RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Illinois >> Saint Clair County >> Briar Hill >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Briar Hill, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Briar Hill 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 Briar Hill:
    • 38.573106, -90.063163
    • 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 Briar Hill
  • 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 Saint Clair County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Saint Clair County
    • Since Briar Hill is near Madison County and also Saint Louis County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Madison County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Saint Louis 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 Briar Hill

Communities Also Named Briar Hill ...

We found four communities that are also named Briar Hill.

There is one other community in Illinois that is also named Briar Hill.

Beyond Illinois, we know of three communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Located In Illinois ...
    • Kane 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 Illinois community of Briar Hill [Kane County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alabama
      • Pike County
      • This Briar Hill is located in Pike County and lies 507 miles [815.9 km]<2> to the south southeast of the Briar Hill that is located in Saint Clair County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Pike County community of Briar Hill.
    • Maryland
      • Howard County
      • This Briar Hill is located in Howard County and lies 705 miles [1,134.6 km]<2> to the east of the Briar Hill that is located in Saint Clair County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Howard County community of Briar Hill.
    • Michigan
      • Monroe 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 Michigan community of Briar Hill [Monroe County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Briar Hill ...

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.

  • Bunkum
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Bunkum is located in Saint Clair County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bunkum
  • Caseyville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Crest Hill
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Crest Hill is located in Saint Clair County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crest Hill
  • Dutch Hollow
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Dutch Hollow is located in Saint Clair County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dutch Hollow
  • French Village
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • French Village is located in Saint Clair County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for French Village
  • Golden Gardens
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Golden Gardens is located in Saint Clair County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Golden Gardens
  • Hilltop
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Hilltop is located in Saint Clair County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hilltop
  • Royal Heights
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Royal Heights is located in Saint Clair County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Royal Heights
  • Signal Hill
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Signal Hill is located in Saint Clair County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Signal Hill
  • Union Hill
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Union Hill is located in Saint Clair County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Union Hill

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

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

  • Belleville, which is the Seat of Saint Clair County, lies just to the Southeast.
  • Springfield, which is the State Capital of Illinois, lies 86 miles [138.4 km]<2> to the north northeast (NNE). If you could drive a straight line from Briar Hill to Springfield, with an average speed<4>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 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 701 miles [1,128.2 km] to the east (E). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 28 days and walking would take 40 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,434 miles [10,354.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,169 miles [11,537.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,049 miles [8,125.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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 Briar Hill 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>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- Briar Hill) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Briar Hill 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 Briar Hill. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.5731, Longitude: -90.0632       In this case, the coordinates for Briar Hill have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.982 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 312.643 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.598 degrees.