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By accident I came up on a lone directional sign on the opposite side of town and from that point followed the series of signs until I came to Spook Hill Elementary School and just ahead I saw the hill. Once you get to this point you cannot miss the Spook Hill sign erected by the City that explains the history of the hill. The sign also explains how to experience Spook Hill by parking your car on the white line that’s painted on the street, shifting to neutral and letting her roll up the hill. I followed the instructions and within a second my car was gliding slowly up hill, or at least that’s what it seemed to be doing. On weekends there can be as many as fifteen to twenty cars at one time waiting to experience the crazy gravity. There are several folk stories about Spook Hill and how it was discovered. The most popular account has to do with a black gentleman who parked his automobile at the base of the hill to do a little fishing in a nearby lake. He had hardly reached the lake when he turned and saw his car rolling up the hill. Thus began a tale that circulated within the black community for years and eventually found its way into local white folklore. Other accounts say that the hill was a sacred spot used by early Native American for religious ceremonies. One story even claimed that there was a huge magnetic rock buried within the hill which is similar to another tale blaming the weird effects on a magnetic meteorite that hit the earth at this spot and is still buried inside the hill. History speaks about early pioneers noticing that their horses had to labor hard to go down Spook Hill but found it easy going up the hill. |
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Trick of the Land Is Something Wrong with the Hill? Weird Feeling Does Time Run Slower at Spook Hill? Excerpted from the book Weird Florida by Charlie Carlson. |