Research Index

This is the public-facing index of the research that goes into each guide. The full source list is on each fall page; this page describes the research workflow and links to the public datasets.

Keyword research

Each guide is anchored to a per-fall keyword cluster pulled from DataForSEO's Google Ads Keyword Planner data. We track total cluster volume, the top SERP competitors, keyword difficulty, and the seasonal trend. The eight FAQ entries on each guide are harvested from question-format keywords in that fall's cluster (queries starting with is, can, how, when, where, does, do, are). The methodology is documented in how each guide is built.

Data audits

Public data we regularly audit:

• USGS NWIS gauge match. For every fall, we identify the nearest active discharge gauge and verify it represents the fall's water source. Only confirmed matches power the live discharge chip on a guide. We use the gauge index at pipeline/data/usgs_gauges.json (9,463 active US discharge gauges) as the matching set.
• Land manager URL freshness. Quarterly check that every linked land manager page still resolves and the listed fee/hours match.
• Photo provenance. Every reference image in a fall's asset ledger gets a license-and-attribution check.
• FAQ recency. When a guide rolls over a year-old build date, we re-pull the keyword cluster to check for emerging questions and update the FAQ.

Source policy

Primary sources (cited directly): land managers (USFS, NPS, BLM, state parks, county parks), USGS, NOAA, state geological surveys, the Wikimedia Commons photograph archive.

Secondary sources (used for cross-checking or context): Wikipedia, Wikidata, AllTrails (current trail reports), local tourism boards (with the conflict-of-interest noted on tourism-board claims), regional history projects.

Sources we do not cite as primary: travel blogs, tourism Reddit threads, social-media-driven aggregators, ad-supported listicle sites. These are useful for finding new candidate falls but not for fact verification.

Open questions

Things we currently flag as uncertain or contested on individual guides:

• Anna Ruby Falls: day-use fee is reported as both $3 and $6 in different recent sources. Page reflects current GoFindOutdoors concession listing.
• Latourell Falls: height reported as 224 ft (Oregon State Parks signage) and 249 ft (modern survey). Page reconciles both numbers.
• Hidden Falls etymology: multiple plausible 19th-century usage origins.
• The Yahoo Falls Massacre of 1810 is treated on the Yahoo Falls page as folklore, not history, because historians have not corroborated the story.

Contact

Data submissions, research partnerships, or audit findings: [email protected].