RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Iowa >> Jasper County >> Mingo >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Mingo, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Mingo 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 Mingo:
    • 41.767295, -93.283584
    • 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 Mingo
  • 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 Jasper County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Jasper County
    • Since Mingo is near Polk County and also Story County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Polk County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Story 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 Mingo

Communities Also Named Mingo ...

We found twelve communities that are also named Mingo.

Within Iowa, the name Mingo is unique.

Beyond Iowa, we know of twelve communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Kansas
      • Thomas County
      • This Mingo is located in Thomas County and lies 437 miles [703.3 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Mingo that is located in Jasper County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Thomas County community of Mingo.
    • Mississippi
      • Tishomingo County
      • This Mingo is located in Tishomingo County and lies 565 miles [909.3 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Mingo that is located in Jasper County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Tishomingo County community of Mingo.
    • Missouri
      • Stoddard County
      • This Mingo is located in Stoddard County and lies 371 miles [597.1 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Mingo that is located in Jasper County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Stoddard County community of Mingo.
    • North Carolina
      • Johnston 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 North Carolina community of Mingo [Johnston County].
      • Sampson County
      • This Mingo is located in Sampson County and lies 914 miles [1,470.9 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Mingo that is located in Jasper County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sampson County community of Mingo.
    • Ohio
      • Champaign County
      • This Mingo is located in Champaign County and lies 513 miles [825.6 km]<1> to the east of the Mingo that is located in Jasper County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Champaign County community of Mingo.
      • Vinton County
      • This community is historic<3> and although located in Vinton County, we don't know where within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Vinton County community of Mingo.
    • Oklahoma
      • Tulsa County
      • This Mingo is located in Tulsa County and lies 407 miles [655 km]<1> to the south southwest of the Mingo that is located in Jasper County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Tulsa County community of Mingo.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Montgomery County
      • This Mingo is located in Montgomery County and lies 930 miles [1,496.7 km]<1> to the east of the Mingo that is located in Jasper County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Montgomery County community of Mingo.
    • Texas
      • Denton County
      • This Mingo is located in Denton County and lies 623 miles [1,002.6 km]<1> to the south southwest of the Mingo that is located in Jasper County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Denton County community of Mingo.
    • Virginia
      • Franklin 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 Virginia community of Mingo [Franklin County].
    • West Virginia
      • Randolph County
      • This Mingo is located in Randolph County and lies 733 miles [1,179.6 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Mingo that is located in Jasper County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Randolph County community of Mingo.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Mingo ...

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 Mingo 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 city such as Mingo to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Newton, which is the Seat of Jasper County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<1> to the east southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Mingo to Newton, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Des Moines, which is the State Capital of Iowa, lies 20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest (SW). The buggy would take most of a day and walking would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 876 miles [1,409.8 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of two days, a buggy would take 35 days and walking would take 50 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,388 miles [10,280.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,137 miles [11,485.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,032 miles [8,098.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Mingo) 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 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 Mingo 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>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 Mingo, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 Mingo 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 Mingo. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.7673, Longitude: -93.2836    
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 318.259 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 315.69 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 311.446 degrees.