RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Idaho >> Franklin County >> Silver Star >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Silver Star, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Silver Star 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 Silver Star:
    • 42.081868, -111.954953
    • 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 Silver Star
  • 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 Franklin County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Franklin County
    • Since Silver Star is near Cache County and also Oneida County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cache County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Oneida 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 Silver Star

Communities Also Named Silver Star ...

We found two communities that are also named Silver Star.

Within Idaho, the name Silver Star is unique.

Beyond Idaho, we know of two communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Montana
      • Madison County
      • This Silver Star is located in Madison County and lies 249 miles [400.7 km]<1> to the north of the Silver Star that is located in Franklin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Madison County community of Silver Star.
      • Missoula 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 Montana community of Silver Star [Missoula County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Silver Star ...

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.

  • Cherry Creek
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Cherry Creek is located in Oneida County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cherry Creek
  • Cherryville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Cherryville is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cherryville
  • Cornish
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Cove
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Cove is located in Cache County (UT)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cove
  • Egypt
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Egypt is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Egypt
  • Franklin
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Mink Creek
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Mink Creek is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mink Creek
  • Portage
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Portage is located in Box Elder County (UT)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Portage
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 274 people
  • Quigley Crossing
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Quigley Crossing is located in Cache County (UT)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quigley Crossing
  • Swanlake
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)

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

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

  • Preston, which is the Seat of Franklin County, lies just to the East Northeast.
  • Boise, which is the State Capital of Idaho, lies 239 miles [384.6 km]<1> to the west northwest (WNW). If you could drive a straight line from Silver Star to Boise, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take nearly four hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 14 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 10 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,833 miles [2,949.9 km] to the east (E). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 72 days and walking would take 105 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,919 miles [11,135.1 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,688 miles [12,372.6 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,677 miles [9,136.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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- Silver Star) 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 Silver Star 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 Silver Star 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 Silver Star. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.0819, Longitude: -111.9550       In this case, the coordinates for Silver Star have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 332.093 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 331.797 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 321.701 degrees.