Magnetic Hill: The Real Deal or is it Just Pulling Your Leg?
MONCTON, NEW BRUNSWICK
Magnetic Hill Park 50 Magic Mountain Blvd.
Moncton, New Brunswick
(506) 858-8841
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To this day the mere mention of Magnetic Hill is enough to spark a firestorm of debate between my parents. A little more than a dozen years ago, our family vacation took us through the city of Moncton and the now infamous Magnetic Hill, where cars roll uphill without the help of an engine.
Upon arrival, my dad, as directed by a park employee, drove our dark brown Honda Accord to the bottom of a steep paved road, turned off the engine and placed it in neutral. Miraculously, the car began rolling back uphill. My two sisters and I were amazed. The hill grew steeper and steeper as we backed up without the help of the car’s engine.
Following the laws of gravity, this shouldn’t be possible. And it isn’t, explained my dad. His rationale is that the car wasn’t really rolling uphill, simply it appears that way. A very quick rebuttal came from my mother’s side of the front seat. It wasn’t an optical illusion she argued. Some force of nature, or exceptionally strong magnetic field dragged the car up the hill.
Cars don’t run uphill backwards on their own, giving validity to both sides. But that 20 second car ride, at a time when Michael Jackson was still making music, animates two well-educated people today.
Talk about polar opposites. But the hill has been a source of frustration for more than a century.
A number of visiting cars often find their way into the ditch every year.
Farmers first realized something odd about the area when their carts, along with their horses, were moving uphill instead of resting at the bottom. In 1933, a provincial newspaper printed an article about Moncton’s Magnetic Hill and the rest is, as they say, history.
The City of Moncton now owns the Magnetic Hill Theme park, which houses Magic Mountain,
Atlantic Canada’s largest water theme park and the Magnetic Hill Zoo, among Canada’s best.
As well as Wharf Village Shoppes and Restaurants; combined, the attractions entertain and educate thousands of visitors every year.
Interestingly enough, a similar attraction, also named Magnetic Hill, exists in Peterborough, Southern Australia and was discovered around the same time.
You can recognize Moncton’s Magnetic Hill by the giant - you guessed it - magnet at the site’s entrance off Mountain Road. Getting there is a snap. Take exit 450 from the Trans Canada Highway (route 2) and head north.
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Exactly what makes Canada the world’s second-largest country in the world has more to do with its people than the
8,000 kilometers (500 miles) of red and white-blooded land separating the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
They are equally as appreciative of the thousands of manmade and natural attractions that draw millions of
visitors each year and will stop on a dime to tell you about the best poutine joint in Quebec, lobster restaurant
in Nova Scotia or sushi bar in Vancouver.