RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Illinois >> Will County >> Broken Arrow >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Broken Arrow, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Broken Arrow 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 Broken Arrow:
    • 41.578333, -88.016667
    • 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 Broken Arrow
  • 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 Will County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Will County
    • Since Broken Arrow is near Cook County and also DuPage County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cook County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for DuPage 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 Broken Arrow

Communities Also Named Broken Arrow ...

We found two communities that are also named Broken Arrow.

Within Illinois, the name Broken Arrow is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Georgia
      • Walton 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 Georgia community of Broken Arrow [Walton County].
    • Oklahoma
      • Tulsa County
      • This Broken Arrow is located in Tulsa County and lies 566 miles [910.9 km]<2> to the southwest of the Broken Arrow that is located in Will County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Tulsa County community of Broken Arrow.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Broken Arrow ...

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.

  • Cache Lake
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Cache Lake is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cache Lake
  • Cherry Hill
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Cherry Hill is located in Will County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cherry Hill
  • Cinnamon Creek
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Cinnamon Creek is located in Will County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cinnamon Creek
  • Crest Hill
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Dawn Wood
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Dawn Wood is located in Will County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dawn Wood
  • Deer Run
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Deer Run is located in Will County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deer Run
  • Doctor Parker Place
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Doctor Parker Place is located in Will County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Doctor Parker Place
  • Erin Hills
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Erin Hills is located in Will County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Erin Hills
  • Forest Park
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Forest Park is located in Will County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest Park
  • Homer Glen
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Homer Glen is located in Will County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Homer Glen
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 24,281 people
    • Homer Glen has also been known as:
    • Homer Glen village
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Homer Glen <3>
  • Lockport
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Long Run Creek
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Long Run Creek is located in Will County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Run Creek
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Meadowview
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Meadowview is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadowview
    • Michigan Beach
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Michigan Beach is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Michigan Beach
    • Pebble Creek
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Pebble Creek is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pebble Creek
    • Pine Needle
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
      • Pine Needle is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Needle
    • Rockdale Junction
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
      • Rockdale Junction is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockdale Junction
    • Rolling Glen
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • Rolling Glen is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rolling Glen
    • Romeo
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Romeo is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Romeo
    • Shady Hollow
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • Shady Hollow is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shady Hollow
    • Spring Creek
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
      • Spring Creek is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Creek
    • Spring Creek Woods
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Spring Creek Woods is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Creek Woods
    • Thunder Ridge
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
      • Thunder Ridge is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thunder Ridge
    • Twin Creek
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Twin Creek is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twin Creek
    • Whispering Pines
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Whispering Pines is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whispering Pines

How Far From Broken Arrow 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 community such as Broken Arrow to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Joliet, which is the Seat of Will County, lies just to the Southwest.
  • Springfield, which is the State Capital of Illinois, lies 150 miles [241.4 km]<2> to the southwest (SW). If you could drive a straight line from Broken Arrow to Springfield, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 9 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 607 miles [976.9 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 24 days and walking would take 35 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,211 miles [9,995.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,949 miles [11,183.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,833 miles [7,778 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 Broken Arrow 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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Broken Arrow) 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 Broken Arrow 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 Broken Arrow. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.5783, Longitude: -88.0167       In this case, the coordinates for Broken Arrow have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.691 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.58 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.843 degrees.