‘A desire path is a product of whimsy. Of a great deal of whimsy, really. A desire path forms when the whims of travelers align over time, usually forming a short cut or indicating the way to some interesting but unofficial site that may, otherwise, go unnoticed. A desire path is sustained by curiosity and by something petty, too. Something like envy. Dedicated travelers, those with a completionist streak, will see the rogue paths formed by those who came before them and will feel an obligation to follow, to see what’s worth seeing in defiance of the traditionally implemented trail. Suffice to say, desire flows from many sources.
‘The Desire Path’ in Alabama is not formed by whimsy, but rather by the last attempt of sane minds to remain alive. ‘The Desire Path’ runs through a grassy, square-mile field previously known as ‘Daredevil Park’ for the simple fact that there is also a single landmine buried somewhere within the borders and, through legal trickery and a complex customer waiver, the park managers are able to charge a small fee for entry and call it an art piece. The official literature bills it as something of a religious experience. ‘The Desire Path’ exists on a beautiful campus but the threat of death or maiming is ever present. That’s a metaphor for something, right? Brochures suggest as much but come to no real conclusions.
Interest in ‘The Desire Path’ has been renewed as of late, following an incident involving a moderately popular streamer who attempted to step on every square foot within the park to ‘prove that this place is full of shit.’ He found the landmine in the northwest corner after only six minutes of streaming and was killed. ‘The Desire Path’ re-opened four days later with a short statement that largely ignored the death, saying only that the crater had been sanitized, the well-traversed dirt path had been re-seeded, and a second landmine had been installed in a new location. In essence, ‘The Desire Path’ had doubled down.
Visitors returned in very hesitant numbers once the controversy passed but, now, after many years, a reasonably stable version of ‘The Desire Path’ has re-formed, skewing superstitiously to the south. It’s widened every year by those who test its borders, believing, superstitiously, that it’s somehow safer than walking blindly through the untread grass that surrounds it.
Of note, a determined tendril has sprouted from the central path, thin enough to allow pedestrians in a single file. It is a desire path in the traditional sense and it terminates at the location of the previous explosion, where the streamer’s mother fills the crater with flowers. Others have begun to do the same and so a new, tenuous tradition has formed, offering visitors a chance to risk their lives as a gesture toward the lost life of another.
-an excerpt, Autumn by the Wayside
