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The Mystery Shack, briefly named Murder Hut, is a house and tourist trap located in Gravity Falls, Oregon. It was formerly owned by Ford Pines, who initially built it as his main base of research and residence. After his disappearance, his twin brother Stan Pines took over the house and transformed it into a tourist trap. It is the main residence for Dipper and Mabel throughout the series, and after the summer, Soos Ramirez took over the Shack when the Stan brothers set off for their voyage. The Shack's full address is 618 Gopher Road, Gravity Falls, Oregon.[1][2] Occupying at least 3 square miles (7.77 sq km),[3] it has two upper stories and three basement levels.

History[]

The shack was originally the home of Ford Pines, during his studies of Gravity Falls. The estate was bought from "Northwest Realty", and the shack was built by a young Manly Dan. Through Ford's investigation of the Great Flood of 1863, he learnt that the land the Shack was built on was a mass grave of victims from the Flood.[4] After his disappearance, his brother, Stan Pines, began to inhabit the shack in order to rescue his brother. As a business, the Mystery Shack, originally "The Murder Hut",[5] was first created by Stan Pines, in an attempt to raise money to pay his brother's rent. He started the business by faking his identity, pretending to be his brother, Ford. Tourists decided to visit the shack to what was inside the mysterious man's home. His first tour was successful and fulfilled Stan's goal of raising money for the rent.

S1e3 wax figures 3

The old wax museum.

Stan has lived in the Mystery Shack for decades, and at some point, he added a museum to it after people showed their interest in knowing what was inside. For some time, one of the most lucrative exhibits was the Wax Museum of Mystery, though Stan closed it after tourists stopped coming to see all of it. There was also a costume store near the site fifteen years ago.[6] Stan runs and resides at the Shack, and Dipper and Mabel Pines spent their first summer away from home there as of 2012.[7] The Pines, Wendy Corduroy, and Soos Ramirez make up the staff.

S2e12 stans plan

Mystery Shack grand opening as the "Murder Hut" before it was renamed.

In "Dreamscaperers," Gideon Gleeful has his father partially demolish the Shack with a wrecking ball after he successfully steals the deed to the building. Gideon had made plans to build an amusement park called "Gideon Land" over the property in "Gideon Rises." The Shack was quickly rebuilt soon after Gideon was arrested.

In "Scary-oke," the shack was wrecked again by a zombie attack but it was fixed soon after. Stan claimed it was a "big woodpecker" when a construction worker asked.

In "Not What He Seems," the Shack suffers extensive damage due to the gravity anomalies caused by the Universe portal.

By the events of "Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons," the Shack has been temporarily closed for repairs. Later in the episode, a wall is destroyed by Probabilitor's "math ray" which pushes back construction even more.

During the events of "The Last Mabelcorn," the Mystery Shack is shown to have been fully repaired. Ford is shown to possess the Mystery Shack's architectural plans. Dipper and Ford managed to create an invisible Bill-proof shield around it to prevent anyone within the Mystery Shack from being manipulated by Bill Cipher.

In "Roadside Attraction," when the Pines family, Grenda and Candy return to the Shack, they witness it being vandalized by the victims of Stan's pranks. Despite those pranks being out of revenge.

In "Weirdmageddon 2: Escape From Reality," it is revealed that Stan, as well as a number of people and creatures, have taken refuge within the Shack due to its protection from Bill.

In "Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back The Falls," the survivors inside the Shack use one of McGucket's plans to turn it into a mech to rescue Ford.

In "Weirdmageddon 4: Somewhere In The Woods," at Dipper and Mabel's birthday party, Stan reveals that he and Ford are going to go sailing around the world and planned to shut the Mystery Shack down permanently, a decision which greatly upset Soos. After Soos' sentimental words, Stan decided to name Soos the new owner. The S that fell also got fixed, and (possibly) never fell after Soos became the owner.

Residents[]

Architecture[]

S1e9 porch

The Mystery Shack from the other side.

General layout[]

The Shack is intended to be an "ever changing, inconsistent, labyrinthine location." It does have a loose layout that was developed while the show went on, but ultimately, it's meant to feel "mysterious and magical."[8]

Exterior[]

The Mystery Shack has no less than four exits. The main entrance, the porch entrance, a small door which leads directly to the floor room, and the gift shop door. There's also a cellar door under the gift shop window. One side of the sloping roof has the Mystery Shack name (The "S" in "Shack" having been knocked off by Wax Sherlock Holmes during his fight with Dipper in "Headhunters"), and the other has a small platform with a cooler that Wendy often hangs out on. The roof with the "GIFT" sign also has a weather vane that has the letters W, H, A, and T, along with a question mark, instead of the usual W, S, N, and E (respectively, assuming the 'W' stands for West).

During the Weirdmageddon parts 1, 2, and 3, the W, H, A, and T in the opening theme are replaced with a B, I, L, and another L, to signify Bill Cipher's reign over Gravity Falls.

Interior[]

There are at least three floors that we know of.

First Floor[]

The first floor has two levels, one where most of the rooms are located and a slightly lower level for the floor room.

  • Museum - The main exhibition is located here, showcasing oddities including the Sascrotch, the pterosaur, and jackalopes.
  • Gift shop - Mystery Shack merchandise is found here. It is normally where Wendy works behind the counter. This room has five exits. One is the main exit of the shop. The second is a curtained doorway to the museum. A third door leads to the living room ("Employees Only"). The fourth is a ladder that goes up to the roof. And the last is a mysterious entrance behind the vending machine which Stan entered during "Tourist Trapped" and "Gideon Rises".
  • Living room - This is where the Pines often watch TV. Some features include: a table; a large yellow chair; a glass light over the chair, and behind it a bag full of money; and a dinosaur skull. There are two exits that we know of. One leads to the gift shop, and the second is a doorway to the staircase entryway. Stan also mentions a trapdoor while pawing at the stone wall when trying to escape who he at first believed to be a tax collector.[9]
  • Stan's office - Where Stan keeps a "Miser and Son" safe and the Mystery Shack deed, and the Cloning copy machine. The office is located next to the living room, as revealed in "Dreamscaperers," when Gideon blew up the safe which blew out a hole in the wall between these two rooms.
  • Staircase entryway - It is a relatively small entryway which features a stuffed "dodo" perched on a table and a ball hanging in a net from the ceiling. This room has four exits besides the staircase that leads upstairs. First is the exit to the back porch. The second is a door that leads to a hallway past the stairs. The third is the doorway to the living room. And the fourth is a doorway to the kitchen directly in front of the stairs.
  • Kitchen - It features the kitchen table; a wide window; a refrigerator with a stuffed wolf head sitting on it; a very old fashioned stove whose smoke pipe can be seen going through the roof from the outside; and a dead or stuffed possum. There is one exit that leads to the staircase entryway.
  • Hallway - The hallway connects the floor room to the staircase entryway. There's also another door that leads to the bathroom, and another that leads to the storage room.
  • Bathroom - The bathroom has a small window; a bathtub; toilet; sink; cabinet; and a single light bulb. The tub is propped up by a stack of bricks on one side to keep level.
  • Break room - It is just a door that opens to a system of pipes that Soos was using as a "break room." Dipper donates his newly found secret hidden room to Soos after realizing he'd rather keep sharing a room with Mabel.[10]
  • Storage room - Originally wallpapered over after Stan put the wax figures in it. There's a window where Wax Abraham Lincoln stood under and then melted under the sunlight.
  • Parlor - It has a window and a fireplace. It is the location of Wax Stan's memorial, and where he was made by Mabel.[11]
  • Floor room - Mostly multipurpose, it's been converted to a dance floor[12] and a hall of mirrors.[9] There is also a bell rope that goes through the ceiling into the attic. This room has, at least, two exits, one small door leading directly outside and another above a short set of stairs that leads to the hallway. There is another door, but where or what it leads to is unknown.
  • Ford's room - Ford Pines' old room whose entrance was found by Soos behind a large shelf.[10] This is where the Electron Carpet was originally discovered by Dipper and Mabel. The calendar there implies the last time anyone entered was July 4, 1982. Interestingly, old glasses are found on a cupboard in the room. The room also has an attached bathroom and a single stained glass window. There is also a portrait of a woman hanging on one of the walls, couches, a large tri-fold mirror, a closed off fireplace, a catalog cabinet, an old trophy, and several clocks. The door to the room itself is also intricately designed in the European style. It also has a sloping ceiling.

Second Floor[]

  • Attic floor - A spacious room where the staircase leads. It has a large stained-glass window, designed with the commonly seen Eye of Providence, and a plush red window seat. The window overlooks the back porch.
  • Mabel and Dipper's bedroom - It features a triangular window that faces the same direction as the main entrance, multiple old arcade games, the bell rope that comes through the floor from the floor room, an alcove that has a fortune telling machine, as well as a coffin used as a TV table, and a small area with a second window (stained glass). There are two closets, one next to the exit (which didn't appear until "Little Dipper") and one in the alcove, where the Dipper clones shut in "Dipper Classic."
  • Stan's bedroom[10]Location of his room is stated as the attic. - This is where Stan sleeps. It features a painting of dogs playing poker over his bed. Also, by the bed is an end table where Stan keeps his dentures before he goes to sleep.

Underground[]

  • Underground laboratory - It is accessed via a passageway behind the vending machine in the gift shop. It contains a number of electronic devices and computers, as well as a desk with several books that Stan keeps a copy of Journal 1 in between. Beyond the desk is a large room containing the Universe portal, which is activated by using all three journals. There is a symbol on the console to run the portal from which Stan got his burn scar.
  • Ford's private study - On the floor above the laboratory and accessed by the elevator. Ford keeps his "most secret knowledge" here. It has many covered paintings and sculptures of Bill Cipher from the time they were partners. It was seen briefly in "A Tale of Two Stans" and apparently is the room where he created the journals. At one end is a large computer and Project Mentem.
  • Elevator - The elevator is the only way to reach laboratory and Ford's private study. It has 3 floors that it stops at. The first floor is the floor that includes doorway behind the vending machine and the entire shack. The second floor includes Ford's private study. The third floor consists only of the underground laboratory.
  • Secret stairs - The secret stairs is the hallway behind the vending machine. If you go down the stairs, you are at the elevator. There are 2 exits; the vending machine into the gift shop, or the elevator to Ford's private study, and the underground laboratory.

Unknown locations[]

  • Boiler room - It features a mattress, television, game system, bookshelf, dartboard, basketball hoop over a trashcan, and the Tumbleweed Terror pinball machine. It was shown in Soos's story in the episode "Bottomless Pit!"

Exhibits and merchandise[]

Main article: List of items in the Mystery Shack

Rivals[]

Sightings[]

Season 1

Shorts

Season 2

Games

Trivia[]

  • The Mystery Shack was inspired by a combination of tourist traps and the attic of a "big old victorian-style house" next to Alex Hirsch's school that was used for an after-school program for kids who had to wait for their parents to pick them up. He and Ariel had to spend a lot of time there as kids.[13]
  • Since "Headhunters," the "S" in "Shack" hangs off, spelling "Mystery Hack," which is a joke referring to the fact that every exhibition at the Shack is a hoax.
  • Soos is the "Employee of the Month" as shown in "Double Dipper." But as shown in "A Tale of Two Stans," Stan is the "Employee of the Month" in the past due to him working alone in his flashback, but now Soos is the "Employee of the Year."
  • The Mystery Shack's address is 618, a reference to June 18, the birthday of Alex Hirsch and Ariel Hirsch.
  • The television's brand is "Worrel," named after production artist Ian Worrel.
  • One of the tiles on the wall of the living room opens a trapdoor if you push it.[9]
  • Stan hides his arrest warrants under the carpet in the gift shop.[2]
  • According to the Mystery Shack Mystery game on the official site, Mabel's bed smells like peach lip gloss and graham crackers.
  • A real life counterpart of the decorative stained glass lamp that hangs behind the living room couch hangs in Alex Hirsch's office.[14]
  • Stan traded beads and jackalope pelts to get the totem pole in front of the shack.[15]
  • The letter "H" appears in various locations throughout the Mystery Shack. The "H" is for Hirsch.[16]
  • While called a shack, the Mystery Shack more closely fits the definition of a cabin.
  • There is a mysterious handprint on the side of the wall in the stairway leading to the basement.
  • As revealed in "A Tale of Two Stans," the Mystery Shack was originally named the Murder Hut.
  • There are tablets with runic letters inscribed on them. The runic tablets (see list of items in the Mystery Shack) includes the runes (top to bottom, left to right): unknown, odal, madr, (variation of) Sigrune, and logr.
    • All of these runes, except for the one that is a backwards N (a variation of Sigrune) are all from Elder Futhark.
    • Unknown Rune: The name is not known anymore, but the symbol likely means giant or titan.
    • Madr: The symbol means man.
    • Unnamed variation of Sigrune: This symbol is the victory rune. It is the only rune on the tablet to not originate from Elder Futhark.
    • Odal: This symbol means real estate or non-movable property. It is the last symbol in the futhark.
    • Logr: This symbol is probably the rune "logr", but is no longer known to be fully true. This rune either means onion, or water, stream or sea.[17]
  • With the exception of "Irrational Treasure" and "Tooth," the Mystery Shack has been physically in every single episode and cartoon short for the show.
  • The letters of the question mark weather vane often spell "WHAT" for the spectator, with W and H at the left side, and A and T at the right side. For this to be possible, the letters H and A switch positions, depending on whether the shot shows the vane from above or below.
Amphibia Curiosity hut

The Curiosity Hut.

  • The Curiosity Hut, a location from Gravity Falls' storyboard artist Matt Braly's Disney Channel show Amphibia, is a direct homage to the Mystery Shack, hinted by Braly and Hirsch to be a Mystery Shack from another dimension.

Continuity errors[]

S1e16 stan chanting fight

Common stairway error.

  • In the last scene of the first episode, Stan goes through the main entrance to get directly into the Gift Shop.
  • Although there's a chimney stack going through Dipper's side of the attic, logically there's no chimney on the right side of the roof, near the front of the Mystery Shack. However, there is a chimney leading from the kitchen, possibly attached to the wood burning stove.
  • Nearly every episode has the same error concerning the staircase entryway, in that several reoccurring backgrounds have the stairs flat against the wall without any space for the door that's past it.
  • The back door has been seen with hinges on both the right and left sides.
  • In when Soos runs out the back door in "Dipper Vs. Manliness", the door is depicted as a swinging door, as a pose to other episodes like "Dreamscaperers" and "Northwest Mansion Mystery" where the door is shown to close from the inside.
  • In "Double Dipper," the layout of the dance floor room is inconsistent with the rest of the Mystery Shack. Based on how the ticket table is by the door on the backside of the Shack, the small stairway leading to the hallway should be on the opposite side of the dance floor. But from its shown position, it technically would lead to the museum.
  • The stairs are supposed to face the kitchen's entryway, but in every shot from the inside of the kitchen, the stairs are facing sideways. This was finally changed in "Boyz Crazy."
  • In "Sock Opera," Bipper and Dipper's ghost are in the attic with their back to the window that faces the back porch and the staircase to their left. When Dipper flies through the floor, the living room couch is behind him, when it should be to his left, with the back door behind him.
Postcard creator gift shop to living room

No direct exit from the museum to the gift shop.

S1e1 wendy reading magazine at counter

The curtained entrance leads towards the back of the Mystery Shack.

  • Though the appearance of the Mystery Shack Gift Shop remains the same throughout the series, the placement of the curtained doorway to the museum doesn't make any sense, as it leads to the opposite side of the Mystery Shack, meaning that there would be no direct route to get to the museum to the gift shop without walking through the private areas of the shack or coming in the gift shop's main door. A more logical location for it would be inbetween the door to the living room and the vending machine.

Gallery

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References[]

  1. Tumblr Post ID 28843074282 (MP3).
  2. 2.0 2.1 "Dreamscaperers." Matt Chapman, Tim McKeon, Alex Hirsch (writers) & John Aoshima, Joe Pitt (directors). Gravity Falls. Disney Channel. July 12, 2013. No. 19, season 1.
  3. "Gideon Rises." Matt Chapman, Michael Rianda, Alex Hirsch (writers) & John Aoshima, Joe Pitt (directors). Gravity Falls. Disney Channel. August 2, 2013. No. 20, season 1.
  4. Journal 3
  5. "A Tale of Two Stans." Matt Chapman, Josh Weinstein, Alex Hirsch (writers) & Sunil Hall (director). Gravity Falls. Disney XD. July 13, 2015. No. 12, season 2.
  6. "The Time Traveler's Pig." Aury Wallington, Alex Hirsch (writers) & Joe Pitt, Aaron Springer (directors). Gravity Falls. Disney Channel. August 24, 2012. No. 9, season 1.
  7. "Tourist Trapped." Alex Hirsch (writer) & John Aoshima (director). Gravity Falls. Disney Channel. June 15, 2012. No. 1, season 1.
  8. I'm Matt Braly, Storyboard Artist and Director on Gravity Falls. Ask me anything!. Reddit (Jun 20, 2015). Retrieved on August 23, 2016. “It was decided even before I arrived on the show that the shack should feel like an ever changing, inconsistent, labyrinthine location with scores of hidden rooms, nooks, and crannies. We do have a loose layout in mind (that was fleshed out as the show went on) but ultimately want the Shack to feel mysterious and magical.”
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Little Dipper." Tim McKeon (writer) & Joe Pitt, Aaron Springer (directors). Gravity Falls. Disney Channel. September 28, 2012. No. 11, season 1.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Carpet Diem." Tim McKeon, Zach Paez, Alex Hirsch (writers) & Joe Pitt (director). Gravity Falls. Disney Channel. April 5, 2013. No. 16, season 1.
  11. "Headhunters." Aury Wallington, Alex Hirsch (writers) & John Aoshima (director). Gravity Falls. Disney Channel. June 30, 2012. No. 3, season 1.
  12. "Double Dipper." Tim McKeon, Michael Rianda, Alex Hirsch (writers) & Joe Pitt, Aaron Springer (directors). Gravity Falls. Disney Channel. August 10, 2012. No. 7, season 1.
  13. BIG FEST 2016: ALEX HIRSCH Q&A | БОЛЬШОЙ ФЕСТИВАЛЬ 2016: АЛЕКС ХИРШ ОТВЕЧАЕТ НА ВОПРОСЫ ИЗ ЗАЛА. YouTube. NZNBRG (April 19, 2016).
  14. ON SET EPISODE 16: PHINEAS & FERB AND GRAVITY FALLS PT. 3 (May 10, 2013).
  15. PinesQuest
  16. Disney Channel Facebook Post (December 12, 2012). “Did you know... that the letter “H” appears in various locations throughout the Mystery Shack on Gravity Falls? The “H” is for Hirsch, the show creator’s last name! Where have you spotted them?”
  17. Liungman, Carl G.. Dictionary of Symbols (PDF). Retrieved on April 12, 2015.

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V - E - H - D Places in and around Gravity Falls, Oregon
Private property 412 Gopher Road | Abuelita's house | Bunker | Claymore Manor | Corduroy cabin | Gleeful residence | Gleeful's Auto Sale | Mystery Shack | Northwest Manor | Northwest Mud Flaps | Petting Zoo | Underground laboratory | Tent of Telepathy | Valentino Funeral Home | Wax Museum of Mystery | Wentworth residence
Municipal property Circle Park | Gravity Falls Cemetery | Gravity Falls Church | Gravity Falls Civic Center and Buffet | Gravity Falls High School | Gravity Falls Junkyard | Gravity Falls Library | Gravity Falls Maximum Security Prison | Gravity Falls Swap Meet | Gravity Falls Museum of History | Gravity Falls Pool | Gravity Falls Water Tower | Gravity Malls | Lake Gravity Falls | Lookout Point | Main Street | Scuttlebutt Island | Town Hall | Town square | Trembley's Cove
Natural Abandoned mines | Enchanted Forest | Gnome forest | Gravity Falls Forest | Hand Witch Mountain | Man Cave | Multi-Bear's cave | Pain Hole
Supernatural Bottomless pit | Crash Site Omega | Fearamid | Ford's mindscape | Infinetentiary | MAB-3L | Mindscape | Nightmare Realm | Prison Bubble | Stan's mindscape | The Crawlspace
Local business Aquatic restaurant | Arcade | Barrels & Crates, Incorporated | BeeblyBoop's Videogames | Big Gunz Laser Tag | Bowling alley | The Club | Dusk 2 Dawn | Heart-A-Tap Dance Studio | Hermanos Brothers | Hoo-Ha Owl's Pizzamatronic Jamboree | Gravity Falls Gossiper | Greasy's Diner | Mattress Prince's mattress store | Meat Cute | Mr. Zzz's Mattresses | The Royal Ragtime Theatre | Shop Thrifty | Skull Fracture | Smokey Joe's All You Can Eat | Summerween Superstore | Theatre Time Theater | Tons grocery store | Ye Royal Discount Putt Hutt | Yumberjacks
Non-local Backupsmore University | Bijou Theater | Eggbert Elementary | Glass Shard Beach | Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey | Government base | Mystery Mountain | Pines Pawns | The Juke Joint | Upside Down Town | West Coast Tech
Misc. Abandoned church | Future city | Globnar stadium | Headquarters of the Blind Eye Society
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