A fact from Denton G. Burdick appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 27 August 2016, and was viewed approximately 4,246 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
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I corrected another apparent typo (1917 for 1913) that I forgot to do yesterday.
I started to delete the Did You Know fact from this article, since it probably isn't true, but I decided to just put the dubious tag. Given that the area of Oregon is 98,381 sq mi and Pennsylvania is 46,055 sq. mi., the 21st District would have to cover more than half of Oregon. This wouldn't be impossible, since many of the western states have large areas with sparse populations, which can result in very large districts. But if you add up the areas of the listed counties you get:
• Crook 2,987 sq mi
• Deschutes 3,055 sq mi
• Grant 4,529 sq mi
• Jefferson 1,791 sq mi
• Klamath 6,136 sq mi
• Lake 8,358 sq mi
• Total 26,856 sq. mi
The total area of those counties is 26,856 sq. mi. and since 26,856 is only 58% of 46,055 (the size of Pennsylvania), the veracity of the statement is questionable. I realize a district's boundary can go beyond a county's borders, but this would engulf a number of other counties, since it would cover half of the state. Don't people fact check things before publishing them? __209.179.36.56 (talk) 03:42, 28 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
The fact came from what appears to be a reliable source, the 30 December 1922 edition of Oregon Vote, a widely circulated political affairs journal of the time. However, your calculation seems to show the fact is a stretch at best so I’ve changed the text to highlight the district’s sq miles.--Orygun (talk) 18:31, 28 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I'm glad you're willing to discuss things, as over the years I've dealt with editors who would needlessly argue about anything. One thing to remember is that you can't always blindly trust a source, as we always have to make sure it makes sense. As Reagan used to say, "Trust, but verify." It would be nice if someone could dig up an actual map from that time, although it's unlikely to give an area measurement, since apportionment is only based upon population, not area. BTW, the state closest to the given size is West Virginia, which is adjacent to Pennsylvania, so maybe the author in the original source just got the two states confused? __209.179.36.56 (talk) 03:32, 29 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
