Gravity Hills

Gravity Hills

As a young child I occasionally heard stories about a place you could go where your car (out of gear, brakes off) would be pulled up a hill, as if by some invisible power. This place was called "Gravity Hill" and it was somewhere in Baltimore County, Maryland.

In January, 1980, the Enigma Project managed to rediscover Gravity Hill as being in northwestern Baltimore County along a public road which ran through the Soldier's Delight environmental area. Sure enough, as we experienced firsthand, if you positioned your car at the bottom of the apparent rise on Gravity Hill, and left it in neutral with the brake off, it would very decidedly roll up the road--as if in defiance of gravitation--for about a tenth of a mile before stopping. To naked eyes, at least, the slight grade in the road did go up, and with it so did vehicles positioned on its surface. These circumstances clearly presented a dilemma which the Enigma Project felt obligated to explore.

Fortunately, one of the Enigma Project's local associates, Mike Gilbert, was a surveyor by profession and we wasted little time in getting him to assess the anomaly. Mike examined the road with a transit and carefully marked it off, making notes all the while. When finished he presented us with a drawing of his survey, the results of which were quite surprising. The road's slight "rise" was, in fact, a "fall." Yes, contrary to what the eye perceived, Gravity Hill was actually a decline. Summarily, we learned that it was not a place where Nature's laws go awry, but rather, a unique location for an optical illusion. Evidently, the lay of the land, the sway of the trees, and so forth set the stage for an unusual, though not mysterious, error in visual perception. Interestingly, at least three additional gravity/magnetic hill locations in Maryland (they have not been thoroughly investigated) have come to the attention of the Enigma Project and we have heard about other locations throughout the U.S., Canada and abroad.

See the Enigma Project's 2005 Report on

the Bedford County, PA Gravity Hill HERE

See the chart below for more locations.

NAME	LOCATION	TEP VISIT	CAUSE	REFERENCE
				(c) = TEP Correspondence on file
Gravity Hill	Maryland, Owings Mills, Soldier's Delight Park	Yes (1/27/ 80)	Optical Illusion	Reisterstown (MD) Community Times, 1/31/80
Spook Hill	Maryland, Jefferson (near Frederick)	Yes (11/29/89)	Unknown	Washington Post, "J Street," October 29, 1989
Spook Hill	Maryland, Burkittsville (Gapland Road)	No	Unknown	Washington Post, "J Street," October 29, 1989
above				Also, (c) Patricia Hutton (1/16/80)
Spook Hill	Maryland, Walkersville (along Rt. 26)	No	Unknown	Washington Post, "J Street," October 29, 1989
Gravity Hill	Pennsylvania, Danville	No	Unknown	(c) Edmund J. Slezosky, Jr (4/18/80)
Gravity Hill	Pennsylvania, Berwick	No	Unknown	(c) Frank Dagostin (1/13/80)
Spook Hill	New York, Vine Valley (near Lake Canandaigua)	No	Unknown	(c) Eleanore R. Clise (1/20/80)
Gravity Hill	Massachusetts, Northbridge (off Rt. 146)	No	Unknown	(c) Joan Anderson (1/25/80)
Spook Hill	Florida, Lake Wales, N. Wales Drive & North Avenue	No	Unknown	Wall Street Journal (October 25, 1990)
Magnetic Hill	Canada, New Brunswick, Moncton	No	Commercial	(c) Jackie Barbieri (2/2/80)
In Ko Pah	California, Imperial Valley (near El Centro)	No	Unknown	Gina Germani (WBFF-TV Baltimore, MD, 1992)
Gravity Hill	Indiana, Mooresville, off SR 42 on Keller Hill Rd.	No	Unknown	Indiana Dept. of Commerce, (317) 831-6509
Gravity Hill	Tennessee, Nashville, Edwin Warner Park	No	Unknown	Nashville Dept. of Tourism
Gravity Hill	New Jersey, Pompton Lakes, Rt. 208 off ramp to Ewing Rd.	No	Unknown	Roadside America: NJ, roadsideamerica.com
Gravity Hill	Pennsylvania, Fishertown, unspecified road near town	No	Unknown	online report from Central Elementary School
Gravity Hill	New York, "a back street between Wellsville & Olean."	No	Unknown	email submitted by "Mark O."
Gravity Hill	PA, Bedford Co., State Route 96 south of New Paris	Yes (see report)	Unknown	Bedford County Visitors Bureau (800) 765-3331
Magnetic Hill	Canada, Manitoba near Neepawa	No	Unknown	"Sloping Off," New Scientist, p. 85, 2-25-95
Unnamed	Israel, on rocky road near Jerusalem	No	Optical illusion ?	New Scientist website, Jonine Cortens, Swansea
Confusion Hill	PA, Ligonier, Idlewild Park	No	Unknown	www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic s/rolluphill.html
Mystery Hill	North Carolina, Blowing Rock, Hwy. 321	No	Unknown	www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic s/roll-uphill.html
Mystery Spot	Michigan, Benzie County, Putney Road	No	Unknown	www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic s/roll-uphill.html
Gravity Hill	Wisconsin, LaFayette Co., S. of Schullsburg & Rennick Rd.	No	Unknown	www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic s/roll-uphill.html
Mystery Spot	California, Santa Cruz, off Branciforte Drive	No	Commercial	www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic s/roll-uphill.html
Oregon Vortex	Oregon, Grants Pass, near Gold-Hill	No	Commercial	www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic s/roll-uphill.html
Gravity Hill	Canada, B.C., Abbotsford, McKee Rd., Ledgeview Golf Course	No	Unknown	www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic s/roll-uphill.html
Anti-Gravity Hill	Australia, near Hanging Rock, Wood-End, Straws Lane Road	No	Unknown	www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic s/roll-uphill.html
Unnamed	Italy, hill south of Rome, in Colli Albani, near Frascati	No	Unknown	www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic s/roll-uphill.html
Morgan- Lewis Hill	Barbados, St. Andrew	No	Unknown	www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic s/roll-uphill.html
Electric Brae	Scotland, Ayeshire, South of Ayr, near Croy Bay on the A719	No	Unknown	www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic s/roll-uphill.html
Mount Halla	South Korea, on the Island of Chenju Do on the 1.100 Hwy.	No	Unknown	www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic s/roll-uphill.html
Mount Penteli	Greece, Athens, on the road to Mount Penteli	No	Unknown	www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic s/roll-uphill.html
Malveira da Serra	Portugal, on the N247 coast road West of Lisbon	No	Unknown	www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic s/roll-uphill.html
Gravity Hill	Rose Hills Cemetary, Workman Mill Rd, Whittier, CA	No	Unknown	http://paranormal.about.com/library/blstory_december02_08.htm
Gravity Hill	Pleasant Valley Rd, Hopewell, Mercer County, NJ	No	Unknown	http://www.lostinjersey.com/oddroad/titusvillegh.html
Gravity Hill	Lichau Road, Sonoma Valley, CA	No	Unknown	http://www.sacredsonoma.com/gravity.html
Gravity Hill	Paxton Street, San Fernando Valley, CA	No	Unknown	http://forums.ghosttowns.com/showthread.php?t=5666
Gravity Hill	Off Hwy 91 through Princeton towards Eddysville, KY	No	Unknown	http://www.geocities.com/wkghs1/gravity_hill_princeton_kentucky.htm
Gravity Hill	King Memorial Road, Mentor/Kirtland Hills, Ohio	No	Unknown	Per email correspondence
Ghost Hill	Off Woodward Ave., Huntsville, AL	No	Unknown	http://www.clubalien.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=367
Gravity Hill	Off Sulphur Spring Rd., Helena, AR	No	Unknown	http://www.aristotle.net/~russjohn/gravity.html
Gravity Hill	Along an unnamed road, Harvard, MA	No	Unknown	http://www.wirenot.net/X/Stories/Ghost/Ghost%20G/Gravityhill.shtml
Gravity Hill	Mount Shasta Drive, Norco, CA	No	Unknown	http://hometown.aol.com/leftysok/GravityHill.html
Gravity Hill	Buckingham Mountain, Buckingham Twp., Bucks County, PA	No	Unknown	http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/~strone01/gravity.html
Gravity Hill	Located between Bartlesville and Ochelata, OK near Gap Road	No	Unknown	http://www.examiner-enterprise.com/archives/index.inn?loc=detail&doc=/2003/October/29-267-n079.txt
Gravity Hill	Off the A41 on the outskirts of Aston Clinton, Aylesbury, England Coordinates: N 51° 47.526 W 000° 41.915	No	Unknown	http://www.buckscaching.co.uk/listings/gravity.html
Magnetic Hill	Located in the town of Arkwright, NY	No	Unknown	Per email correspondence
Gravity Hill	Near Corona, CA	No	Unknown	Per email correspondence
Gravity Hill	Located on a hill near a rest stop between Horatio & DeQueen, AR	No	Unknown	No reference listed

	© 2005 Michael A. Frizzell


	©2005 M.A. Frizzell