RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Colorado >> Otero County >> Elder >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Elder, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Elder 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 Elder:
    • 38.123339, -103.967181
    • 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 Elder
  • 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 Otero County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Otero County
    • Since Elder is near Crowley County and also Pueblo County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Crowley County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Pueblo 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 Elder

Communities Also Named Elder ...

We found seven communities that are also named Elder.

Within Colorado, the name Elder is unique.

Beyond Colorado, we know of seven communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these seven communities, six are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alabama
      • Clay County
      • This Elder is located in Clay County and lies 1,066 miles [1,715.6 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Elder that is located in Otero County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Clay County community of Elder.
    • Georgia
      • Clarke County
      • This Elder is located in Clarke County and lies 1,179 miles [1,897.4 km]<1> to the east of the Elder that is located in Otero County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Clarke County community of Elder.
      • Oconee County
      • This Elder is located in Oconee County and lies 1,188 miles [1,911.9 km] to the east of the Elder that is located in Otero County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Oconee County community of Elder.
    • Kentucky
      • Morgan County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Kentucky community of Elder [Morgan County].
    • Louisiana
      • Allen Parish
      • This Elder is located in Allen Parish and lies 822 miles [1,322.9 km]<1> to the southeast of the Elder that is located in Otero County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Allen Parish community of Elder.
    • Maryland
      • Garrett County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Maryland community of Elder [Garrett County].
    • Ontario
      • This Elder lies 1,305 miles [2,100.2 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Elder that is located in Otero County.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Elder ...

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.

  • Fowler
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Hamlet
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Hamlet is located in Pueblo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hamlet
  • Hays
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Hays is located in Otero County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hays
  • King Center
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • King Center is located in Crowley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for King Center
  • Roberta
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Roberta is located in Otero County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roberta
  • Rocky Ford
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Sugar City
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
  • Swink
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)

How Far From Elder to ...

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

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

  • La Junta, which is the Seat of Otero County, lies 25 miles [40.2 km]<1> to the east southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Elder to La Junta, with an average speed<4> 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 most of a day.
  • Denver, which is the State Capital of Colorado, lies 124 miles [199.6 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 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,450 miles [2,333.5 km] to the east (E). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 57 days and walking would take 83 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,935 miles [11,160.8 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 7,694 miles [12,382.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,611 miles [9,030 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Elder) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>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 Elder 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.
<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 Elder 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 Elder. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.1233, Longitude: -103.9672       In this case, the coordinates for Elder have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 325.613 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 323.79 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 317.596 degrees.