And Nobody Knows Why?
Searchandrescuewoods went on to explain that one SAR officer had even seen staircases that were ?flipped upside down?. Other Redditors quickly chimed in with their own experiences. One Redditor, jeepdave stated that they were surprised that the stairs were actually so common, seeing their own experience as a weird, one-off occurrence that couldn?t really be explained. In his own post, jeepdave says:
I came across a set in rural West Virgina. I don?t think I was quite 40 miles deep but at least 10 or better. I thought maybe a house had once stood there but there was no cellar or other debris that would indicate a home was there before. Just a set of stairs with a base that went up maybe one flight ? 16 so steps if I remember right. And sturdy. Could barely shake ?em. I didn?t climb up though. Worried it might break or fall over and I was alone.
Another user, known as taylorannshazam says that they encountered their own set of stairs in Michigan, writing:
An hour east of Iron Wood there is a clearing in the forest that has stairs. I was hiking and exploring with my cousins and we stumbled on a clearing about half a football field long. Had a few staircases but not against trees, just standing in the open. They looked like stairs from a normal suburban home. Kind of old though. The older cousin decided to investigate. He walked to the stairs to see how they were being held up, couldn?t find anything which weirded him out. He made us all leave. Grass didn?t grow near the stairs either.
While most of the stories found in the Reddit thread are centered in the United States, there came reports from a few Reddit users of stairs found in forests across the globe. Take German Redditor TK622 for example. Adding the image we looked at earlier into their post, the Reddit user is one of the few people to actually snap an image of the isolated staircases, writing:
I saw some stairs in the woods a few years ago. Didn?t know what to think of them and took a picture. They were covered in moss, but had railing on one side.
While the stairs found in this Reddit user?s post aren?t quite as grandiose as some of the staircases imagined from other people?s stories, they still seem oddly out of place. Just looking at them gives you an eerie feeling that you can?t quite explain. Just imagine coming across a set of metal stairs in the middle of the woods- surrounded by trees, leading to nowhere. It?s enough to make you wonder why they?re there and, even more so, who put them there.
Norweigian Redditor, Holyshitspace, sums up how I feel about these odd, isolated stairs popping up in national forests around the globe. In their own story, they explain that they came across their own set of stairs in the woods and it led to nothing but eerie feelings that they couldn?t quite explain, saying:
I made an account just to post this comment. A few months back, while visiting gramps in Lillesand (southern Norway), we went hiking. Nothing big, just a walk and a picnic in some woods. With us were my niece and nephew, who are both quite young, so I joined them in Hide and Seek while the proper grown-ups had coffee and whatnot.
Me and my nephew were first to hide, but we split up, and I ran alone quite a ways into a thicket of woods. And I found a staircase. Nothing remarkable, riddled with moss, and made from what looked like really old concrete with large pebbles of rocks in it. It didn?t really seem out of place at the time, but thinking back? Anyway, I decided it was fit for a hiding place, but after only a few seconds of squatting behind it, I got up, and stepped back.
I couldn?t shake the feeling that I really shouldn?t be anywhere near it. I suddenly had this feeling of being severely unwelcome, and that I should get as far away from it as possible. So I ran to my family and didn?t look back at it. Thinking about it now it still gives me the same sort of? I don?t know, twisted, wrong feeling.
So What Are They?
As it turns out, there are several theories concerning what the isolated staircases are, why they?re there, and who put them there in the first place. One theory states that they are nothing more than the foundations left behind by long lost settlements. This theory argues that this would explain why more sturdy staircases could have survived two hundred years or more of weather while wood staircases couldn?t stand up to the rot and erosion of the years.
Others, however, have more sinister ideas for why the staircases are there. Some believe that they aren?t stairs at all but, rather, are a pulpit for a preacher holding some sort of dark-intended gathering. Others believe that they could be a gateway to another dimension entirely or maybe even to hell. It?s difficult to conceive of what these staircases are doing placed in national parks around the globe as those who have encountered them report feeling unnerved and otherwise unwelcome in their presence and have never attempted to climb them.
It should be noted that, as compelling as these stories of staircases in the woods are, they should probably be taken with a grain of salt. After all, the stories were posted on Reddit?s /r/nosleep forum known as a place where people can post fictional stories although there are a handful of submissions where posters relay their own odd experiences. It is, after all, telling that there are so few pictures of these staircases in the woods and only first-hand accounts of encountering them. Many people have insisted that these stories of creepy staircases leading to nowhere found in national forests are all the work of creepy fiction.
Regardless, these tales make for very compelling stories. There is something that has always been disconcerting about ghost towns and abandoned buildings and structures and these tales of staircases speak to that part of the human experience that makes us feel unnerved in the presence of such structures.
What are your opinions about the staircases to nowhere reported to have been encountered in national forests around the world? Are they simply creepypastas or is there something more to it? I?d love to hear your take on this compelling subject matter!