RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Iowa >> Page County >> Tarkio City >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Tarkio City, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Tarkio City 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 Tarkio City:
    • 40.732494, -95.195539
    • 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 Tarkio City
  • 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 Page County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Page County
    • Since Tarkio City is near Atchison County and also Montgomery County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Atchison County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Montgomery 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 Tarkio City

Curious and Interesting Names Near Tarkio City ...

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.

  • Climax
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Climax is located in Mills County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Climax
  • Coin
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Coin is located in Page County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coin
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 175 people
  • College Springs
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • College Springs is located in Page County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for College Springs
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 204 people
  • Elmo
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Elmo is located in Nodaway County (MO)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elmo
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 148 people
  • Farmers City
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Farmers City is located in Atchison County (MO)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Farmers City
  • Hepburn
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Hepburn is located in Page County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hepburn
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 17 people
  • High Creek
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • High Creek is located in Fremont County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for High Creek
  • Page Center
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Page Center is located in Page County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Page Center
  • Possum Walk
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Possum Walk is located in Nodaway County (MO)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Possum Walk

How Far From Tarkio City to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Tarkio City 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<1> community of Tarkio City once stood, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Tarkio City and extending to:

  • Clarinda, which is the Seat of Page County, lies just to the East.
  • Des Moines, which is the State Capital of Iowa, lies 101 miles [162.5 km]<2> to the northeast (NE). If you could drive a straight line from Tarkio City to Des Moines, with an average speed<3>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 three full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 969 miles [1,559.5 km] to the east (E). Driving would take most of two days, a buggy would take 38 days and walking would take 55 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,508 miles [10,473.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,257 miles [11,679 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,154 miles [8,294.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 Tarkio City, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Tarkio City) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<4>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 Tarkio City 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 Tarkio City. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.7325, Longitude: -95.1955       In this case, the coordinates for Tarkio City have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 319.544 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 317.034 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.65 degrees.