Remembering The Black Path of Kalamazoo

Did you know there's an urban legend here in Kalamazoo about an area of land that has been accused of being haunted by multiple deaths? It's most likely far-fetched stories made up for creeping out kids in the neighborhood, but many adults remember Kalamazoo's Black Path.

The Black Path was located where the Apple Ridge Apartments now sit but the site was allegedly the spot where a dirt biker was said to have been decapitated in the 70s by a guide wire to a telephone pole. It also had a hill on the site at one point where kids would sled, and one is said to have lost control while sledding and was killed by a car.

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The Truth Behind The Theories

The truth is there's no documentation of things like that happening. Most of the memories shared of the area are happy, where many reminisce about riding bikes along the trail, exploring greenhouses, and one person even getting their first kiss on the Black Path:

I remember going up that hill when I was five or six years old (early 1950s). We were with a much older kid... eight years old or so. You could see a good portion of Kalamazoo from up there. Off in the distance, there was a white church building. The older kid told us that was the White House. For a couple of years, I thought I'd seen the White House from the end of Race St. I spent some time in the nearby park also, Peter Pan Park.

What do YOU believe?