Periodically we can count on someone calling our office for some information on Gravity Hill. While most people in Caldwell County are familiar with that landmark, its fame has now spread to the Internet.
For years, teenagers have been fascinated with Gravity Hill, located just off U.S. 62-West on the Crider-Dulaney Road. Stop under the Western Kentucky Parkway underpass, put your vehicle in neutral and it appears to go uphill.

Ironically, it wasn’t someone from our neck of the woods who is spreading the “Gravity Hill” fame to the world. A Canadian, Mark Visser, contacted us wanting a photo of the site. We sent a photo last week, giving him the final piece to the web site.

So how does someone from Canada get interested in places like Gravity Hill?

“I got involved in this because there is a Magnetic Hill in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, where I live. The thing that bugged me was that just about nobody seems to know that there was a magnetic hill or if they did nobody seemed to know where it was.”

He developed a home page and put up a website for the Burlington location. After the site was up and running, he received numerous emails about magnetic or gravity hills from around the world.

He determined that many purported ones were hoaxes. “But I also received positive information and that is when I decided to set up the International Directory of Magnetic and Gravity Hills.

“This is a hobby for me and after the directory was up (on the Internet) I don’t spend too much time on it anymore, although I have partial information on about another 30 hill locations in Europe, North America and Asia. The day after I received the Princeton pictures from you I received an email from a couple who visited New Hampshire and went across the border into Quebec to visit a magnetic hill in that area. Once back home in England they found my site about the magnetic hill in Chartierville QC, noticed that I didn’t have pictures for that site and sent me some!

“So what started out with one site about our local magnetic hill has grown into a well-respected directory which draws a lot of interest from around the world.

“Part of the reason for our success is that all information is true and has been verified by others. Even though there are a lot of people out there who believe that there are dark powers out there who pull cars and other objects ‘up’ the hill, we know that it is not so. All 24 hills listed in our directory carry this note: ‘After trying this natural phenomenon you may question its causes. We don’t want to disappoint you, but whether it is called a Magnetic Hill, Gravity Hill, Mystery Hill or Electric Brae it is an optical illusion. It has nothing to do with magnetic fields, electricity or unknown forces working along mysterious lines."

Mark’s home page gives some more details…

“Usually it is a stretch of road in a hilly area where the level horizon is obscured. Objects such as trees and walls which normally provide visual clues to the true vertical, may be leaning slightly. This creates an optical illusion making a slight downhill look like an uphill slope. Objects may appear to roll uphill.

“Spots where the illusion is especially powerful often become tourist attractions. Tour guides may like to claim that the effect is a mystery or that it is due to magnetic or gravitational irregularities or even that it is a paranormal phenomenon which science can not explain. This is not true of course.

“There are several things which enable us to sense which way is up. The balance mechanism in our inner ears is one system we have, but visual clues are also important and can be overriding. If the horizon cannot be seen or is not level then we may be fooled by objects which we expect to be vertical but which aren’t really.

“People often overestimate the angle of a slope. If you are standing on a slope of 1 degree it will seem like a slope of 5 degrees and if you stand on a slope of 5 degrees it may seem like you are on a slope of 30 degrees. Because of this effect the anti-gravity illusion can seem stronger than it should be even when you know the cause.

“Even when the true cause is understood it can be difficult to believe. If you think there is a magnetic anomaly just use two plumb lines, one made of iron and one of stone. They would hang at different angles if a strong magnetic field was acting horizontally.

“However, it is not always easy to demonstrate that a slope which appears to go uphill is really going downhill. The only reliable way of determining the true horizontal is by careful surveying. If a good topographical map of the area is available it may be sufficient to show which way the land is really sloping. The results will confirm the illusion.”

The site on Gravity Hill is well done, giving a map and directions. There is also a brief history of Princeton and Caldwell County. Hey, we’ll take tourists any way we can — even if it’s to see a car coast uphill.