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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Santiago, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Santiago 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 Santiago:
    • 41.710012, -93.374991
    • 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 Santiago
  • 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:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Polk County
    • Since Santiago is near Jasper County and also Story County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Jasper 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 Santiago

Communities Also Named Santiago ...

We found ten communities that are also named Santiago.

Within Iowa, the name Santiago is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arizona
      • Maricopa County
      • This Santiago is located in Maricopa County and lies 1,156 miles [1,860.4 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Santiago that is located in Polk County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Maricopa County community of Santiago.
    • Kansas
      • Santiago #
      • 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 Santiago.
    • Louisiana
      • Grant Parish
      • This community is historic<3> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Louisiana community of Santiago [Grant Parish].
    • Michigan
      • Arenac County
      • This Santiago is located in Arenac County and lies 516 miles [830.4 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Santiago that is located in Polk County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Arenac County community of Santiago.
    • Minnesota
      • Sherburne County
      • This Santiago is located in Sherburne County and lies 265 miles [426.5 km]<1> to the north of the Santiago that is located in Polk County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sherburne County community of Santiago.
    • Missouri
      • Benton County
      • This Santiago is located in Benton County and lies 226 miles [363.7 km]<1> to the south of the Santiago that is located in Polk County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Benton County community of Santiago.
    • Nevada
      • Ormsby County
      • This community is historic<3> and although located in Ormsby County, we don't know where within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Ormsby County community of Santiago.
    • New Mexico
      • Mora County
      • This community is historic<3> and although located in Mora County, we don't know where within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Mora County community of Santiago.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Allegheny County
      • This Santiago is located in Allegheny County and lies 687 miles [1,105.6 km]<1> to the east of the Santiago that is located in Polk County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Allegheny County community of Santiago.
    • West Virginia
      • Taylor County
      • This Santiago is located in Taylor County and lies 709 miles [1,141 km]<1> to the east of the Santiago that is located in Polk County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Taylor County community of Santiago.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Santiago ...

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 Santiago 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 community such as Santiago to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Des Moines, which is the Seat of Polk County, lies 14 miles [22.5 km]<1> to the west southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Santiago to Des Moines, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of a day 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 14 miles [22.5 km] to the west southwest (WSW). The buggy would take four to five hours and walking would take most of a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 880 miles [1,416.2 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 6,395 miles [10,291.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,143 miles [11,495.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,038 miles [8,107.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Santiago) 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 Santiago 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 Santiago, 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 Santiago 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 Santiago. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.7100, Longitude: -93.3750       In this case, the coordinates for Santiago have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 318.321 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 315.753 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 311.506 degrees.