Journal 1

Journal #1 was a cryptic journal written by Ford Pines and formerly owned by Stan Pines. It is the first in a series of books, including Journal 2 (formerly owned by Gideon Gleeful, later by Stan Pines) and Journal 3 (owned by Dipper Pines). There is not much known about the contents of the journal. It was destroyed along with Journals 2 and 3 by Bill Cipher.

History
Over thirty years before Dipper and Mabel Pines' arrival in Gravity Falls, Ford documented unknown information on the strange and paranormal activities of Gravity Falls. Out of paranoia he was being watched, Ford began hiding his three books in various areas of the town, hoping to keep their knowledge secret to prevent the opening of the Universe portal. After hiding the second and third, he entrusted hiding Journal 1 to his brother Stan, but Stan became furious when the pair had just reunited after so long only for him to be sent away again.

Stan responded by threatening to burn the journal, resulting in an all-out brawl between the two brothers that inadvertently activated the Universe Portal and sent Ford through it. In a desperate last act, Ford threw the journal back to Stan, crying for him to "do something," but he vanished before the panicking Stan could act. Stan tried repeatedly to turn the portal back on but was unable to do so with only Journal 1 's contents, thus beginning his quest to reunite all three.

The journal first makes an appearance in "Gideon Rises," in which Stan reveals himself to be its owner, and uses the other journals to activate the Universe Portal beneath the Mystery Shack.

In "Scary-oke," the book makes a reappearance as Stan continues his plans, plotting to keep his project and the journals hidden from the twins.

In "Not What He Seems", when Dipper, Mabel, and Soos go to Stan's basement, Dipper discovers that Stan had both Journal 1 and Journal 2.

In "The Last Mabelcorn," Ford gives Mabel the journal to aid her in her quest for unicorn hair.

In "Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future" the Floating Cliffs page is mentioned as Ford reveals he discovered the cliffs and valley of the town were formed by a crashing UFO millions of years ago.

In "Weirdmageddon Part 1," Bill destroys Journal 1 alongside Journal 2 and Journal 3.

Enchanted Forest
The page is a drawing of the forest. In the center is a Stonehenge circle, and has several paths stemming from it, leading to various locations (i.e. Bad Side, Fairy nail salon and Gnome tavern).

Floating Cliffs
Both the left and the right page have sketches of the floating cliffs. On the right page, Ford added a measurement of the distance between the floating cliff and the "base" of the earth it is on. Below said drawing, it reads "Not naturally occurring?"

Left Page:

Right Page:

''Note: it is actually spelled as "occuring" in the text. So far, this is the only spelling or grammar error in any of the journals. This page is seen again in "A Tale of Two Stans" with the correct spelling.''

Manual Override Fail Safe
This page includes a diagram, showing the fail safe mechanism for shutting down the portal.

Portal page


When placed together with the other two journals, it completes a warning written in invisible ink (the bold is the contents of Journal 1)

Summoning the Unicorn
On the top left, the phrase "DEEPEST CHANT" is written in red. Most of the page is a drawing of a hooded figure, presumably a Druid of old.

Alchemic symbols (on the left page): extraction of dryness, earth/terra cementation, compositions

Unicorns


The page is mostly taken up by a sketch of a unicorn, with its mane being braided by a beautiful woman. Drawn on the Magic Hair Only for the Pure of Heart page is a sketch of a girl (possibly princess) with her eyes closed and mouth open (possibly implying singing). She is wearing a dress with a heart shape in its center.

Unknown page
On the left page, there is a picture of an unknown bat-like creature taped to the page, with the word "unknown" written above the picture. There are 15 symbols, only 11 of which are known alchemic symbols.

Alchemic symbols: composition, pulverize, digestion, fusion, purification, dry, reverberation, pulverize, purification, coagulation, distillation.

On the right page, there is a drawing of Bill Cipher. There is also "Code Decoder #8". The page is very similar to the one that is seen in the theme song (except with the alchemy symbols on the left page appearing alongside the right page for the theme song). There is one unknown symbol, alongside a known alchemical symbol.

Alchemic symbols: preparation

Warning page


The alchemic symbols visible in the upper right corner of the right page are: air, water, and copper.

A map is shown with several locations highlighted in blue circles of varying sizes.

Final page
As seen in "A Tale of Two Stans," the final page of Journal 1 states that it is continued by Journal 2. However, since Gideon, who had presumably studied Journal 2 extensively, didn't know there were in fact three journals, it can be assumed that either it does not contain a similar message, or it is written in invisble ink.

Appearance
Journal 1 ' s cover is burgundy and has various rips and tears, most noticeably a large piece missing in the upper right hand corner. It has two gold binder lines on its spine, and its three remaining corner-covers are gold as well. In the center of the cover is a gold hand with six fingers, with the number 1 written in black in the middle.

Its pages are seemingly worn and hold various page markers, similar to journals 2 and 3. It also appears to be the thickest of all three journals.

Sightings
Tagebuch 1