always friendly and I loved the "you're from out-of-town?" I found a tiny museum somewhere (not a clue where) with a dinosaur on its roof and lots of odd collections. Goofy is the word. (Even in the big places: I was asked by a guide to take over explaining about WWII airplanes in San Diego's Aircraft Museum)
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Karen McCann
9/17/2017 05:10:01 pm
Carolyn, I will be on perpetual lookout for that dino-roofed museum; sounds like a hoot! It's so nice that you share our affection for these loony, out-of-the-way places with quirky character. And I'm impressed with your knowledge of WWII planes! I'm sure the guide was grateful to have a fellow aficionado on the tour.
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Lorraine
9/13/2017 08:23:22 pm
I never knew this house existed. It's now on my "to see" list. Thanks for highlighting it.
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Karen McCann
9/17/2017 05:12:05 pm
It's amazing how many oddball places can be found when you get off the beaten path a little. If/when you get to the house, let me know what you think of it!
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I'm an American travel writer based in Spain and currently living in California. As we journey through the pandemic together, my blog provides a regular supply of survival tips, comfort food recipes, and the wry humor we all need to lighten our hearts on dark days. I think of my blog as an ongoing conversation, so please join in and leave comments at the end of my posts. Sign up below to get updates when I publish anything new. BLOG ARCHIVES
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