One of my friends had told me that I really needed to experience the Mystery Shack at Calico. When I was walking down the Main Street, the girl working at this “attraction” who sold me my entrance ticket said, “This must be your first time to Calico.” With wonderment I asked how she knew. “Because you’re stopping to take photos of everything!” Drats...blew my cover as a first timer. In the waiting area, there are a number of these little visual puzzles. So much fun!
I had a private tour, as Calico was truly a Ghost Town on the day I visited. She was super nice and did an excellent job with the information and the puns.
I was able to see the pool table with balls that roll up:
The broom that (seemingly) defies gravity!
Thanks to the mysteries of COVID, I was not allowed to experience the chair that is almost impossible to get up from.
The floating disconnected spigot that still has water flowing from it!
Later in my visit, I took a snap of the Mystery Shack from above in an attempt to capture all of its ramshackle goodness:
Up until about 2000, Knott’s Berry Farm had a similar attraction called The Haunted Shack. It is still missed today by guests who were once able to walk through its doorways.
See more Calico Ghost Town photos at my main website.
Six Flags Over Texas had "Casa Magnetica" which was a mystery shack with many of the same gags. The line went through several switchbacks with high walls so you couldn't see the path slowly starting to slant. The effect was great! I'm not sure if it's still there, since I haven't been to 6FoT in about ten years. It's a shell of it's original self, and that's just sad...
ReplyDeleteGlad you could go, thanks for sharing. Likewise, loved the Knotts' one, it's the only one I ever knew. I heard about the legal issues and why it was removed which is understandable since the Mystery Shack was there first. I'll have to go someday before it's too late.
ReplyDeleteWhat?? The Haunted Shack is gone? Another great experience without the use of mechanicals or computer graphics is gone (sigh). But it's OK to be enclosed in a contraption and be whipped and looped into sickness today. Well, thast once the virus has passed. KS
ReplyDeleteSounds like fun, Dave. This place sounds like a bunch of Dad jokes strung together.
ReplyDeleteI may have seen this as a kid, much of it sounds vaguely familiar, and this would have been one spot where we visited, as I never went to the Mystery Spot as a kid.
Always good to see Calico pictures.
JG
Frontier Village in San Jose, CA had what I recall as "Casa Loco". Don't remember if it was there when the park first opened, but it had a twisty non-level queue and a spiel about an old gardener who warned the builders of Frontier Village the shack stood on a patch of "loco" ground.
ReplyDeleteThe gag I remember was the guide picking a kid to stand at the end of a wooden flume to catch a bowling ball rolled down. The ball, of course, changed direction and rolled upwards.