User:Netherzone/sandbox/Geostub checklist

Hog Farm's five part test for geostubs.
1. The first step is to look on GNIS for the location. If the location existed after 1910 and isn't in GNIS, there's a good chance it's not notable.

2. Then, using the coordinates I pulled from GNIS, I search the coordinates in the USGS topographic maps database. The maps and GNIS aren't enough to show a place as notable, but they can identify a lot of the non-community features. I've been able to diagnose stubs as non-community features such as railroad sidings, individual ranches, and in a couple cases natural features such as ponds or canals misentered into GNIS as communities.

3. I have access to newspapers.com through WP:LIBRARY, so I use that as the third step. In places where there are old newspapers on the site (some going back into the 1800s), you can generally figure out what something is.

4. Step four is checking the google books preview of Gudde's California Place Names, which generally only lists significant features. Gudde also has a book about gold camps, which is useful to check for supposed mining features.

5. The last step is to run a standard WP:BEFORE, with Google books generally being a better bet than Google search, as Google search is almost hopelessly polluted with clickbait and mirrors of both GNIS and Wikipedia. That's my process.

Map resources

 * Bing Maps
 * Google Maps
 * Apple Maps
 * OpenStreetMap
 * MapQuest
 * Wikimapia
 * Copernix
 * Here
 * GPS Visualizer


 * GeoHack Toolforge