The Backrooms started as a single unsettling photo with a caption, another weird, one-off internet horror creepypasta sensation like Slenderman, and has since become one of the most popular analog horror series on the internet. There’s even an A24 movie based on the Backrooms on the way. The original photo is considered one of the most famous and perplexing “lost images” in recent years, mystifying everyone who has tried to track down its origin.
But the location of the photo has just been discovered, and now we know…the Backrooms is in Wisconsin.
History of the Backrooms
Original Backrooms post shared in a 4chan paranormal thread in 2019
The Backrooms photo was originally posted by an anonymous user in a paranormal thread on 4chan on May 12, 2019 that asked users to “post disquieting images that just feel ‘off.'” The next day, another user added the now infamous caption to our liminal space nightmares:
“If you’re not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you’ll end up in the Backrooms, where it’s nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in. God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you.”
Within days, stories about the Backrooms began springing up in the creepypasta subreddit and elsewhere, expanding the lore to encompass hundreds of varying levels. The yellow wallpapered space seen in the original photo became Level 0. Other levels include miles of dark service tunnels, empty industrial spaces, and there’s even one that’s entirely water.
In 2022, then-16-year-old Kane Parsons (Kane Pixels) posted a found footage analog horror Backrooms video he had created to Youtube. It went insanely viral, garnering some 59 million views to date, and spawned a series of increasingly mysterious installments expanding on the lore.
In 2023, A24 announced they were making a feature film adaptation of the Backrooms to be directed by Kane.
Related: Mandela Catalogue – the scariest analog horror on Youtube, comes from Wisconsin
So Where Did the Backrooms Photo Come From?
The original Backrooms photo captured our collective nightmares, and naturally people tried to figure out where it came from. Many searched for years to discover the location where the photo was taken, to no avail. The photo, which had been floating around 4chan since at least 2011, was not the original. It was missing vital meta data that may have help determine things like where it was taken, what kind of camera was used, and potentially even GPS data. The image quality seemed on par with early 2000s digital cameras, but nothing could be determined for sure.
Was it a fake? Was it rendered in a 3D program like Kane did for his videos?
That was becoming the general consensus.
Well, it turns out the origin of the photo was discovered in 2019, but no one noticed.
A recent discovery of the filename sparked a new search, which led someone to this Twitter post with a link to the original photo.
On May 29, 2024, the source of the Backrooms photos was discovered.
A quick search of the Wayback Machine revealed the source of the Backrooms photo, along with the only other photo of the room that still seems to exist.
The photos come from the website of a HobbyTown store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, who were documenting the renovations of the second floor of the building into an r/c car race track in 2003.
The Backrooms, as we know it, was demolished more than 20 years ago to become Revolution Raceway.
The building that once housed the Backrooms is located at 807 Oregon Street in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Image hunter Semliot writes:
ON MARCH 2nd, 2003, THE BACKROOMS PHOTO WAS UPLOADED TO THE HOBBYTOWN OSHKOSH WEBSITE UNDER THE ORIGINAL FILENAME “Dsc00161.jpg” AS PART OF THEIR RENOVATIONS BLOG.
NOTE: I’ve decided to add a brief section following some confusion around the exact location: – There are two connected buildings that occupy this space: 807 and 811 Oregon St. – Rohner’s Furniture occupied both 807 and 811 (both buildings) for much of the 20th century until they closed down in 1994. – Hobbytown was moving to a new location and decided to buy the 807 address in 2002. During renovations they took many photos, including a picture of the second floor of the 807 address that became the backrooms photo. They uploaded this picture to their blog 7 months later in 2003. Their renovations were complete by 2004. – Fabulous Finds bought the 811 address in 2010. Hobbytown remains in the 807 address, and the backrooms room is now an rc car racetrack with an entirely different layout.
One Reddit user wrote, “The fact that this horrifying creepy pasta originated from something so wholesome and fun as a community coming together to renovate a building to support the local R/C program is so sweet! The perfect ending to our weird little search.”
Another said, “When i get rich i am gonna buy this place and turn it back to Backrooms.”
If you ever accidentally noclip into Oshkosh and check out the Backrooms, be sure to send us a photo and tell us how it went!
