Friday, April 24, 2026
Contact    |    RSS icon Twitter icon Facebook icon  
Unexplained Mysteries Support Us
You are viewing: Home > News > Modern Mysteries > News story
Welcome Guest ( Login or Register )  
All ▾
Search Submit

Modern Mysteries

'Incredible' shrinking mill in Canada leaves visitors perplexed

By T.K. Randall
July 13, 2025 · Comment icon 6 comments
Eye
Image: AI-generated (Midjourney)
This striking optical illusion makes a well known industrial building in Ontario look at lot larger than it actually is.
Situated in Port Colborne, Ontario and dating back 100 years, the mill only started to gain attention relatively recently when people started noticing something distinctly odd about its size.

If you happen to be approaching the mill from one particular direction, from a distance it looks as though the mill is absolutely gigantic with its hulking shape dominating the horizon.

As you drive closer, however, the mill seems to get smaller and smaller, taking up less and less of the horizon until, upon reaching the water, it appears relatively small and far off in the distance.
This optical illusion is so striking that some visitors have taken to turning around and experiencing it a second time, just to make sure that they weren't imagining things.

In reality, the reason that the mill appears so large from further away is down to a trick of perspective with the trees and the angle of the road adding to the effect.

You can check it out for yourself in the video below.



Source: Oddity Central | Comments (6)




Other news and articles
Our latest videos Visit us on YouTube
Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by and-then 10 months ago
The object is at the "vanishing point", was my guess, and I got it right!  (It's true that even a blind squirrel finds an acorn occasionally)  "An object's apparent size diminishes as you approach it from the vanishing point due to the principles of linear perspective and how our eyes perceive depth. As an object moves further away, the angle it subtends on our retina (visual angle) decreases, causing it to appear smaller. This is because the object occupies a smaller portion of our field of vision."
Comment icon #2 Posted by and-then 10 months ago
Ouija, the "vanishing point" is where, when looking down a linear perspective, like a road while you are driving, the VP is where everything in your field of vision seems to come to a point on the horizon.  Usually it will appear like all of the trees or bodies of water seem to draw together to a single point. This mill at the end of a road became that point for those driving down that road, and as people got closer, they could see the actual size because the optical illusion wasn't effective any longer.
Comment icon #3 Posted by sanchez710 10 months ago
That's bizarre
Comment icon #4 Posted by esoteric_toad 10 months ago
This is the same thing as when people photograph the sunset they are nearly always disappointed with the picture versus what they see with their eyes (and how the brain interprets it. 
Comment icon #5 Posted by diablo_04 9 months ago
This is not even worth even an upload. Obviously the mill is not getting any smaller, in fact as they are driving closer the mill is slightly bigger and more clear/sharper to see on the vid.  The "illusion"  would be the straight road with the trees, creating like tunnel like exit. As you are getting to the end you see more of the surroundings which appears the mill to be shrinking. But honestly if any adult find this to be some weird anomaly should no have a driving license. 
Comment icon #6 Posted by Trelane 9 months ago
And the full moon. ?


Please Login or Register to post a comment.


Our new book is out now!
Book cover

The Unexplained Mysteries
Book of Weird News

 AVAILABLE NOW 

Take a walk on the weird side with this compilation of some of the weirdest stories ever to grace the pages of a newspaper.

Click here to learn more

We need your help!
Patreon logo

Support us on Patreon

 BONUS CONTENT 

For less than the cost of a cup of coffee, you can gain access to a wide range of exclusive perks including our popular 'Lost Ghost Stories' series.

Click here to learn more

Recent news and articles