Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Floydian (talk | contribs) at 04:46, 30 April 2021 (might do something with this). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This mostly applies to Ontario with regard to sources, but you can probably adapt this to any road article.

This guide assumes:

The road is notable, full stop. If you find yourself trying to justify, in your mind, the mere existence of the article you are about to write being questionable: Get outside opinions. Don't bother, you probably will have a hell of a time finding any secondary sources. The road was at some point given a designation that consistently put it on a map, of some kind, throughout its existence. (i.e. you can produce a map for the first year after it came into existence, and one for the final year... give or take). You are competent, willing and able (see also: Pinball Wizard). You are familiar with Misplaced Pages; sourcing, templates, and dealing with those who are incompetent. You are either familiar with the road you are covering, or well-versed in transportation matters in the region it travels through.

These steps are written as I (Floydian) write Ontario Highway 29, a former Ontario highway.

Step 1 - Basic template

• Start by copying the infobox and the first paragraph of an article that covers a nearby road/highway. Ideally this would be a well-written article with everything filled out, possibly one you can use as a guide for building yours! For this article, I used Ontario Highway 42, which I wrote about many years ago, and which connects to Highway 29. At the very least, copy an infobox from an article in the same state/province, of the same type of road (county, highway, etc).
• Get a basic grasp of the road you are writing about, geographically. In my case, I know the rough idea of where Highway 29 went... It connected Brockville in the south with Smiths Falls in the north. It went further north to Arnprior once upon a time.

Step 2 - First references

• Write out your map reference(s). At the very least, you have a near-present map that you can use in tandem with Google Maps, and an older map if needed, that can verify the subject route as close to it's present or most-recent course.
• Determine which counties and townships the route travelled through. Measure out lengths and become as familiar as possible with the route. Reference these to a map or atlas, since Google can be picky with showing county lines.