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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Sibyl, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Sibyl 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 Sibyl:
    • 41.949194, -90.185406
    • 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 Sibyl
  • 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 Clinton County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Clinton County
    • Since Sibyl is near Carroll County and also Whiteside County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Carroll County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Whiteside 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 Sibyl

Communities Also Named Sibyl ...

We found one communities that are also named Sibyl.

Within Iowa, the name Sibyl is unique.

Beyond Iowa, there is another community also named Sibyl in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arizona
      • Cochise County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Arizona community of Sibyl [Cochise County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Sibyl ...

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.

  • Elk River Junction
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Elk River Junction is located in Clinton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elk River Junction
  • Garden Plain
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Garden Plain is located in Whiteside County (IL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garden Plain
  • Goose Lake
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Goose Lake is located in Clinton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goose Lake
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 220 people
  • Hickory Grove
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Hickory Grove is located in Carroll County (IL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Grove
  • Ideal
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Ideal is located in Carroll County (IL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ideal
  • Little Oklahoma
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Little Oklahoma is located in Whiteside County (IL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Oklahoma
  • Lyons
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Lyons is located in Clinton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyons
  • Miles
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Sixmile
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Sixmile is located in Clinton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sixmile
  • Spring Valley
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Spring Valley is located in Whiteside County (IL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Valley
  • Tenmile
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Tenmile is located in Clinton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tenmile
  • Ustick
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Ustick is located in Whiteside County (IL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ustick
  • Wacker
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Wacker is located in Carroll County (IL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wacker

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers and using the location of where the historic<3> community of Sibyl once stood, the straight-line distance<4> beginning in Sibyl and extending to:

  • Clinton, which is the Seat of Clinton County, lies just to the South.
  • Des Moines, which is the State Capital of Iowa, lies 178 miles [286.5 km]<4> to the west (W). If you could drive a straight line from Sibyl to Des Moines, with an average speed<5>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take a little over three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 11 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 721 miles [1,160.3 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 29 days and walking would take 41 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,271 miles [10,092.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,015 miles [11,289.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,903 miles [7,890.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

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 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 Sibyl 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>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 Sibyl, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Sibyl) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Sibyl 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 Sibyl. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.9492, Longitude: -90.1854       In this case, the coordinates for Sibyl have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 316.146 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 313.293 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.823 degrees.