Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Bluestem, Washington


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. Per WP:GEOLAND, places must either be legally recognized or notable per WP:GNG to qualify for an article. Keep voters in this discussion did not convincingly demonstrate either of those requirements. (Just saying "legally recognized town" doesn't make it so.) Therefore, after the keep votes have been discarded, consensus is to delete. I'm happy to restore the article for the purpose of merging, if anyone is interested.  —&#8288;Scotty Wong &#8288;— 06:55, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Bluestem, Washington

 * – ( View AfD View log | edits since nomination)

It's the usual isolated-grain-elevator-by-the-tracks situation, in this case apparently unaltered for some forty years at least. The Wash. place names DB says it was originally platted as Moscow before being renamed, but there's no significant evidence that anything like a town was ever built other than that the road runs parallel to the rails at an unusual distance; there's a decaying shed and a building that looks like it might be an office for the elevator, but that's it. I get one person born there, but I take those with a grain of salt. Otherwise I get a lot of hits about railroad construction and to the wheat variety itself, as well as various native grasses of the same name. Mangoe (talk) 00:30, 30 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Washington-related deletion discussions.  CAPTAIN RAJU (T) 00:59, 30 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Geography-related deletion discussions.  CAPTAIN RAJU (T) 00:59, 30 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Delete - GNIS spam. No evidence of legal recognition through e.g., incorporation. A post office is not evidence of legal recognition of a population community as these can be literally anywhere, even mobile, and are (and were) often just co-located inside stores and stations that need not be part of any community. No evidence of a WP:GNG pass either. Even if one person was born there - so what? People can be born anywhere, this does not automatically confer notability.
 * Mangoe's work on these GNIS stubs is commendable, but frankly it should be unnecessary, because the fact that these is literally nothing to write about this place, and the article is essentially a directory-listing, should be reason enough to delete it. FOARP (talk) 08:58, 30 November 2021 (UTC)


 * Keep. A Google news search found https://www.heraldnet.com/news/he-found-his-story-in-the-history-of-another-man/ with the sentence "Haji was born in December 1925 in Bluestem, Washington, near Spokane." Eastmain (talk • contribs) 19:21, 30 November 2021 (UTC) The same person, Tom Haji, is mentioned at https://books.google.com/books?id=echqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA273&dq=%22Bluestem,+Washington%22+-wikipedia&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQ8ISk6MD0AhUQVc0KHShKD9EQ6AF6BAgGEAI#v=onepage&q=%22Bluestem%2C%20Washington%22%20-wikipedia&f=false Eastmain (talk • contribs) 19:27, 30 November 2021 (UTC) And here a Bluestem residents recommends that the state lower farm truck licence rates. Apparently some Volga Germans (ethnic Germans from Russia) settled there. https://books.google.com/books?id=1v8UAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Bluestem,+Washington%22+-wikipedia&dq=%22Bluestem,+Washington%22+-wikipedia&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQ8ISk6MD0AhUQVc0KHShKD9EQ6AF6BAgKEAI Eastmain (talk • contribs) 19:30, 30 November 2021 (UTC) And here is an appointment of a Bluestem resident to a position with some religious organization.  Google searches for news and books are often more productive than a general Google search. Eastmain (talk • contribs) 19:34, 30 November 2021 (UTC)
 * This is a bunch of passing mentions that say absolutely nothing about the actual place, other than at guy called Tom Haji might have been born there. In what way does this actually show notability? What actual article can you write about it? FOARP (talk) 19:37, 30 November 2021 (UTC)


 * Keep always going to be a stub, but seems to be a valid ghost town per GEOLAND/finding the same sources as Eastmain/some mentions in the state legislature. Passing mentions are irrelevant for GEOLAND. SportingFlyer  T · C  20:05, 30 November 2021 (UTC)
 * where’s the evidence of actual legal recognition (and not just “some govt document mentioned it”)? Without legal recognition, you've got to show a WP:GNG pass. FOARP (talk) 21:45, 30 November 2021 (UTC)


 * Keep Meets GEOLAND. Notable small ghost town. Decent amount of sources available per above. ~ EDDY  ( talk / contribs )~ 00:23, 1 December 2021 (UTC)
 * How does it meet Geoland? FOARP (talk) 05:12, 1 December 2021 (UTC)


 * Delete or Merge to Lincoln County, Washington - Appears to be a non-notable town/community; the sources presented above are merely passing mentions and do not meet SIGCOV. Per WP:WHYN: "We require "significant coverage" in reliable sources so that we can actually write a whole article, rather than half a paragraph or a definition of that topic. If only a few sentences could be written and supported by sources about the subject, that subject does not qualify for a separate page, but should instead be merged into an article about a larger topic or relevant list." –dlthewave ☎ 15:58, 1 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Agree. The Keep position here appears to be "any place that was arguably populated at any point is notable", but this has no basis at all in guides or policy. A pass under WP:GEOLAND#1 requires legal recognition, which simply isn't evident in anything produced above or found in my WP:BEFORE. As far as I can see the mention in State Senate records is related to railway building, and does not in anyway confer legal recognition on Bluestem as a populated community, rather it highlights that this place may well have just been a railway station, and not a meaningful community of any kind. FOARP (talk) 13:21, 2 December 2021 (UTC)


 * Delete. I do not see any reason why the news snippets shared above provide any notability towards GNG. GEOLAND only confers presumed notability to populated, legally recognized places, not just any place where a few people might have lived a long time ago; GNIS and databases does not constitute legal recognition. There seems to be an idea that always pops up in these discussions, that if a place exists at all and anyone has ever lived there, it must be notable, but that is plainly false. The sources pointed about above do not in any way help the case for this article to exist and can in no way be used to sustain it. Info on non-notable people shouldn't even be mentioned in settlement articles per guidelines like WikiProject Cities/US Guideline (To be included in a list of notable people, individuals must still meet the notability requirements per WP:PEOPLE.), so why should sources about them impact notability in any way? ev iolite   (talk)  18:57, 2 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Keep per, , , , , . More than just a railroad stop with a post office.  Legally recognized town.   78.26  (spin me / revolutions) 15:43, 8 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Which source supports your assertion that this was a "legally recognized town"? –dlthewave ☎ 16:04, 8 December 2021 (UTC)


 * 'Merger per Dlthewave. There is enough usage to support a redirect and a few sentences in the county article. While there is not enough info to write an article, we should at least cover it somewhere as people could search for it. MB 01:52, 9 December 2021 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.