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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in The Knolls, we use the following websites to find information relevant to The Knolls 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 The Knolls:
    • 41.956694, -88.433969
    • 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 The Knolls
  • 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 Kane County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Kane County
    • Since The Knolls is near DuPage County and also Cook County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for DuPage County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cook 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 The Knolls

Communities Also Named The Knolls ...

We found seven communities that are also named The Knolls.

Within Illinois, the name The Knolls is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Maryland
      • Calvert County
      • This The Knolls is located in Calvert County and lies 666 miles [1,071.8 km]<1> to the east southeast of the The Knolls that is located in Kane County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Calvert County community of The Knolls.
    • Ohio
      • Clark County
      • This The Knolls is located in Clark County and lies 279 miles [449 km]<1> to the east southeast of the The Knolls that is located in Kane County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Clark County community of The Knolls.
      • Stark County
      • This The Knolls is located in Stark County and lies 372 miles [598.7 km] to the east of the The Knolls that is located in Kane County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Stark County community of The Knolls.
    • Utah
      • Tooele County
      • This The Knolls is located in Tooele County and lies 1,286 miles [2,069.6 km]<1> to the west of the The Knolls that is located in Kane County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Tooele County community of The Knolls.
    • Virginia
      • Campbell 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 Virginia community of The Knolls [Campbell County].
      • Frederick County
      • This The Knolls is located in Frederick County and lies 559 miles [899.6 km]<1> to the east southeast of the The Knolls that is located in Kane County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Frederick County community of The Knolls.
      • Prince William County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Virginia community of The Knolls [Prince William County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near The Knolls ...

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.

  • Burning Tree
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Burning Tree is located in Kane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burning Tree
  • Deer Run
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Deer Run is located in Kane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deer Run
  • Empire Hills
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Empire Hills is located in Kane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Empire Hills
  • Fair Oaks
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Fair Oaks is located in Kane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fair Oaks
  • Far View
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Far View is located in Kane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Far View
  • Foxfield
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Foxfield is located in Kane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Foxfield
  • Hedgerow
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Hedgerow is located in Kane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hedgerow
  • High Point
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • High Point is located in Kane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for High Point
  • Homeward Hill
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Homeward Hill is located in Kane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Homeward Hill
  • Indian Creek
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Indian Creek is located in Kane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Creek
  • Kings Mill
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Kings Mill is located in Kane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kings Mill
  • Mary Meadows
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Mary Meadows is located in Kane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mary Meadows
  • Plato Corners
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Plato Corners is located in Kane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plato Corners

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

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

  • Geneva, which is the Seat of Kane County, lies just to the Southeast.
  • Springfield, which is the State Capital of Illinois, lies 163 miles [262.3 km]<1> to the south southwest (SSW). If you could drive a straight line from The Knolls to Springfield, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than 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 634 miles [1,020.3 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 25 days and walking would take 36 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,208 miles [9,990.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,948 miles [11,181.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,833 miles [7,778 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 from Point A (ie- The Knolls) 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 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 The Knolls 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 The Knolls 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 The Knolls. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.9567, Longitude: -88.4340       In this case, the coordinates for The Knolls have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.969 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.95 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.942 degrees.