Backrooms photo was from a furniture store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin
It’s official. Farrell McGuire has found the actual location of the famous Backrooms photo. Technically he re-discovered it had been discovered in 2019, but nobody noticed.
For almost 20 years people have tried to figure out the location of this mysterious photo that spawned an entire genre of creepy pasta writings, videos, and games. It’s location has been investigated for years – but the location was elusive because there’s is almost no history of the photo online and so few clues. Image searches and examing for EXIF data came up blank.
McGuire did a lot of investigation into the image. He tried everything from low level digital file and image forensics to reverse image searches. He noted the photo appeared to be unedited copy straight from an old Sony Cybershot digital camera. The outlets on the walls appeared to place its origin in North America. The biggest addition is an observation about the strange walls – including some that don’t go all the way to the ceiling. He said it reminded him of older furniture store show floors. Searches, however, lead to too many dead ends and it was uncertain how to narrow things down more. There’s been a lot of furniture stores over the years.
Only a few weeks after his original video, a breakthrough was discovered. It turns out someone HAD found the original image. Way back May 29th, 2019 a Twitter user (@rkfg_me) posted that he found it. But nobody noticed.
The original image link is dead, but the Internet Wayback machine had a copy of the Hobbytown website. Here’s the original image: https://web.archive.org/web/20040702085556/https://hobbytownoshkosh.com/Dsc00161.jpg
And the domain name gives the location away. It’s location is the HobbyTown in Oshkosh Wisconsin (807 Oregon St, Oshkosh, WI 54902). It’s also connected to a shop called Fabulous Finds next door that shared some of the original space.
The picture was part of a series of pictures from when Hobbytown employees were renovating the building from it’s previous owner in 2004: Rohner’s Furniture store. The store was purchased by Hobbytown and the photo was from the empty upstairs showroom when they converted it into a RC racetrack. Conversations people have had with the shop owner seem to confirm the renovation and story.
Here’s the rest of the photos from that website:
Amazing.
Previous investigation video with many of the twists and turns he took while investigating the photo:
Other interesting links:
- Timeline of how the investigation went: https://www.reddit.com/r/backrooms/comments/1d3pkif/how_the_backrooms_were_actually_found_a_timeline/
- Additional photos from the renovation: https://www.reddit.com/r/backrooms/comments/1d4tnkv/origin_of_these/
- More photos: https://www.reddit.com/r/backrooms/comments/1d4rgqf/more_images_of_the_backrooms_in_real_life/
- Diagram of where the original shots were likely taken: https://www.reddit.com/r/backrooms/comments/1d52mt7/i_went_to_hobby_town_and_fabulous_finds_and_made/
- It turns out the building is for sale. Who’d like to buy it for $299,000 and re-create it? https://www.coldwellbankerhomes.com/wi/oshkosh/807-oregon-st/pid_54460028/
Video walkthrough of the current Hobbytown space so you don’t have to go visit.