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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Soldier, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Soldier 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 Soldier:
    • 41.985676, -95.780609
    • 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 Soldier
  • 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 Monona County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Monona County
    • Since Soldier is near Crawford County and also Harrison County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Crawford County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Harrison 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 Soldier

Communities Also Named Soldier ...

We found five communities that are also named Soldier.

Within Iowa, the name Soldier is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Idaho
      • Camas County
      • This Soldier is located in Camas County and lies 967 miles [1,556.2 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Soldier that is located in Monona County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Camas County community of Soldier.
    • Kansas
      • Jackson County
      • This Soldier is located in Jackson County and lies 169 miles [272 km]<1> to the south of the Soldier that is located in Monona County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jackson County community of Soldier.
      • Republic 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 Soldier [Republic County].
    • Kentucky
      • Carter County
      • This Soldier is located in Carter County and lies 706 miles [1,136.2 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Soldier that is located in Monona County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Carter County community of Soldier.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Jefferson County
      • This Soldier is located in Jefferson County and lies 876 miles [1,409.8 km]<1> to the east of the Soldier that is located in Monona County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jefferson County community of Soldier.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Soldier ...

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.

  • Allen
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Allen is located in Harrison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Allen
  • Bell
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Bell is located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bell
  • Charter Oak
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Echo
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Echo is located in Harrison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Echo
  • Little Sioux
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Moorhead
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Orson
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Ricketts
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Ricketts is located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ricketts
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 135 people

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

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

  • Onawa, which is the Seat of Monona County, lies 16 miles [25.7 km]<1> to the west. If you could walk a straight line from Soldier to Onawa, with an average speed<4> 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 five to six hours.
  • Des Moines, which is the State Capital of Iowa, lies 114 miles [183.5 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,005 miles [1,617.4 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<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,461 miles [10,398 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,214 miles [11,609.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,117 miles [8,235 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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 from Point A (ie- Soldier) 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 Soldier 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>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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.
<5>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 Soldier 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 Soldier. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.9857, Longitude: -95.7806    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 320.009 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 317.73 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.696 degrees.