RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of California >> Madera County >> Dairyland >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Dairyland, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Dairyland and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
    • To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Dairyland:
    • 37.018279, -120.310452
    • Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on Dairyland
  • Bird Watching ...
    • We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
    • The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Madera County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Madera County
    • Since Dairyland is near Merced County and also Fresno County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Merced County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Fresno County
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Dairyland

Communities Also Named Dairyland ...

We found four communities that are also named Dairyland.

There is one other community in California that is also named Dairyland.

Beyond California, we know of three communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Located In California ...
    • Orange County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the California community of Dairyland [Orange County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • New York
      • Ulster County
      • This Dairyland is located in Ulster County and lies 2,435 miles [3,918.8 km]<2> to the east northeast of the Dairyland that is located in Madera County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Ulster County community of Dairyland.
    • Texas
      • El Paso County
      • This Dairyland is located in El Paso County and lies 887 miles [1,427.5 km]<2> to the east southeast of the Dairyland that is located in Madera County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the El Paso County community of Dairyland.
    • Wisconsin
      • Douglas County
      • This Dairyland is located in Douglas County and lies 1,575 miles [2,534.7 km]<2> to the east northeast of the Dairyland that is located in Madera County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Douglas County community of Dairyland.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Dairyland ...

As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.

  • Ash ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Ash is located in Madera County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ash
  • Bonita
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Bonita is located in Madera County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonita
  • Chowchilla
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Gregg
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Gregg is located in Madera County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gregg
  • Italian Swiss Colony
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Italian Swiss Colony is located in Madera County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Italian Swiss Colony
  • Lincoln ‑ Historic
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Lincoln is located in Madera County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lincoln
  • Plains ‑ Historic
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Plains is located in Madera County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plains
  • Plainsburg
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Plainsburg is located in Merced County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plainsburg

How Far From Dairyland to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Dairyland to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Dairyland and extending to:

  • Madera, which is the Seat of Madera County, lies 14 miles [22.5 km]<2> to the east southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Dairyland to Madera, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Sacramento, which is the State Capital of California, lies 125 miles [201.2 km] to the north northwest (NNW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 8 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,337 miles [3,761 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take 5 days, a buggy would take 92 days and walking would take 133 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,423 miles [11,946.2 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 8,191 miles [13,182.1 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 6,220 miles [10,010.1 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Dairyland could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<2>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Dairyland) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<5>The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Dairyland to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Dairyland. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.0183, Longitude: -120.3105       In this case, the coordinates for Dairyland have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 338.346 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 338.877 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 326.878 degrees.