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Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Fountain Creek, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Fountain Creek 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 Fountain Creek:
- 40.516147, -87.810863
- 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 Fountain Creek
- 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 Iroquois County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- Open the eBird sighting report for Iroquois County
- Since Fountain Creek is near Vermilion County and also Ford County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- Open the eBird sighting report for Vermilion County
- Open the eBird sighting report for Ford 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 Fountain Creek
Communities Also Named Fountain Creek ...
We found one communities that are also named Fountain Creek.
Within Illinois, the name Fountain Creek is unique.
Beyond Illinois, there is another community also named Fountain Creek in the United States.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Tennessee
- Maury 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 Tennessee community of Fountain Creek [Maury County].
Curious and Interesting Names Near Fountain Creek ...
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.
- Blue Grass ‑ Historic
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
- Blue Grass is located in Vermilion County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blue Grass
- Clarence
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
- Clarence is located in Ford County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clarence
- Crescent City
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
- Goodwine
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
- Gray Ford
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
- Gray Ford is located in Vermilion County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gray Ford
- Handy
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
- Handy is located in Benton County (IN)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Handy
- Heaton
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
- Heaton is located in Vermilion County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heaton
- Hustle
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
- Hustle is located in Vermilion County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hustle
- Jamesburg
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
- Jamesburg is located in Vermilion County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jamesburg
- Pitchin
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
- Pitchin is located in Iroquois County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pitchin
- Woodland Junction
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
- Woodland Junction is located in Iroquois County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodland Junction
How Far From Fountain Creek 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 Fountain Creek to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Fountain Creek and extending to:
- Watseka, which is the Seat of Iroquois County, lies 18 miles [29 km]<3> to the north northeast. If you could walk a straight line from Fountain Creek to Watseka, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just over a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take five to six hours.
- Springfield, which is the State Capital of Illinois, lies 109 miles [175.4 km] to the west southwest (WSW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 7 days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 582 miles [936.6 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<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,255 miles [10,066.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,990 miles [11,249.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,871 miles [7,839.1 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 Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird 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 Fountain Creek 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> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |
| <3> | 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- Fountain Creek) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |
| <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 Fountain Creek 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 Fountain Creek. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.5161, Longitude: -87.8109 In this case, the coordinates for Fountain Creek have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <6> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.552 degrees. |
| <7> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.271 degrees. |
| <8> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.039 degrees. |
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