About & Editorial Standards
Peace Garden Almanac is a story-first guide to North Dakota: its landscapes, people, history, roadside discoveries, and places worth experiencing in person. Our working promise is simple: every practical guide should explain why a place matters, and every history story should tell readers whether (and how) they can experience it today.
Peace Garden Almanac is an independent publication and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the International Peace Garden, the International Peace Garden Foundation, or the State of North Dakota.
This is the editorial standard Peace Garden Almanac follows. It applies to articles, guides, newsletters, social posts, and commercial recommendations.
Last updated: September 4, 2026.
The people behind the Almanac
We’re Haley and Luke, a married couple raising our four kids in Horace, North Dakota. Luke was born in Horace and moved away at eight. He later spent five years stationed in Minot, where he met Haley, who is from Langdon. Today, Horace is home again, and we love raising a family here.
Peace Garden Almanac grows out of that connection to North Dakota and our curiosity about the place we call home. We want it to be useful to neighbors planning a weekend and visitors getting to know the state. Our local roots shape the questions we ask; the sources and checks described below support the answers we publish.
How we research
We start as close to the evidence as the subject allows. Depending on the story, that can mean government records, museum and archive catalogs, tribal and community sources, contemporary newspapers, scholarly research, maps, oral histories, and direct confirmation from the organization responsible for a place.
Official sources can be authoritative about their own records or operations, but they are not automatically neutral or complete. We compare independent sources when a claim is disputed, consequential, surprising, or repeated without clear evidence. Search snippets, AI output, crowdsourced pages, unsourced local lore, and optical character recognition are leads, not proof.
Each substantive story should include a readable source list or links close to the relevant claims. Quotes must be traceable to a recording, transcript, document, or direct interview. We do not invent dialogue, scenes, thoughts, or composite characters to make history feel more dramatic.
What we do with legends and uncertainty
North Dakota has excellent legends. We will tell them, but we will not quietly turn them into facts.
When the record is incomplete or experts disagree, we say so. We distinguish what documents establish, what a source recalls, what researchers infer, and what is simply a well-traveled story. If a famous claim cannot be verified, the uncertainty becomes part of the story rather than something to write around.
Visitor information changes
The “Last reviewed” date on a story records its most recent full editorial check. A note in the story identifies any later update to specific details. Publication dates in our feed and page metadata record when a story actually went live.
Hours, prices, road conditions, access rules, exhibits, tours, and seasonal services can change after an article is published. Guides should identify when key visitor details were last checked and link readers to the responsible park, museum, tribe, business, or public agency for confirmation. We also flag known issues involving private property, weather, accessibility, permits, and limited services.
Readers should check official conditions before making a long drive. An editorial estimate for time or difficulty will be labeled as an estimate, not presented as an operator's guarantee.
Indigenous nations and communities
North Dakota's Indigenous nations are living sovereign communities, not historical scenery. Coverage should begin with the names and descriptions communities use for themselves and prioritize tribal governments, cultural institutions, historians, knowledge keepers, and other first-party sources where appropriate.
We will not flatten distinct nations into a single viewpoint, disclose culturally restricted knowledge, or describe an item, design, or story as “Native-made” without a factual basis. Sensitive or interpretive work should receive knowledgeable review, with paid contributors or reviewers credited when they agree to be named. An article will identify a community contributor or reviewer when that review has taken place; a source citation alone does not imply community review or endorsement.
Images, archives, and merchandise
“Available online” does not mean “free to use.” Every photograph, clipping, scan, map, illustration, and archival object must have item-level rights information before publication. Captions should name the creator and source, state the license or rights status when useful, and link to the original record when possible. Material used under a Creative Commons license must follow that license. AI-generated or materially AI-altered imagery must be clearly labeled.
Editorial permission and merchandise permission are separate decisions. An image cleared to illustrate an article will not be placed on a shirt, print, mug, or other product automatically. Merchandise should use original work, commissioned work with a written rights agreement, or material expressly cleared for commercial product use. We do not use protected logos, seals, insignia, tribal marks, or living people's likenesses in ways that imply endorsement.
Corrections and updates
Accuracy matters more than preserving our first wording. We correct confirmed factual errors promptly and add a dated correction or update note when a change is material. Minor spelling, grammar, formatting, and broken-link fixes may be made without a note when they do not change the meaning. We do not erase a fair correction merely because it is embarrassing.
Who is accountable for responding:
- Accountable publishers: Haley and Luke, based in Horace, North Dakota. Stories published under the Peace Garden Almanac Editorial Desk name are the publication’s responsibility.
- Corrections and editorial contact: hello@peacegardenalmanac.com. Please include the story link, the detail you believe needs correcting, and any supporting source.
Independence, advertising, and affiliate links
Editorial judgment is not for sale. Sponsors, advertisers, tourism organizations, and merchants do not receive favorable coverage, rankings, or advance approval of independent editorial conclusions in exchange for money, products, or access.
Paid placements will be labeled clearly. Complimentary travel, admission, lodging, products, or other material support will be disclosed in the relevant story. If a page contains affiliate links, it will say so near the links; Peace Garden Almanac may earn a commission if a reader buys through them, without changing the reader's price. Store revenue, affiliate revenue, and advertising do not change the evidence standard.
AI-assisted workflow
AI-assisted tools may help organize research, surface search terms, transcribe or interpret difficult scans, generate outline or wording options, and check consistency. They are not sources, witnesses, editors of record, or substitutes for accountable review.
Before an article is presented as published reporting, its factual claims, quotations, names, dates, links, rights records, and practical visitor details must be checked against the cited material by the accountable editorial publisher or an assigned reviewer. Sources must be opened and read; a plausible-looking citation is not enough. We do not publish synthetic quotations or hide materially AI-generated imagery. Desk-researched planning guides identify that method and distinguish operator information from firsthand observation. A dated update identifies which details were checked; it does not imply that every source or every place was revisited.