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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Edgar, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Edgar and the surrounding area.

  • 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 Edgar:
    • 39.755591, -87.701136
    • 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 Edgar
  • 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 Edgar County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Edgar County
    • Since Edgar is near Vermillion County and also Vermilion County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Vermillion County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Vermilion 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 Edgar

Communities Also Named Edgar ...

We found thirteen communities that are also named Edgar.

Within Illinois, the name Edgar is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • Imperial County
      • This Edgar is located in Imperial County and lies 1,625 miles [2,615.2 km]<1> to the west of the Edgar that is located in Edgar County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Imperial County community of Edgar.
    • Florida
      • Putnam County
      • This Edgar is located in Putnam County and lies 773 miles [1,244 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Edgar that is located in Edgar County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Putnam County community of Edgar.
    • Georgia
      • Whitfield County
      • This community is historic<2> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Georgia community of Edgar [Whitfield County].
    • Montana
      • Carbon County
      • This Edgar is located in Carbon County and lies 1,140 miles [1,834.7 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Edgar that is located in Edgar County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Carbon County community of Edgar.
    • Nebraska
      • Clay County
      • This Edgar is located in Clay County and lies 544 miles [875.5 km]<1> to the west of the Edgar that is located in Edgar County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Clay County community of Edgar.
    • New Jersey
      • Middlesex County
      • This Edgar is located in Middlesex County and lies 709 miles [1,141 km]<1> to the east of the Edgar that is located in Edgar County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Middlesex County community of Edgar.
    • North Carolina
      • Randolph County
      • This Edgar is located in Randolph County and lies 503 miles [809.5 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Edgar that is located in Edgar County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Randolph County community of Edgar.
    • Ontario
      • This Edgar lies 527 miles [848.1 km]<1> to the northeast of the Edgar that is located in Edgar County.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Elk County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Pennsylvania community of Edgar [Elk County].
    • Texas
      • DeWitt County
      • This Edgar is located in DeWitt County and lies 907 miles [1,459.7 km]<1> to the southwest of the Edgar that is located in Edgar County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the DeWitt County community of Edgar.
    • Virginia
      • Caroline County
      • This Edgar is located in Caroline County and lies 574 miles [923.8 km]<1> to the east of the Edgar that is located in Edgar County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Caroline County community of Edgar.
    • West Virginia
      • Jackson County
      • This community is historic<2> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the West Virginia community of Edgar [Jackson County].
    • Wisconsin
      • Marathon County
      • This Edgar is located in Marathon County and lies 374 miles [601.9 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Edgar that is located in Edgar County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Marathon County community of Edgar.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Edgar ...

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 Point
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Cherry Point is located in Edgar County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cherry Point
  • Clays Prairie
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Clays Prairie is located in Edgar County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clays Prairie
  • Harris
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Harris is located in Edgar County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harris
  • Hughes
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Hughes is located in Edgar County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hughes
  • Jonestown
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Jonestown is located in Vermillion County (IN)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jonestown
  • Mabel
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Mabel is located in Edgar County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mabel
  • Mays
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Mays is located in Edgar County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mays
  • Paris
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Quaker ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Quaker is located in Edgar County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quaker
  • Randall
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Randall is located in Vermillion County (IN)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Randall
  • Raven
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Raven is located in Edgar County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Raven
  • Woodyard
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Woodyard is located in Edgar County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodyard

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

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

  • Paris, which is the Seat of Edgar County, lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<1> to the south. If you could walk a straight line from Edgar to Paris, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
  • Springfield, which is the State Capital of Illinois, lies 103 miles [165.8 km] to the west (W). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take 4 days and walking would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 572 miles [920.5 km] to the east (E). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 23 days and walking would take 33 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,287 miles [10,117.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,020 miles [11,297.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,899 miles [7,884.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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- Edgar) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>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 Edgar, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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 Edgar 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.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>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.
<6>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 Edgar 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 Edgar. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.7556, Longitude: -87.7011       In this case, the coordinates for Edgar have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.473 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.073 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.193 degrees.