The story of "the stairs in the woods" originates from a Reddit post by a U.S. Forest Service search and rescue officer in August 2015. The officer shared that, while their superiors had instructed them not to discuss it, the phenomenon had become so routine that it no longer seemed unusual. According to the story, in various remote areas where they were conducting searches, they would occasionally come across staircases—sometimes well-built, sometimes old and decrepit—standing alone in the forest with no apparent structure or building nearby. The staircases appeared mysteriously, and despite numerous investigations, their origins and purpose remained unknown.