RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Iowa >> Linn County >> New Buffalo >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in New Buffalo, we use the following websites to find information relevant to New Buffalo 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 New Buffalo:
    • 42.034720, -91.703791
    • 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 New Buffalo
  • 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 Linn County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Linn County
    • Since New Buffalo is near Benton County and also Johnson County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Benton County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Johnson 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 New Buffalo

Communities Also Named New Buffalo ...

We found five communities that are also named New Buffalo.

Within Iowa, the name New Buffalo is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Kansas
      • Finney County
      • This community is historic<1> and although located in Finney County, we don't know where within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Finney County community of New Buffalo.
      • Gray 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 Kansas community of New Buffalo [Gray County].
    • Michigan
      • Berrien County
      • This New Buffalo is located in Berrien County and lies 255 miles [410.4 km]<3> to the east of the New Buffalo that is located in Linn County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Berrien County community of New Buffalo.
    • Ohio
      • Mahoning County
      • This New Buffalo is located in Mahoning County and lies 572 miles [920.5 km]<3> to the east of the New Buffalo that is located in Linn County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Mahoning County community of New Buffalo.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Perry County
      • This New Buffalo is located in Perry County and lies 771 miles [1,240.8 km]<3> to the east of the New Buffalo that is located in Linn County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Perry County community of New Buffalo.

Curious and Interesting Names Near New Buffalo ...

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.

  • Alice
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Alice is located in Linn County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alice
  • Cedar Rapids
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Center Point
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Grand View Village
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Grand View Village is located in Linn County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand View Village
  • Hiawatha
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Lincolnway Village
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Lincolnway Village is located in Linn County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lincolnway Village
  • Marion
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Robins
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Robins is located in Linn County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Robins
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,570 people
  • Rogers
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Rogers is located in Linn County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rogers
  • Toddville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)

How Far From New Buffalo 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 New Buffalo to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Cedar Rapids, which is the Seat of Linn County, lies just to the South Southeast.
  • Des Moines, which is the State Capital of Iowa, lies 103 miles [165.8 km]<3> to the west southwest (WSW). If you could drive a straight line from New Buffalo to Des Moines, with an average speed<5>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 6 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 4 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 799 miles [1,285.9 km] to the east (E). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 32 days and walking would take 46 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,320 miles [10,171.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,067 miles [11,373.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,959 miles [7,980.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 New Buffalo, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 New Buffalo 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>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- New Buffalo) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 New Buffalo 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 New Buffalo. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.0347, Longitude: -91.7038       In this case, the coordinates for New Buffalo have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 317.18 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 314.488 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.572 degrees.