RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Illinois >> Cook County >> The Cottage >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in The Cottage, we use the following websites to find information relevant to The Cottage 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 The Cottage:
    • 41.690312, -87.606158
    • 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 The Cottage
  • 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 Cook County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cook County
    • Since The Cottage is near Lake County and also Will County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lake County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Will 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 The Cottage

Communities Also Named The Cottage ...

We found seven communities that are also named The Cottage.

Within Illinois, the name The Cottage is unique.

Beyond Illinois, we know of seven communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these seven communities, six are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Iowa
      • Hardin 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 Iowa community of The Cottage [Hardin County].
    • Maine
      • Aroostook 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 Maine community of The Cottage [Aroostook County].
    • Missouri
      • Macon County
      • This The Cottage is located in Macon County and lies 285 miles [458.7 km]<2> to the west southwest of the The Cottage that is located in Cook County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Macon County community of The Cottage.
    • New York
      • Cattaraugus County
      • This The Cottage is located in Cattaraugus County and lies 441 miles [709.7 km]<2> to the east of the The Cottage that is located in Cook County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cattaraugus County community of The Cottage.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Huntingdon County
      • This The Cottage is located in Huntingdon County and lies 505 miles [812.7 km]<2> to the east of the The Cottage that is located in Cook County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Huntingdon County community of The Cottage.
    • Quebec
      • This The Cottage lies 672 miles [1,081.5 km]<2> to the east northeast of the The Cottage that is located in Cook County.
    • South Carolina
      • Berkeley County
      • This The Cottage is located in Berkeley County and lies 719 miles [1,157.1 km]<2> to the southeast of the The Cottage that is located in Cook County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Berkeley County community of The Cottage.

Curious and Interesting Names Near The Cottage ...

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.

  • Beverly
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Beverly is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beverly
  • Evergreen Park
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Grand Crossing
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Grand Crossing is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Crossing
  • Greenwood
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Greenwood is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenwood
  • Honeymoon Row
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Honeymoon Row is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Honeymoon Row
  • Irondale ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Irondale is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Irondale
  • Italian Bowery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Italian Bowery is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Italian Bowery
  • Mount Greenwood
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Mount Greenwood is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Greenwood
  • Pierces Park
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Pierces Park is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pierces Park
  • Poverty Row
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Poverty Row is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poverty Row
  • Roseland
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Roseland is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roseland
  • Stony Island
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Stony Island is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stony Island

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

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

  • Chicago, which is the Seat of Cook County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<2> to the north. If you could walk a straight line from The Cottage to Chicago, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
  • Springfield, which is the State Capital of Illinois, lies 169 miles [272 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 10 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 588 miles [946.3 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 23 days and walking would take 34 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,190 miles [9,961.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,928 miles [11,149.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,812 miles [7,744.2 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 Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's 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 The Cottage 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- The Cottage) 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 The Cottage 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 The Cottage. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.6903, Longitude: -87.6062       In this case, the coordinates for The Cottage have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.419 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.286 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.608 degrees.