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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Minnesota, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Minnesota 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 Minnesota:
    • 40.662094, -122.488902
    • 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 Minnesota
  • 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 Shasta County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Shasta County
    • Since Minnesota is near Trinity County and also Tehama County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Trinity County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Tehama 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 Minnesota

Communities Also Named Minnesota ...

We found three communities that are also named Minnesota.

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

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

  • Communities Located In California ...
    • Sierra County
      • This community is historic<1> and although located in Sierra County, we don't know where within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sierra County community of Minnesota.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Georgia
      • Colquitt County
      • This Minnesota is located in Colquitt County and lies 2,230 miles [3,588.8 km]<2> to the east of the Minnesota that is located in Shasta County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Colquitt County community of Minnesota.
    • Minnesota
      • Lyon County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Minnesota community of Minnesota [Lyon County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Minnesota ...

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.

  • Buckeye
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Buckeye is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckeye
  • Churntown ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Churntown is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Churntown
    • Former name for Churntown:
    • One Wagon Town
  • Fielding ‑ Historic
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Fielding is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fielding
  • Hart ‑ Historic
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Hart is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hart
    • Hart has also been known as:
    • Hart Village
    • Hart's Camp
  • Hogtown ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Hogtown is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hogtown
  • Iron Mountain ‑ Historic
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Iron Mountain is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iron Mountain
  • Oak Bottom ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Oak Bottom is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Bottom
  • Summit City ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Summit City is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit City
  • Whiskeytown ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Whiskeytown is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whiskeytown
    • Former names for Whiskeytown:
    • Blair
    • Franklin City
    • Schilling
    • Stella
    • Whiskey Creek
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Whiskeytown <4>

How Far From Minnesota 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 Minnesota to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Redding, which is the Seat of Shasta County, lies just to the Southeast.
  • Sacramento, which is the State Capital of California, lies 153 miles [246.2 km]<2> to the south southeast (SSE). If you could drive a straight line from Minnesota to Sacramento, with an average speed<5>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 9 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,387 miles [3,841.5 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take 5 days, a buggy would take 94 days and walking would take 136 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,228 miles [11,632.3 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,994 miles [12,865.1 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 6,070 miles [9,768.7 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Minnesota, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Minnesota) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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 Minnesota 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.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>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.
<6>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 Minnesota 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 Minnesota. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.6621, Longitude: -122.4889       In this case, the coordinates for Minnesota have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 340.541 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 341.698 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 328.186 degrees.