Forget America's Most Wanted; how about hunting for America's Most Weird? 
Someone was once silly enough to tell me that America had its own Stonehenge – not a Disney replica, but a genuine, mysterious and ancient collection of rocks. Naturally, I had to go there when (after many years of waiting) I found myself and a willing travel companion in fairly-nearby Salem. It sounded just too intriguing to miss.
Photo by NikiSublime
We hired a rental car and headed off, expecting to enjoy exquisite New England scenery en route, but in fact passing through miles of dull residential areas. Perhaps we took the wrong road; we got lost several times. But at last we reached the foot of big, wooded Mystery Hill and America's Stonehenge. It was summer holiday-time and there were other visitors, mainly families, but not overly many. We set off full of anticipation, keen to know what this strange place was all about.
Although it's nothing like the real one, America’s Stonehenge is definitely peculiar and largely unexplained. It’s a sprawling area (30+acres) studded with ancient stone walls, stone chambers and various other structures. Rocks bear ancient and apparently Old-World scripts; there are charcoal pits dating from 2000BC and trees growing around boulders. And, like its British namesake, it has monoliths which line up with the astrological calendar’s solar and lunar events.
Photo by NikiSublime
This place is not sensational, but it certainly raises questions and no one has satisfactorily answered them. For example, did Irish monks live here centuries before Columbus set sail? We’ll probably never know. Meanwhile, you’ll find (if you have a good map!) America’s Stonehenge about an hour’s drive from Boston; less than that from Salem. 
On the same trip, but on the other side of the continent, we discovered a truly weird place called the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot. You might be able to explain the goings-on here, but I absolutely can’t. People’s heights seem to change, balls roll uphill, chairs stand on walls and you find yourself leaning on impossible angles without falling over. It’s a lot of fun and it really is baffling. The owners put it down to a “gravitational anomaly”; sceptics say it's an optical illusion. But, if it is an illusion, it’s blimmin’ ingenious. Even the trees grow in a peculiar fashion. The photo on the right shows a visitor in a typically askew Mystery Spot pose. And look, no hands! Weird or what? If you're intrigued, you might like to check the facts on roadsideamerica.com. Anyway, more of America's Most Weird one day soon. Meanwhile, I'm off to roll a ball uphill.
Photo by VladButsky