Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Rookins, Missouri

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. While there's debatable evidence of some historical habitation, that's not a criterion of WP:GEOLAND, and nobody's been able to find much evidence of any legal recognition, or indeed coverage, to demonstrate notability even under the fairly generous bar of that guideline. ~ mazca ^talk 23:09, 5 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Rookins, Missouri

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The state historical society piece linked in the article calls it "Rookins Post Office" and says it was located in a country store. Doesn't appear on the small-scale topos until after it gets entered into GNIS. Somehow, the modern topos show a Rookins Cemetery at the site, despite the old topos calling the cemetery Moore Cemetery. Not a community in the sense that WP:GEOLAND is met. Hog Farm _Bacon 02:49, 17 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Geography-related deletion discussions. Hog Farm _Bacon 02:49, 17 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Missouri-related deletion discussions. Hog Farm _Bacon 02:49, 17 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

delete Clearly just a post office. Mangoe (talk) 00:02, 18 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Keep. People lived here, shopped here, died here, and were even buried here in the local cemetery of the same name.72.49.7.25 (talk) 03:17, 24 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]
- There's a cemetery in the middle of a cow pasture near where I live. There was also an old house near there where people were born/died. Does that make the cow pasture notable? Hog Farm _Bacon 03:28, 24 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  - If the cow pasture is the site of a ghost town, yes it probably would be notable.72.49.7.25 (talk) 04:29, 24 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]
    - By which you actually mean "no", since you're saying that something else (namely, a town) is necessary. Listen, private plots are everywhere in the US: there's one behind my house wedged between the elementary school and the back of the Safeway. There's another out in some farm fields a ways west of here. If Find-a-Grave calls it the "Rookins Cemetery" it's pretty likely that they did so from some source (like WP) which identified the area as Rookins, rather than from some public records. Mangoe (talk) 14:24, 24 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Sandstein 16:32, 25 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Keep: Somehow, the modern topos show a Rookins Cemetery at the site, despite the old topos calling the cemetery Moore Cemetery. A post office, in 1886, would require employees to live near the post office, and furthermore would require either civilian or business customers to exist. That seems like prima facie evidence of habitation to me, thereby passing the bar of notability set by WP:GEOLAND. SITH (talk) 17:20, 25 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]
- @StraussInTheHouse: - There are two issues with your statement. First, habitation is not what's needed for a WP:GEOLAND pass. Legal recognition as a community is. The legal recognition at Rookins is at the post office level, not the community level. Second, rural post offices in 1886 were not what post offices are now: See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Yolo, Missouri, where a post office in a store was held to be not notable, and Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Alberta, Missouri, where another isolated post office was deleted. Generally, these seem to have been one-man outfits usually within someone's store. I've seen instances where the post office was on a rural farm. Before the advent of Rural Free Delivery, there were rural post offices in stores/farms/mills everywhere, for transportation purposes. A pre-RFD post office is not prima facie evidence that the area was habitated by anyone other than the postmaster, and post offices with no associated legally recognized community are generally not held to meet GEOLAND. Hog Farm _Bacon
Delete "Habitation" is NOT the bar of notability in GEOLAND, which requires legal recognition (e.g. incorporation or enumeration) or significant coverage. Reywas92^Talk 21:02, 26 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Redirect to the county per WP:ATD-R. Delete as a second choice. --Izno (talk) 03:13, 3 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.