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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Grant Park, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Grant Park 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 Grant Park:
    • 42.227521, -89.091216
    • 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 Grant Park
  • 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 Winnebago County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Winnebago County
    • Since Grant Park is near Ogle County and also Boone County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Ogle County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Boone 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 Grant Park

Communities Also Named Grant Park ...

We found three communities that are also named Grant Park.

There is one other community in Illinois that is also named Grant Park.

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

  • Communities Located In Illinois ...
    • Kankakee County
      • This Grant Park is located in Kankakee County and lies 101 miles [162.5 km]<1> to the southeast of the Grant Park that is located in Winnebago County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Kankakee County community of Grant Park.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Florida
      • Hillsborough County
      • This Grant Park is located in Hillsborough County and lies 1,053 miles [1,694.6 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Grant Park that is located in Winnebago County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hillsborough County community of Grant Park.
    • New York
      • Nassau 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 New York community of Grant Park [Nassau County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Grant Park ...

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.

  • Cheyenne Heights
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Cheyenne Heights is located in Winnebago County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cheyenne Heights
  • Coreys Bluff
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Coreys Bluff is located in Winnebago County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coreys Bluff
  • Coventry Creek
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Coventry Creek is located in Winnebago County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coventry Creek
  • Hickory Creek
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Hickory Creek is located in Winnebago County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Creek
  • Indian Village
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Indian Village is located in Winnebago County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Village
  • Motor Heights
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Motor Heights is located in Winnebago County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Motor Heights
  • Panorama Valley
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Panorama Valley is located in Winnebago County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Panorama Valley
  • Silver Hills
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Silver Hills is located in Winnebago County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Hills

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

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

  • Rockford, which is the Seat of Winnebago County, lies just to the North.
  • Springfield, which is the State Capital of Illinois, lies 171 miles [275.2 km]<1> to the south (S). If you could drive a straight line from Grant Park to Springfield, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take about three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 10 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 672 miles [1,081.5 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<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,218 miles [10,006.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,960 miles [11,201 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,848 miles [7,802.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 drawn from Point A (ie- Grant Park) 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 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 Grant Park 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>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.
<4>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 Grant Park 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 Grant Park. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.2275, Longitude: -89.0912       In this case, the coordinates for Grant Park have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.409 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 312.491 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.196 degrees.