Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Locks, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Locks and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Locks
- 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 Locks:
- 41.842811, -87.663386
- 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 Locks
- 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 Cook County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Cook County
- Since Locks is near DuPage County and also Lake County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for DuPage County
- eBird sighting report for Lake 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:
- Waymark.com
Communities Also Named Locks ...
We found three communities that share the name Locks.
Within Illinois, the name Locks is unique.
Beyond Illinois, we know of another three communities that are located throughout in the United States.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Michigan
- Ohio
- Hocking 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 Ohio community of Locks [Hocking County].
- Ross 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 Ohio community of Locks [Ross County].
Curious and Interesting Names Near Locks ...
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.
- Back of the Yards
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Back of the Yards have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Back of the Yards
- Back of the Yards is located in Cook County
- Bronzeville
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bronzeville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bronzeville
- Bronzeville is located in Cook County
- Chinatown
(Less than 2 miles to the east) - Ducktown
(Less than 2 miles to the southwest) - Film Row
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast) - Forestville
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Forestville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forestville
- Forestville is located in Cook County
- Fuller Park
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fuller Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fuller Park
- Fuller Park is located in Cook County
- Gage Park
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest) - Grand Boulevard
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grand Boulevard have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Boulevard
- Grand Boulevard is located in Cook County
- Grant Village
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grant Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grant Village
- Grant Village is located in Cook County
- Harbor Square
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Harbor Square have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harbor Square
- Harbor Square is located in Cook County
- Lake Meadows
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lake Meadows have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Meadows
- Lake Meadows is located in Cook County
- Continue List (11 more) ...
- Little Hell
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Little Hell have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Hell
- Little Hell is located in Cook County
- Maplewood Courts
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Maplewood Courts have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maplewood Courts
- Maplewood Courts is located in Cook County
- Mexico
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest) - Mount Pleasant
(Less than 2 miles to the southwest)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mount Pleasant have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Pleasant
- Mount Pleasant is located in Cook County
- New City
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the south) - New Patch
(Less than 2 miles to the south) - Park Row
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast) - Prairie Courts
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Prairie Courts have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prairie Courts
- Prairie Courts is located in Cook County
- Prairie Shores
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Prairie Shores have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prairie Shores
- Prairie Shores is located in Cook County
- Swede Town
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Swede Town have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swede Town
- Swede Town is located in Cook County
- Whiskey Row
(Less than 2 miles to the south)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Whiskey Row have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whiskey Row
- Whiskey Row is located in Cook County
- Little Hell
How Far From Locks 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 Locks to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Locks and extending to:
- Chicago, which is the Seat of Cook County, lies just to the North Northeast.
- Springfield, which is the State Capital of Illinois, lies 176 miles [283.2 km]<3> to the southwest (SW). If you could drive a straight line from Locks to Springfield, with an average speed<4>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 594 miles [956 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 24 days and walking would take 34 days.
- The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,185 miles [9,953.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,924 miles [11,143.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,807 miles [7,736.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
Off-the-Road Links ...
Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Locks. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.
The official website for Cook County: www.co.cook.il.us/
The official website for State of Illinois: https://illinois.gov
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 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 Locks 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> | 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. |
| <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 from Point A (ie- Locks) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Locks. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.8428, Longitude: -87.6634 In this case, the coordinates for Locks have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <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 Locks to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East. |
| <6> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.456 degrees. |
| <7> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.35 degrees. |
| <8> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.592 degrees. |