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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Pottstown, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Pottstown 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 Pottstown:
    • 40.718053, -89.660609
    • 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 Pottstown
  • 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 Peoria County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Peoria County
    • Since Pottstown is near Tazewell County and also Woodford County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Tazewell County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Woodford 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 Pottstown

Communities Also Named Pottstown ...

We found one communities that are also named Pottstown.

Within Illinois, the name Pottstown is unique.

Beyond Illinois, there is another community also named Pottstown in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Pennsylvania
      • Montgomery County
      • This Pottstown is located in Montgomery County and lies 735 miles [1,182.9 km]<1> to the east of the Pottstown that is located in Peoria County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Montgomery County community of Pottstown.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Pottstown ...

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

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

  • Peoria, which is the Seat of Peoria County, lies just to the East Southeast.
  • Springfield, which is the State Capital of Illinois, lies 64 miles [103 km]<1> to the south (S). If you could walk a straight line from Pottstown to Springfield, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of three days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take about three full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 680 miles [1,094.4 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 27 days and walking would take 39 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,313 miles [10,159.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,053 miles [11,350.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,937 miles [7,945.3 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Pottstown) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 Pottstown 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 Pottstown. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.7181, Longitude: -89.6606    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.776 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 312.701 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.882 degrees.