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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Lake Fork, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Lake Fork 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 Lake Fork:
    • 39.970354, -89.350502
    • 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 Lake Fork
  • 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 Lake Fork ...

We found five communities that share the name Lake Fork.

Within Illinois, the name Lake Fork is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Idaho
      • Valley County
      • This Lake Fork is located in Valley County and lies 1,396 miles [2,246.6 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Lake Fork that is located in Logan County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Valley County community of Lake Fork.
    • Kansas
      • Lake Fork #
      • 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 Kansas community of Lake Fork.
    • Missouri
      • Osage 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 Missouri community of Lake Fork [Osage County].
    • Ohio
      • Ashland County
      • This Lake Fork is located in Ashland County and lies 382 miles [614.8 km]<1> to the east of the Lake Fork that is located in Logan County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Ashland County community of Lake Fork.
    • Texas
      • Wood 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 Texas community of Lake Fork [Wood County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Lake Fork ...

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 Lake Fork 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 Lake Fork to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Lincoln, which is the Seat of Logan County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<1> to the north. If you could walk a straight line from Lake Fork to Lincoln, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
  • Springfield, which is the State Capital of Illinois, lies 20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest (SW). The buggy would take most of a day and walking would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 660 miles [1,062.2 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 6,339 miles [10,201.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,076 miles [11,387.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,957 miles [7,977.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>

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

The official website for Logan County: www.co.logan.il.us/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Lake Fork) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Lake Fork. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.9704, Longitude: -89.3505    
<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 Lake Fork 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're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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.
<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 Lake Fork 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 315.556 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 312.345 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.922 degrees.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 21 Apr 2025