RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Illinois >> Macon County >> Larkdale >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Larkdale, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Larkdale 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 Larkdale:
    • 39.888370, -88.912022
    • 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 Larkdale
  • 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 Macon County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Macon County
    • Since Larkdale is near Piatt County and also Moultrie County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Piatt County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Moultrie 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 Larkdale

Communities Also Named Larkdale ...

We found one communities that are also named Larkdale.

There is one other community in Illinois that is also named Larkdale.

Beyond Illinois.

  • Communities Located In Illinois ...
    • Lake 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 Illinois community of Larkdale [Lake County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Larkdale ...

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 Mound
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Boody
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Bulldog Crossing
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Bulldog Crossing is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bulldog Crossing
  • Burrowsville
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Burrowsville is located in Piatt County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burrowsville
  • Harristown
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Lake City
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Lake City is located in Moultrie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake City
  • Lane
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
  • Long Creek
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Long Creek is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Creek
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,262 people
  • Longview Place
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Longview Place is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Longview Place
  • Prairie Hall
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Prairie Hall is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prairie Hall

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Larkdale and extending to:

  • Decatur, which is the Seat of Macon County, lies just to the Southwest.
  • Springfield, which is the State Capital of Illinois, lies 39 miles [62.8 km]<3> to the west (W). If you could walk a straight line from Larkdale to Springfield, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take over two days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just about two full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 636 miles [1,023.5 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take just over a day, a buggy would take 25 days and walking would take 37 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,326 miles [10,180.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,062 miles [11,365.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,943 miles [7,955 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 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 Larkdale 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Larkdale) 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 Larkdale 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 Larkdale. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.8884, Longitude: -88.9120       In this case, the coordinates for Larkdale have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.266 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 312.001 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.733 degrees.