Mystery Hill to host carnival

Roadside attractions have had a place in the hearts of many who yearned to visit the themed features that dotted U.S. highways during their youth. In the Irish Hills, places like Mystery Hill beckoned to their sense of adventure and fun.

Around 1916 the country began construction of 150,000 miles of asphalt roads, which resulted in attractions that enhanced family road trips for decades. While some of them fell by the wayside when superhighways began to cross the country in the 1950s, many remained. Local attractions kept operating, but eventually Frontier City closed, the dinosaurs of Prehistoric Forest were sold off, and Stagecoach Stop went on hiatus from its former bustling pace.

Mystery Hill, that puzzling, mind-bending spot at 7611 U.S. 12, Onsted, across from the entrance to Hayes State Park, is still welcoming visitors. Nathan Wakefield, the new owner since May, is enthusiastically planning his first season. The roadside attraction will host a free, family-friendly carnival from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, July 18.

Along with the carnival, visitors will be able to take tours to witness mind-boggling illusions such as water running uphill, a ball that refuses to roll downhill, and a pendulum that only swings to the south. Other activities include visiting Ward Hall’s Strange Oddities Museum, gemstone mining, a bounce house, live sideshow performers, a food truck, vendors and more. Tours and some activities are available for a fee, and a gift shop on site offers fun shopping.  

Wakefield grew up in West Michigan and moved to Adrian when he was 10. His fond memories of Mystery Hill visits as a child never left him. Now a resident of Ypsilanti, he is an entertainer who performs juggling and other sideshow and circus-type acts.

“I’ve always been into kind of that quirky style of entertainment and roadside attractions,” he said. He toured the grounds last fall and found that the owner had made some renovations. “And then as I was leaving, I was like, man, how cool is that? It’d be awesome to own something like that,” Wakefield said. This spring when he heard it was for sale, he got in touch.

“He was looking to sell it to somebody that kind of had that same passion about roadside attractions, because he turned down a few offers for people that wanted to basically just use the property and get rid of the attraction,” he said.

Wakefield is committed to maintaining the historic roadside attraction as it is and plans to add more to the site. He will expand the gift shop with books, especially “weird history”; a juggling section; branded merchandise; and souvenirs.

Future plans include more pop-up events, and he hopes to add a new attraction in the next three years, creating a mini-amusement park.

Mystery Hill is open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, Memorial Day through Labor Day. Wakefield hopes to expand into the fall to hold a Halloween haunted attraction in October.

For updates and more information on the carnival and Mystery Hill, including fees for various activities, go to visitmysteryhill.com or Mystery Hill Michigan on Facebook.