(no subject)

[elizilla]

Just something I have long been curious about:

When I go to the NOAA weather forecast page for Ypsilanti, there's a section labeled "Detailed Point Forecast" that has a google map of the Ann Arbor / Ypsi area. The map has a spot that is labeled "Magic Mountain". What IS this? I've lived here for decades, and if I have a magic mountain in my backyard, it's news to me. But this has been on the weather forecast map, for ages.

Comments

[rikhei.livejournal.com]

Could it be "a curious knoll of unknown origin that provides a modestly steep but short run" (for sledding) in Burns Park? (Source: AnnArbor.com)

Now you've made me curious...why does Google have 12 marked as 'U.S. Route 12 in Idaho'?

[elizilla]

Burns Park is utterly flat. If there's a curious knoll there, the sled run is probably not much longer than the sled. :)

I don't see Idaho on the NOAA weather page. How did you find that?

[rikhei.livejournal.com]

My bad - it says 94 is US 12 in Idaho. Here's the linky.

[elizilla]

OK, that's crazy! I wonder if someone at google just likes to have fun with us?

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

I found the same thing Magic Mountain is a hill on the southern edge of Burns Park, near the tennis courts. It is used in the winter as a sledding hill. http://arborwiki.org/city/Magic_Mountain

Also:

BY MARY MORGAN
JANUARY 6, 2010 at 8:59 pm | PERMALINK
(Note: Chronicle reader Mae Sander emailed us this observation – and said that I could post it here):

Did you say you saw kids sledding at a “small hill” in Burns Park? Surely you mean the Magic Mountain – that’s the one by the tennis courts. Legend has it that in the early 1920s when the old race track was disestablished, the earthen rise in the middle of the race track was piled up, and the authorities said they would come back and haul it away. Never happened. Still have Magic Mountain. Still have an oval of trees around a flat middle, though the elms had to be replaced with other trees. I bet some of the kindergartners still think it’s really a mountain – and really magic.

One more story: my daughter went to Burns Park School and always called it “Magic Mountain.” Her husband is from Bavaria. He thought he was going to see a mountain (like the Alps). And was very amused the first time he visited and saw her former school.

From "The Ann Arbor Chronicle" http://annarborchronicle.com/2009/12/28/burns-park-6/