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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Elkhart, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Elkhart 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 Elkhart:
    • 40.020791, -89.483143
    • 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 Elkhart
  • 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 Logan County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Logan County
    • Since Elkhart is near Menard County and also Sangamon County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Menard County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Sangamon 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 Elkhart

Communities Also Named Elkhart ...

We found seven communities that are also named Elkhart.

Within Illinois, the name Elkhart is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Indiana
      • Elkhart County
      • This Elkhart is located in Elkhart County and lies 216 miles [347.6 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Elkhart that is located in Logan County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Elkhart County community of Elkhart.
    • Iowa
      • Polk County
      • This Elkhart is located in Polk County and lies 243 miles [391.1 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Elkhart that is located in Logan County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Polk County community of Elkhart.
    • Kansas
      • McPherson County
      • This community is historic<2> and although located in McPherson County, we don't know where within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the McPherson County community of Elkhart.
      • Morton County
      • This Elkhart is located in Morton County and lies 701 miles [1,128.2 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Elkhart that is located in Logan County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Morton County community of Elkhart.
    • Missouri
      • Bates County
      • This community is historic<2> and although located in Bates County, we don't know where within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Bates County community of Elkhart.
    • Texas
      • Anderson County
      • This Elkhart is located in Anderson County and lies 672 miles [1,081.5 km]<1> to the south southwest of the Elkhart that is located in Logan County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Anderson County community of Elkhart.
    • Wisconsin
      • Sheboygan 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 Wisconsin community of Elkhart [Sheboygan County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Elkhart ...

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 Elkhart 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 village such as Elkhart to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Lincoln, which is the Seat of Logan County, lies 10 miles [16.1 km]<1> to the northeast. If you could walk a straight line from Elkhart to Lincoln, 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 18 miles [29 km] to the south southwest (SSW). The buggy would take five to six hours and walking would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 667 miles [1,073.4 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 26 days and walking would take 38 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,341 miles [10,204.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,078 miles [11,390.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,960 miles [7,982.3 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Elkhart) 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 Elkhart, 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 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 Elkhart 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 Elkhart 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 Elkhart. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.0208, Longitude: -89.4831    
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.645 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 312.454 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.973 degrees.