Methodology and sources

Evidence classes

Documented: The place, event, structure, or history is supported by authoritative records.
History + folklore: The documented location has an established body of folklore that is labeled separately from the record.
Folklore + reported sightings: The file documents a legend and reported experiences. It does not establish the creature, haunting, or supernatural explanation as fact.
Regional visitor anchor: The map point is a safe public place connected to the story. It is not a claimed encounter location.
Source review required: The file needs a new source check before strong current access guidance can be shown.

A source can support folklore as folklore. It does not convert folklore into fact. When credible sources disagree, the file says so instead of choosing the most dramatic version. The Atlas never calls a haunting confirmed, a ghost verified, a cryptid proven, or a place a hotspot for the supernatural, except when quoting and attributing a historical or cultural claim.

Source hierarchy

Preferred sources, in order: the National Park Service and other federal agencies; state park agencies and state and local governments; official museums, memorials, historical societies, and historic-site operators; official tour operators; university, state, and national archives; tribal sources; official tourism bodies; reputable local newspapers and established public broadcasters for contemporary folklore records; established historical publications; and primary documents where accessible.

Not used: AI-generated summaries, uncited travel blogs, social posts, paranormal forums, search snippets, listicles, unattributed text, content farms, recycled SEO pages, and other unsourced dark-tourism directories. Every source is summarized in the Atlas's own words; long passages are never copied.

Source checks and dates

Every file shows when its practical details were last checked and which source was used. Hours, prices, reservations, closures, seasons, road and trail access, ferry schedules, park rules, construction, weather restrictions, accessibility, and permits change. A check date means the details matched the linked source on that date. It is not a guarantee of current conditions, which is why the Atlas says practical details checked or source checked, and never verified in a way that implies the Atlas controls the gate.

Conditions change. Check the primary source before leaving home.

Access labels

Public: Open to the public during posted hours without a ticket.
Ticketed: Public access with paid admission or a required ticket.
Guided only: Entry is only through an authorized guided tour.
Seasonal: Open part of the year. Check the current season before traveling.
Scheduled days: Open only on published dates or scheduled events.
Reservation required: Advance reservation or timed entry is required.
Permit required: A permit or pass is required before entry.
View only: Can be seen from public ground. No entry.
Restricted: Access is limited to specific areas or programs. Do not enter beyond them.
Closed: Closed to the public. Do not attempt entry.
Private: Private property. No public access.
Status unclear: Current access could not be confirmed. Check the official source first.

Map points

Public site: The pin sits on the public place itself.
Public entrance: The pin marks the lawful public entrance, not the interior.
Tour meeting point: The pin marks where an authorized tour begins.
Visitor center: The pin marks the official visitor center for a larger site.
Regional visitor anchor: The map point is a safe public place connected to the story. It is not a claimed encounter location.

Coordinates are published only for public sites, lawful entrances, tour meeting points, and visitor centers. Creature files carry a regional visitor anchor and never a claimed encounter location. The Lore map shows towns, museums, statues, festivals, and documented sites with labeled folklore. It does not show claimed sighting locations, private homes, unmarked wildlife areas, restricted industrial or military ground, sensitive ecological locations, unverified coordinates, or user-submitted encounters.

Creature files

Each creature file separates the legend, the earliest record in the file, what was reported, what the record supports, ordinary explanations, the cultural afterlife, the field rule, and the public visitor anchor. No creature file reads as a biological species: no height, weight, threat level, population, habitat map, encounter probability, or active range, unless a historical claim is quoted and labeled as such.

Sensitive places

Files carry sensitivity classes for memorials, cemeteries, incarceration, enslavement, Indigenous history, battlefields, disasters, medical history, execution history, mass-casualty sites, active places of worship, and active communities. The class drives a more restrained presentation, context-first copy, conduct expectations, official-site guidance, and the suppression of playful discovery features. See the rules of the road.

Imagery

Volume 01 holds no photographs of the listed places. Every field file is illustrated with a code-drawn cartographic plate built from its real public coordinates and the Census outline of its state. The atmospheric imagery across the Atlas is commissioned brand photography of physical map materials, generated with Higgsfield under one visual bible: relief maps, folded atlases, paper, concrete, copper, stone, soil, and an unnamed road. None of it depicts a real place, structure, document, person, victim, or creature, and none of it is presented as evidence. When real photography is added it will carry its source, photographer, license, and attribution in the image registry.

Corrections

Every correction enters source review. Nothing publishes automatically, and the Atlas does not accept user-generated field files or sighting reports. Send a correction.