#15: Donald Wilson Carved a Gravity-Defying Mystery Into a Hillside — Opened: 1973
The Mystery Hole in West Virginia was created by Navy veteran and retired industrial worker Donald Wilson, not Donald Deem as sometimes claimed. Wilson converted a roadside structure near Hawks Nest into a playful attraction filled with tilted rooms and carefully arranged visual illusions. Inside, visitors encounter objects that appear to roll uphill, people who seem to stand at impossible angles, and demonstrations that challenge their sense of balance. The attraction does not actually reverse gravity, but its unusual geometry makes ordinary physical behavior appear inexplicable. Wilson opened the Mystery Hole in 1973 and operated it for more than two decades before it later changed ownership.
