Whistlestop Sources
Whistlestop can tell you about 550,000+ places as you drive past them. Every one of those stories is built from a public source that anyone can look up, and every stop in the app links back to it. This page explains where the information comes from, how we work to get the facts right, and how you can help us make it better.
Where the stories come from
Whistlestop draws on three kinds of source. In the app they all sound the same, and you never have to know which one a story came from. The only difference is where the facts first came from.
Public encyclopedias
Most places begin as a Wikipedia article with a location attached. We use the location to know what is near the road, and the article for the facts of the story. Because almost anything with an article can come up, the app reaches small towns and back roads, not only the famous landmarks.
Official public records
Government and historical bodies keep large public records of marked places, starting with state historical markers: the roadside plaques most people pass without a chance to stop and read. We collect these records and read them to you by location as you drive.
Researched by Whistlestop
For the places the records miss, or describe poorly, we research and write our own stops one at a time. These are the stories you will not find in any existing database, and they are a growing part of the app.
With thanks to
These are the organizations whose work the app relies on most right now. Their records took years of research and public funding, and the app would not exist without them. The list is short today and will grow as we add more sources and more partners.
Wikipedia
Encyclopedia · worldwide
Most places the app finds begin as a Wikipedia article with a location attached. We use the location to know what is near the road, and the article for the facts of the story.
Written and checked by volunteers, without charge, for twenty-five years. The app would not exist without them, and the open license that lets a small project build on their work matters as much as the writing itself.
Visit Wikipedia ↗
Texas Historical Commission
State agency · Texas
The state's official historical markers: the roadside plaques you pass at speed and rarely get to stop and read. We collect them from public records and bring them up by location as you drive.
Thousands of markers, each one researched, reviewed by a county committee, cast in aluminum, and installed along the road decades before anyone thought to put them in a database. We read that research aloud to drivers who would otherwise pass it by.
Visit Texas Historical Commission ↗Logos are shown to credit the sources we draw on. These organizations are not affiliated with Whistlestop, have no involvement in it, and do not endorse it. Wikipedia content is used under its CC BY-SA license; historical marker records are public records of the state that issued them.
Working toward accuracy
We do not claim every story is perfect. Some of the writing is summarized by AI, and history itself is often debated. Here is how we work to get the facts right, and how you can check us:
A link to the source on every stop
Each stop shows where its information came from and links to the original, so you can check it against the source yourself.
Summaries written for listening
To be spoken aloud and kept short, the stories are summarized, and some of that summarizing is done by AI. We do not treat the result as flawless. The work we are focused on is making each summary match its source, fact for fact.
We fix mistakes
History is debated, and public records contain errors. When a story is wrong or incomplete, we want to know, and corrections from readers and from the institutions we cite go to the top of the list.
For an honest account of how the app can still get things wrong, and what we do about it, see the FAQ.
Where it goes next
The goal is not the biggest database, it is the most useful one. We would rather research a place well and add it with a solid source than inflate the count. Working outward from historical markers, toward more of the country and more kinds of place:
- Historical markers across the rest of the country, state by state
- Natural features and geological landmarks
- Roadside attractions, the odder the better
- Public art and murals
- Local favorites that never made it into any database
Work with us
Whistlestop gets better with help, and we are actively looking for partners. The most reliable records come from the people who keep them, and the best stops often begin as a tip from someone who knows a place well.
We would like to hear from historical societies and museums, from state, county, and local archives, from visitors bureaus and tourism offices, from teachers and historians, and from anyone who can point us to a place worth a stop or help us correct one we already have.
Do you keep a record that belongs in the app, or can you help us get a story right? Get in touch.