What Atlas is—and is not
Atlas is an evolving research system for organizing published accounts, submitted sightings, locations, environmental context, and calculated patterns. A plotted report means that a database record is associated with that location. It does not independently prove the event occurred or that every coordinate is exact.
Atlas does not claim to contain every Bigfoot report. Coverage and totals change as sources are added, duplicates are removed, evidence is reconstructed, coordinates are corrected, and human review is completed.
Human publication authority
No AI-reviewed record is automatically verified, published, or exposed. Automated review can flag issues and organize evidence, but it always ends at human review required. Publication remains a human-authorized decision.
Geographic authority
AI may suggest a possible encounter location, but it cannot overwrite authoritative geographic status. State, county, coordinates, water, shoreline, and polygon checks remain controlled by deterministic database and geographic validation.
Evidence and exclusion rules
Missing or incomplete evidence cannot, by itself, justify rejection. Bibliographic, catalog-only, blank, truncated, or illegible material remains questionable pending reconstruction when there is no affirmative basis for exclusion.
| Situation | Atlas treatment |
|---|---|
| Confirmed fiction, advertising, sports usage, nickname, or vehicle | Excluded from creature-report analysis as not applicable, with the positive basis preserved. |
| Claimed spirit, ghost, alien, interdimensional entity, apparition, portal, mindspeak-only entity, or materialization | Classified as nonphysical and kept outside the flesh-and-blood report set. |
| Strange, old, weakly documented, or questionable physical account | Preserved for human judgment unless affirmative exclusion evidence exists. |
| Near-water or apparently offshore coordinate | Reviewed for precision; proximity to water is not a rejection basis. |
Why are some report locations adjusted?
Bigfoot reports overwhelmingly describe encounters on land. However, some source records contain coordinates that plot in lakes, rivers, or offshore waters. This does not necessarily mean the reported encounter occurred in the water. Older and compiled records may contain approximate coordinates, geocoding or transcription errors, or coordinates representing a nearby geographic reference rather than the precise encounter location.
The original source coordinates are preserved and are never silently replaced. If the report itself supports an encounter in or on the water, such as swimming, wading, crossing water, or an explicitly water-based observation, Atlas retains that evidentiary location.
When the report does not support a water location, Atlas may use a separate display coordinate on appropriate nearby land. The placement is based first on the available narrative and location evidence, not simply on the mathematically nearest shoreline point. Where several adjusted markers would otherwise overlap, Atlas may use minimal display-only separation along appropriate nearby land so the map does not imply false precision or collapse unrelated reports onto one artificial point.
A blue aura identifies an Adjusted Location. The marker itself keeps its normal classification or status color. The aura means only that the displayed map position differs from the preserved source coordinate; it does not mean “Water Report.”
How should Heat, Habitat, clusters, and corridors be used?
Heat summarizes the geographic concentration of records in the Atlas dataset. Thousands of individual markers can make broader spatial patterns difficult to recognize, so the heat layer helps show where reports are concentrated relative to one another. It represents reporting concentration, not animal population density and not proof that Bigfoot is present in a colored area.
Habitat provides environmental context for geographic comparison. Available habitat-related information can help researchers examine whether report locations share environmental characteristics and whether apparent patterns continue across the surrounding landscape. Such relationships may suggest questions for further investigation, but they do not establish that Bigfoot occupies, prefers, or requires a particular habitat.
Clusters and corridors are also analytical aids. Apparent patterns can result from reporting density, public access, population, source coverage, duplicate or related reports, and other sampling effects as well as from potentially meaningful geographic relationships. Atlas presents these tools to help identify patterns worth examining, not to convert patterns into proof.
Why can totals change?
Atlas totals change as records are sourced, reconstructed, reviewed, deduplicated, corrected, accepted, or excluded. Public totals should describe the currently publishable dataset—not every record waiting safely in a research queue.
What do marker colors mean?
Colors identify layers such as historical reports, public user sightings, local records, and analysis. A color is not an evidence score. Always read the popup and source-quality information.
Managing or Canceling Your Atlas Membership
Atlas subscriptions renew automatically each month unless canceled.
To manage your membership, open your Atlas Account page and select Manage Subscription. You will be taken to the secure Stripe billing portal, where you can review your subscription, update your payment method, view billing information, and cancel your subscription.
If you cancel, your Atlas access remains active through the end of your current paid billing period. You will not be charged for another billing period after the cancellation takes effect.
Historical report publication status
Cataloged means Atlas has retained a historical account as part of the research collection and it has not been explicitly rejected or excluded. Cataloged reports may appear publicly without individual human review. Their appearance verifies the existence of the catalog record, not that the reported encounter occurred as described.
Automated screening and CRIS/Gatekeeper recommendations are advisory and may help identify duplicates, exclusion-rule conflicts, source problems, and questionable locations. Records requiring judgment can be escalated for human review. Human-reviewed status is shown separately when applicable.
Requesting a correction
If you have first-hand knowledge or a traceable paper trail showing that a report, location, date, source, or classification may be wrong, document the issue for Atlas review. A useful request includes:
- The record identifier or enough popup details to identify the report.
- The field believed to be incorrect and the proposed correction.
- A link, scan, citation, public record, publication page, map, or other supporting evidence.
- Your contact information if follow-up is permitted.
A correction request does not directly alter the public record. It creates a review trail. Atlas staff evaluate the evidence, preserve the decision history, and authorize any resulting change.
Responsible field use
- Do not trespass or enter unsafe terrain to reach a plotted location.
- Protect witness privacy and sensitive habitat or property locations.
- Separate witness statements, source material, and Atlas-generated analysis.
- Prefer original, page-specific, traceable sources whenever available.