RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Iowa >> Cherokee County >> Mary Hill >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Mary Hill, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Mary Hill 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 Mary Hill:
    • 42.735403, -95.682436
    • 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 Mary Hill
  • 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 Cherokee County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cherokee County
    • Since Mary Hill is near O'Brien County and also Plymouth County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for O'Brien County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Plymouth 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 Mary Hill

Communities Also Named Mary Hill ...

We found two communities that are also named Mary Hill.

Within Iowa, the name Mary Hill is unique.

Beyond Iowa, we know of two communities that are located in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • British Columbia
      • This Mary Hill lies 1,366 miles [2,198.4 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Mary Hill that is located in Cherokee County.
    • Manitoba
      • We haven't found the location of this community yet.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Mary Hill ...

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.

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

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

  • Cherokee, which is the Seat of Cherokee County, lies just to the East.
  • Des Moines, which is the State Capital of Iowa, lies 131 miles [210.8 km]<1> to the southeast (SE). If you could drive a straight line from Mary Hill to Des Moines, with an average speed<3>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 8 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,007 miles [1,620.6 km] to the east (E). Driving would take most of two days, a buggy would take 40 days and walking would take 58 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,418 miles [10,328.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,172 miles [11,542.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,079 miles [8,173.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 from Point A (ie- Mary Hill) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 Mary Hill 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 Mary Hill. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.7354, Longitude: -95.6824    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 319.967 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 317.778 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.484 degrees.