How we work

The short version: public sources, our own words, licensed pictures, dated updates, and corrections in the open. Here is what each of those means in practice.

Sourcing

• Primary first. Agency pages, archives, museum and land-manager sites, court and government records, and the original newspaper page come before summaries of them. Old press is read from digitized collections such as the Library of Congress's Chronicling America, not just today's wire.
• Name the outlet. Every case file carries a source line, and every update lists its own sources. Anonymous forum posts and social threads can tell us where to look; they are not cited as proof.
• Compare accounts. When papers or agencies disagree, we show the disagreement — who said what, when — rather than picking the most exciting version.
• Say when it's thin. If a claim rests on a single report, a listing site, or one person's measurement, the file says so. We don't invent percentages or likelihoods that the sources can't support.
• Inference is labeled. When we connect dots ourselves, we say it's our inference and what it rests on.

The original-rewrite rule

Every case file and Place is written fresh in the Ledger's own voice. We don't reprint articles, paste wire copy or press releases, or scrape paywalled text. Short quotations — a sentence or two, attributed and linked — are used when the exact words matter (a headline, an official caption, a witness's phrase). Research notes and leads are starting points for reading the sources, never text to copy.

Images

• We only use images that are public domain (including verified U.S. government works and pre-1931 U.S. publications), Creative Commons licensed with attribution (usually via Wikimedia Commons), or our own.
• Each license is checked on the file's source page before use, and every hero image carries a caption with credit, license and a link back to the source.
• No news photographs, no screenshots of other outlets' images, no unlicensed stock. If we can't find a properly licensed picture, the page runs without one.
• Context photos are labeled as context: a landscape near a reported sighting is not a picture of the sighting.

Status labels

Each file carries one honest label — hoax, folklore, open, cited or disputed. Definitions are on the About page. An open case is not secretly proven; a folklore case is not a specimen waiting in a vault.

Evidence ledger

A case's status label is one verdict on the whole file. The evidence ledger, a table near the bottom of many case pages, breaks the file into separate claims. Each row names the claim, the source already cited in that file, the kind of source and its date, and one of four labels:

• Corroborated: the cited source directly supports the claim, or two independent sources agree.
• Disputed: credible sources conflict, or a later source replaced the figure or framing.
• Unverified: one source, a self-report, an estimate, or something we haven't been able to check yet. This is not a verdict either way.
• Debunked: the cited record contradicts the claim.

The ledger adds no new facts. If a claim needs a source the file doesn't cite, it stays unverified until the file is updated. Rows marked ledger analysis are our own reasoning, such as sun angles or wind data, and are labeled so you can weigh them yourself.

Living cases

Some files are living dossiers that we keep watching after publication.

• High-follow files are re-checked on a daily routine. The Last watched date on a case is the real day of the most recent check.
• When something new turns up, we append a dated update with its own sources. Earlier text is not rewritten to fit the new story.
• A quiet check moves Last watched and adds nothing else. Quiet is not the same as closed.
• Updates may be drafted with AI assistance and are reviewed and dated as they're added. This is not an official investigation and not legal advice.

Every update across the site is collected on Watch, with an RSS feed. Each case also has its own update feed.

Corrections policy

• Errors of fact, dates, figures, map pins and image credits are corrected as soon as we confirm them.
• The fix is visible: a dated correction entry on the case, or a dated note on the Place, saying what changed and why. The original wording stays readable.
• Every correction is listed on the Corrections log, newest first.
• We only remove published text outright for a clear legal or safety reason, and we note the removal.

Places

• Public access only: parks, marked trails, museums, visitor centers, public overlooks. Private, gated or uncertain access is said plainly, or left out.
• Map pins use only coordinates published by the land manager or site; otherwise we link the official map or a street-address search.
• Sacred, tribal and Indigenous heritage sites get no pins and no turn-by-turn directions; we point to the managing agency or tribe instead.
• Abandoned buildings, asylums and ruins are framed as history, with risks called out and official tours preferred. No entry how-to, ever.
• Every Place carries the same caveat: curiosity and trip planning only — not a permit, not permission, not safety advice.