Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Johnston, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Johnston and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Johnston
- 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 Johnston:
- 41.684307, -93.714758
- 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.
- The Heavens-Above Website, centered on Johnston
- 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 Polk County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Polk County
- Since Johnston is near Dallas County and also Warren County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for Dallas County
- eBird sighting report for Warren 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:
- Waymark.com
Communities Also Named Johnston ...
We found eleven communities that share the name Johnston.
Within Iowa, the name Johnston is unique.
Beyond Iowa, we know of another eleven communities that are located throughout in the United States and Canada. Of these eleven communities, ten are located in the United States and one is in Canada.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Alaska
- Arkansas
- California
- Manitoba
- We haven't found the location of this community yet.
- Michigan
- Mississippi
- Ohio
- Trumbull County
- This Johnston is located in Trumbull County and lies 674 miles [1,084.7 km]<2> to the east of the Johnston that is located in Polk County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Trumbull County community of Johnston.
- Tuscarawas County
- This Johnston is located in Tuscarawas County and lies 646 miles [1,039.6 km] to the east of the Johnston that is located in Polk County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Tuscarawas County community of Johnston.
- Pennsylvania
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
Curious and Interesting Names Near Johnston ...
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.
- Carbondale
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Carbondale have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carbondale
- Carbondale is located in Polk County
- Commerce
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south) - Elkhart
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elkhart
- Elkhart is located in Polk County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 952 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Elkhart <4>
- Enterprise
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Enterprise have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Enterprise
- Enterprise is located in Polk County
- High Bridge
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)- Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for High Bridge. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<5>
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for High Bridge
- High Bridge is located in Dallas County
- Madrid
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Madrid
- Madrid is located in Boone County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 2,550 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Madrid <4>
- Pleasant Hill
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pleasant Hill have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Hill
- Pleasant Hill is located in Polk County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 10,025 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pleasant Hill <4>
- Rider
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest) - Rising Sun
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rising Sun have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rising Sun
- Rising Sun is located in Polk County
- Valley Junction
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Valley Junction have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valley Junction
- Valley Junction is located in Polk County
How Far From Johnston 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 city such as Johnston to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Johnston and extending to:
- Des Moines, which is the Seat of Polk County, lies just to the Southeast.
- Des Moines, which is the State Capital of Iowa, lies just to the southeast (SE).
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 897 miles [1,443.6 km]<2> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Johnston to White House, with an average speed<6>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take most of two days to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 51 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 35 days.
- The shortest distance<7> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,407 miles [10,311.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,157 miles [11,518.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,053 miles [8,132 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<10>
Off-the-Road Links ...
The official website for Johnston: www.cityofjohnston.com/
The official website for Polk County: www.co.polk.ia.us/
The official website for State of Iowa: https://www.iowa.gov/
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 Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird 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 Johnston 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Johnston) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Johnston. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.6843, Longitude: -93.7148 In this case, the coordinates for Johnston have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <3> | The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required. |
| <4> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |
| <5> | An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace. |
| <6> | 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. |
| <7> | 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 Johnston to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East. |
| <8> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 318.555 degrees. |
| <9> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 316.019 degrees. |
| <10> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 311.686 degrees. |