Nick Nelson tried to make maps of the area within the Oregon Vortex

An excerpt from the Vortex Field Guide:

"As part of the research for his book, Nick Nelson tried to make maps of the area within the Oregon Vortex, but found his efforts to be scrupulously accurate thwarted by the dynamics of the field. He would carefully measure every building and other features like the demo platforms, make drawings of them based on compass readings, and then go home to turn the sketches into a carefully drawn map. The next day with the new map in hand he would check it for accuracy. No matter how careful his measurements and compass readings he never got any of the maps to match the next day’s reality check."

“I would stand in a certain spot, for instance lining up the side of a building with a fence post, and then the fence post with a tree trunk. If all three were in perfect visual alignment I’d take a compass reading, and then mark the spot where my feet were. The next day when standing on the exact same spot and peering down the outer wall of the building the fence post might be out of alignment by a couple of degrees of arc, and worse, the tree truck off this line that used to be straight would be off by an even greater angle. I never really got used to this sort of thing. Always, a violent shiver invariably ran up my spine. The scenery is not supposed to move!”

"Compasses when used inside the vortex to sight objects outside of it work properly, however the compass when used to sight objects inside the vortex are unreliable. A magnetic compass needle may point directly at an object, but in an hour or so will point to one side of that object by a few degrees. This effect is a larger aspect of the dynamics of the area as opposed to a direct malfunction of the compass."

"Close attention shows that a compass inside these areas always points without variance to the same landscape feature outside the line of demarcation. It only diverges from its last reading when used to line up items inside the vortex."

"These two photos were taken at a location in Portland, OR. The camera was hand held, and the photographer tended to focus on the subject rather than holding the camera focused between the two poles, but this small problem cannot explain the extreme distortions between the first photo and the second pole. 

Note; not only did the human being and the poles change heights measurable INSIDE THE PHOTOGRAPH, but the background (principally the school bus) has shifted position from one picture to the other as the subject moved across the line of Demarcation between the poles from left to right. The camera was the same distance from the subject in both shots."

"The only conclusion left is that ...the scenery really does move! That, of course, leaves a few rather thorny questions hanging: What does this say about the nature of the scenery? If the scenery moves, therefore being influenced by what appears to be a very subtle force, what is it made out of? If trees and fence posts can be easily pushed around the yard inside the vortex, what about those same kind of items outside a vortex? What are we made out of?"