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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Egan, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Egan 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 Egan:
    • 42.187872, -89.405515
    • 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 Egan
  • 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 Ogle County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Ogle County
    • Since Egan is near Stephenson County and also Winnebago County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Stephenson County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Winnebago 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 Egan

Communities Also Named Egan ...

We found eleven communities that are also named Egan.

Within Illinois, the name Egan is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • Riverside County
      • This Egan is located in Riverside County and lies 1,603 miles [2,579.8 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Egan that is located in Ogle County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Riverside County community of Egan.
      • San Diego 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 California community of Egan [San Diego County].
      • Yuba County
      • This community is historic<3> and although located in Yuba County, we don't know where within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Yuba County community of Egan.
    • Georgia
      • Fulton 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 Georgia community of Egan [Fulton County].
    • Iowa
      • Allamakee County
      • This Egan is located in Allamakee County and lies 116 miles [186.7 km]<1> to the northwest of the Egan that is located in Ogle County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Allamakee County community of Egan.
    • Louisiana
      • Acadia Parish
      • This Egan is located in Acadia Parish and lies 842 miles [1,355.1 km]<1> to the south southwest of the Egan that is located in Ogle County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Acadia Parish community of Egan.
    • Montana
      • 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 Egan [Missoula County].
    • Nevada
      • White Pine County
      • This community is historic<3> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Nevada community of Egan [White Pine County].
    • South Dakota
      • Moody County
      • This Egan is located in Moody County and lies 385 miles [619.6 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Egan that is located in Ogle County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Moody County community of Egan.
    • Tennessee
      • Wilson County
      • This Egan is located in Wilson County and lies 443 miles [712.9 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Egan that is located in Ogle County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Wilson County community of Egan.
    • Texas
      • Johnson County
      • This Egan is located in Johnson County and lies 799 miles [1,285.9 km]<1> to the southwest of the Egan that is located in Ogle County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Johnson County community of Egan.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Egan ...

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.

How Far From Egan to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers & Almanacs that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Egan to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Oregon, which is the Seat of Ogle County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<1> to the south southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Egan to Oregon, with an average speed<5> 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 166 miles [267.2 km] to the south (S). 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 686 miles [1,104 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 27 days and walking would take 39 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,231 miles [10,027.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,974 miles [11,223.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,862 miles [7,824.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Egan) 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 Egan 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>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 Egan, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 Egan 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 Egan. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.1879, Longitude: -89.4055    
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.621 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 312.727 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.365 degrees.