Smack in the Middle!

Connie, my GPS lady chose a route home right through the middle of the USA!  Only one mile off the main highway was a spot designated the geographic center of the USA.  One mile?  I can handle that if only to say I was there.  I listened to the chorus of "recalculating" several times, parked, shutoff the engine and reached for the camera gear.  There is a nice plaque and monument marking the spot as well as a picnic table, a small chapel (maybe to pray that you can find your way back to the main highway?) and some trees planted to offer a backdrop and windbreak.  Most interesting to me was the road leading to the center.  it appears that the center of the USA has a strong gravitational pull and has folded the road drastically.  The 400mm lens helps heighten the effect of the folds.

After being there the required number of seconds to record it and offer my appreciation of the daunting task of locating this exact spot, I was off for home, but really curious about how anyone determined this exact spot.  I short search online yielded the fact that it was extremely scientific.  A large cardboard cut-out of the USA was moved around on a point until it balanced.  The point was somewhere in this general area.  From the wispy, blurry beginnings this EXACT spot was located and saved for those travelers such as myself whose own Connie directs them to the middle of no-where; or is it the extreme gravity of the location that draws people here in huge numbers?