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Willravel · 03-15-2010, 07:48 PM

The only one in San Jose I'm aware of is "the Sidewalk". In the foothills near where highway 680 leaves town, there's an old retaining wall that can be walked on like a sidewalk. It winds through the hills and there's even a large bridge.

The story goes some time in the last 50 years a retaining wall was needed to prevent avalanches and to provide back-access to a hospital that had been built in the area. The building of the wall was plagued with strange accidents; sections that had been recently finished were found demolished, trucks were sabotaged, and the area dug out for the construction were mysteriously filled back in and made to look as if they'd never been dug. Despite these hindrances, the retaining wall, nicknamed "the Sidewalk", was completed.

Soon after, hospital staff routinely used the Sidewalk to take nature walks. The walkway went on for miles, weaving through the beautiful hills and even over a large crevasse. Things went smoothly at first, but reports started coming in of animal remains being left on the Sidewalk. The remains weren't just normal dead animals, but a combination of animal entrails and bones organized into patterns. Soon after a nurse fell off the wall into the crevasse. when the authorities found her body, it had a similar display of animal entrails on it. After several more accidents, the Sidewalk was deemed too dangerous and was off limits to hospital personnel.

Unfortunately, the accidents didn't end. A janitor disappeared while on duty, never found again. When a doctor went missing from inside the hospital, a manhunt was organized and hundreds of people poured into the hills. The search party found old huts and evidence of many years of bonfires. They never found any tracks near these areas, though, which they assumed meant they were abandoned so long ago the weather had simply removed the evidence. The doctor was eventually found, what was left of him, at the bottom of the crevasse where the first victim was found. His body had been meticulously taken apart and rearranged into the same pattern as the earlier animal remains. There was no evidence that he'd been put there, though, as the ground was undisturbed.

After the incident was published in the paper, an anthropologist contacted the police to inspect images of the body. After carefully reviewing the evidence, he cited stories from over 150 years ago of gold prospectors disappearing. He found an old newspaper image of a man's body that had been dismembered and laid out in a specifically organized configuration. He noted that the configuration was an ancient Native American symbol which indicated a supernatural warning.

The hospital was shut down and abandoned soon after, and records of the Sidewalk were destroyed. Any roads leading to the Sidewalk or the hospital were blocked off and over time deteriorated and became overgrown, basically disappearing.

I've heard this story a dozen times and each time it was different, but this seems to generally get the gist of what I think was the original story. After hearing it, some friends and I went looking for the Sidewalk to see if the legend was based on an actual place. We found it on the night of April 20th, 2002. I'll never forget what happened.

03-15-2010, 07:48 PM	#6 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	The only one in San Jose I'm aware of is "the Sidewalk". In the foothills near where highway 680 leaves town, there's an old retaining wall that can be walked on like a sidewalk. It winds through the hills and there's even a large bridge. The story goes some time in the last 50 years a retaining wall was needed to prevent avalanches and to provide back-access to a hospital that had been built in the area. The building of the wall was plagued with strange accidents; sections that had been recently finished were found demolished, trucks were sabotaged, and the area dug out for the construction were mysteriously filled back in and made to look as if they'd never been dug. Despite these hindrances, the retaining wall, nicknamed "the Sidewalk", was completed. Soon after, hospital staff routinely used the Sidewalk to take nature walks. The walkway went on for miles, weaving through the beautiful hills and even over a large crevasse. Things went smoothly at first, but reports started coming in of animal remains being left on the Sidewalk. The remains weren't just normal dead animals, but a combination of animal entrails and bones organized into patterns. Soon after a nurse fell off the wall into the crevasse. when the authorities found her body, it had a similar display of animal entrails on it. After several more accidents, the Sidewalk was deemed too dangerous and was off limits to hospital personnel. Unfortunately, the accidents didn't end. A janitor disappeared while on duty, never found again. When a doctor went missing from inside the hospital, a manhunt was organized and hundreds of people poured into the hills. The search party found old huts and evidence of many years of bonfires. They never found any tracks near these areas, though, which they assumed meant they were abandoned so long ago the weather had simply removed the evidence. The doctor was eventually found, what was left of him, at the bottom of the crevasse where the first victim was found. His body had been meticulously taken apart and rearranged into the same pattern as the earlier animal remains. There was no evidence that he'd been put there, though, as the ground was undisturbed. After the incident was published in the paper, an anthropologist contacted the police to inspect images of the body. After carefully reviewing the evidence, he cited stories from over 150 years ago of gold prospectors disappearing. He found an old newspaper image of a man's body that had been dismembered and laid out in a specifically organized configuration. He noted that the configuration was an ancient Native American symbol which indicated a supernatural warning. The hospital was shut down and abandoned soon after, and records of the Sidewalk were destroyed. Any roads leading to the Sidewalk or the hospital were blocked off and over time deteriorated and became overgrown, basically disappearing. I've heard this story a dozen times and each time it was different, but this seems to generally get the gist of what I think was the original story. After hearing it, some friends and I went looking for the Sidewalk to see if the legend was based on an actual place. We found it on the night of April 20th, 2002. I'll never forget what happened.