Content Editor

What Is Wayfound?

Wayfound is a field documentation platform that traces America's layered transportation corridors across the West. It maps the overlapping routes of the Oregon Trail, the Beale Wagon Road, and Historic Route 66 — showing how the same geography has channeled human movement for centuries, from Indigenous footpaths to interstate highways.

Each site in the database represents a place where multiple eras of travel overlap.

The Four Sections

• MAP — An interactive Leaflet.js map showing all sites as color-coded markers. Route polylines trace each corridor across the landscape. Four corridor filter buttons let you isolate a specific route: Oregon Trail Beale Road Route 66 — or view all at once. A time slider lets you "build up" the landscape year by year from 1539 to present.
• JOURNAL — Field journal entries written during site visits. Cards show an era color bar, photo, historical quote, and travel mode. Multiple entries per site are supported.
• COMPARE — A corridor comparison tool. Select any site using the pill buttons, then see all the historical eras present at that site laid out as a connected vertical timeline.
• DIRECTORY — A searchable, filterable grid of every site. On mobile it shows as a two-column card layout; on desktop as a full list view.

How the Data Drives the App

Everything in Wayfound is powered by three JSON files:

• Sites (data/sites.json) — Each site becomes a map marker, a directory card, and optionally a comparison site. The all_eras array determines which corridor filters show or hide the site. Setting in_comparison_tool to true makes it available in the Compare section.
• Journal entries (data/journal.json) — Each entry is linked to a site via site_id. It appears as a card in the Journal section. The photos array supports a multi-image gallery with captions; mode shows a travel mode badge.
• Routes (data/routes.json) — Each segment defines a polyline on the map with era, status, start/end years, and a list of GPS coordinates.

Step-by-Step Workflow

This editor works entirely in your browser. You can load data directly from the server, edit it visually, then download the updated file and upload it to your web host.

1. 1 Load a data file — Go to the SITES, JOURNAL, or ROUTES tab. Click Load from Server to auto-fetch the live data, or Load from File to pick a local JSON file.
2. 2 Edit or add entries — Click Edit on any card to modify it, or + Add New to create a new entry. Fill in the form fields and click Save.
3. 3 Download the result — Click Download as File to save the updated JSON to your computer. Or use Copy to Clipboard to paste it elsewhere.
4. 4 Upload to your web host — Replace the corresponding file in your site's data/ folder (sites.json, journal.json, or routes.json) and redeploy or push to your repository.

Site Fields Reference

• id — Unique ID like WF-AZ-001. Format: WF-{STATE}-{NUMBER}
• name — Display name of the site
• state — Two-letter state abbreviation (AZ, CA, OR, NV, UT, etc.)
• lat / lng — GPS coordinates (decimal degrees)
• primary_era — The main historical era this site represents
• all_eras — All eras present at this site (used by corridor filters)
• type — Category: Remnant, Marker, Event, or Research Hub
• one_line — Short one-sentence description
• visited — Whether you've visited the site in person
• condition — Current physical condition notes
• primary_quote / quote_attribution — A historical quote and its source
• dispatch_url — Link to the Substack dispatch for this site
• in_comparison_tool — Whether this site appears in the Compare section
• comparison_quote — Quote shown in the comparison timeline view

Journal Fields Reference

• id — Unique ID like J-001
• site_id — Must match a site's id from sites.json
• site_name — Display name (should match the site's name)
• date — Visit date in YYYY-MM-DD format
• time — Visit time in HH:MM format
• lat / lng — GPS coordinates (usually same as the site)
• image_url — Primary card image URL (legacy; photos array is preferred)
• photos — Array of {url, caption} objects for multi-image gallery
• mode — Travel mode: driving, walking, cycling, research, or flyover
• era_context — Era code for which corridor the observation relates to
• observation — Your field notes / observations
• primary_source_quote / quote_attribution — Historical quote and source
• dispatch_url — Link to the Substack dispatch
• dispatch_published — Whether the dispatch has been published

Image Guide

Each journal entry can have a primary image (image_url) plus an optional multi-photo gallery (photos array). The photos array is shown as a thumbnail strip below the main card image, with a full-screen lightbox when tapped.

• Primary card image: 800 × 450px (16:9) JPEG or PNG, under 300 KB
• Gallery photos: Any landscape image; same size recommendations apply
• Hosting: Place in public/images/ (e.g., /images/beale-springs.jpg), or use any external URL

Available Eras (internal codes)

These codes are used in site and route data. The app groups them into corridor filter buttons for the map.

• L0_Indigenous — Pre-contact Indigenous paths
• L1_Exploration — Spanish/American exploration Oregon Trail corridor
• L2_Wagon — Wagon road era Oregon Trail corridor
• L3_Military — Military road era Beale corridor
• L4_Railroad — Railroad era Beale corridor
• L5_EarlyAuto — Early automobile era Route 66 corridor
• L6_Route66 — Route 66 era Route 66 corridor
• L7_Postwar — Postwar era Route 66 corridor
• L8_Interstate — Interstate highway era Route 66 corridor
• L9_Heritage — Heritage preservation era

Tips

• Always keep a backup of your JSON files before making large edits
• The site_id in journal entries must exactly match a site's id or cross-links won't work
• Set in_comparison_tool to true and add a comparison_quote to make a site appear in the Compare pill buttons
• Sites with visited: true show a checkmark in the directory
• GPS coordinates should use decimal degrees (e.g., 35.2081, -114.0625)
• The route end_year field can be blank — leave it empty to mean "persists to the present"