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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

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

  • 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 Tortuga:
    • 33.167815, -115.342759
    • 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 Tortuga
  • 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 Imperial County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Imperial 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 Tortuga

Communities Also Named Tortuga ...

We found one communities that are also named Tortuga.

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

Beyond California.

  • Communities Located In California ...
    • San Diego 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 Tortuga [San Diego County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Tortuga ...

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.

  • Amos ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Amos is located in Imperial County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amos
  • Butlers ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Butlers is located in Imperial County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Butlers
  • Citrus View
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Citrus View is located in Imperial County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Citrus View
  • Iris
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Iris is located in Imperial County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iris
  • Mayflower ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Mayflower is located in Imperial County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mayflower
  • Mesquite
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Mesquite is located in Imperial County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesquite
  • Rockwood
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Rockwood is located in Imperial County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockwood
  • Shamrock ‑ Historic
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Shamrock is located in Imperial County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shamrock

How Far From Tortuga to ...

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Tortuga and extending to:

  • El Centro, which is the Seat of Imperial County, lies 28 miles [45.1 km]<2> to the south southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Tortuga to El Centro, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just about two full days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just over a day.
  • Sacramento, which is the State Capital of California, lies 507 miles [815.9 km] to the northwest (NW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take just over a day, a buggy would take 20 days and walking would take 29 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,159 miles [3,474.6 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take 5 days, a buggy would take 85 days and walking would take 123 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,552 miles [12,153.8 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 8,319 miles [13,388.1 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 6,279 miles [10,105.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's 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 Tortuga 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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Tortuga) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<4>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 Tortuga 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 Tortuga. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 33.1678, Longitude: -115.3428       In this case, the coordinates for Tortuga have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 333.726 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 333.021 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 323.97 degrees.