Walking through the cabin's rustic interior, the discombobulation intensifies, with visitors sometimes experiencing motion sickness as a result of an unusual shift in perspective. An article from the Santa Cruz Sentinel describing the opening of the Mystery Spot. Water poured on a board demonstrated to be on an incline runs in opposition to gravity. The effect is an illusion that they're standing almost diagonally.
The wooden structure leans sharply downhill, but visitors standing in front of it appear to be leaning uphill. Today, the Mystery Spot runs tours 365 days a year to the spot and through a cabin that helps demonstrate the quirks of the area. One of the 'Mystery Spot' bumper sticker cars that can sometimes be spotted parked in downtown Santa Cruz. Realizing he had an interesting piece of property on his hands, Prather dubbed the place the Mystery Spot and opened it as a roadside attraction in the early 1940s. Prather allegedly took a compass to the hillside, only to find that it pointed in the wrong direction. According to Prather, most of these effects were focused in an area approximately 150 feet in diameter. He reported feeling very dizzy while standing on the hillside, and he felt that the effort needed to hike it was much greater than he expected. While exploring his newly purchased parcel, Prather began to notice some odd things. According to the official lore, he only wished to purchase a flat area at the bottom of a hill, but was told the hill must be part of the deal. In 1939, a man named George Prather bought the land from a lumber company on which the "spot" sits. Lucky Santa Cruz visitors may even spot a "Mystery Spot car" parked somewhere downtown covered completely in stickers.