RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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The Commemorative
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The Commemorative Quarter for Illinois







Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in La Place, we use the following websites to find information relevant to La Place 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 La Place:
    • 39.800035, -88.717569
    • 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.
    • The Heavens-Above Website, centered on La Place
  • 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:
    • Waymark.com

Communities Also Named La Place ...

We found two communities that share the name La Place.

Within Illinois, the name La Place is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alabama
      • Macon County
      • This La Place is located in Macon County and lies 536 miles [862.6 km]<1> to the south southeast of the La Place that is located in Piatt County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Macon County community of La Place.
    • Louisiana
      • Saint Charles Parish
      • 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 Louisiana community of La Place [Saint Charles Parish].

Curious and Interesting Names Near La Place ...

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.

  • Bethany
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bethany have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bethany
    • Bethany is located in Moultrie County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,210 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bethany <4>
  • Burrowsville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burrowsville
    • Burrowsville is located in Piatt County
  • Chipps
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Chipps have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chipps
    • Chipps is located in Moultrie County
  • Lake City
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lake City have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake City
    • Lake City is located in Moultrie County
  • Larkdale
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Larkdale have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Larkdale
    • Larkdale is located in Macon County
  • Long Creek
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Creek
    • Long Creek is located in Macon County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,262 people
  • Longview Place
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Longview Place have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Longview Place
    • Longview Place is located in Macon County
  • Mackville
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mackville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mackville
    • Mackville is located in Piatt County
  • Prairie Hall
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Prairie Hall have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prairie Hall
    • Prairie Hall is located in Macon County

How Far From La Place 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 community such as La Place to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Monticello, which is the Seat of Piatt County, lies 17 miles [27.4 km]<1> to the north northeast. If you could walk a straight line from La Place to Monticello, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of 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 49 miles [78.9 km] to the west (W). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take most of two days and walking would take about three full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 626 miles [1,007.4 km] to the east (E). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 25 days and walking would take 36 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,323 miles [10,175.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,059 miles [11,360.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,939 miles [7,948.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for La Place. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Piatt County: www.piattcounty.org/

The official website for State of Illinois: https://illinois.gov

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- La Place) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in La Place. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.8000, Longitude: -88.7176       In this case, the coordinates for La Place have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 La Place 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>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<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 La Place to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.136 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.84 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.663 degrees.









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024