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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Pottsville, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Pottsville 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 Pottsville:
    • 37.421994, -89.357588
    • 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 Pottsville
  • 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 Union County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Union County
    • Since Pottsville is near Cape Girardeau County and also Alexander County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cape Girardeau County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Alexander 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 Pottsville

Communities Also Named Pottsville ...

We found nine communities that are also named Pottsville.

Within Illinois, the name Pottsville is unique.

Beyond Illinois, we know of nine communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these nine communities, eight are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arkansas
      • Pope County
      • This Pottsville is located in Pope County and lies 255 miles [410.4 km]<1> to the southwest of the Pottsville that is located in Union County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Pope County community of Pottsville.
    • Idaho
      • Shoshone County
      • This community is historic<2> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Idaho community of Pottsville [Shoshone County].
    • Kentucky
      • Graves County
      • This Pottsville is located in Graves County and lies 52 miles [83.7 km]<1> to the southeast of the Pottsville that is located in Union County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Graves County community of Pottsville.
      • Washington County
      • This Pottsville is located in Washington County and lies 235 miles [378.2 km] to the east of the Pottsville that is located in Union County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Washington County community of Pottsville.
    • Louisiana
      • De Soto Parish
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Louisiana community of Pottsville [De Soto Parish].
    • Ontario
      • This Pottsville lies 867 miles [1,395.3 km]<1> to the north northeast of the Pottsville that is located in Union County.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Schuylkill County
      • This Pottsville is located in Schuylkill County and lies 739 miles [1,189.3 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Pottsville that is located in Union County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Schuylkill County community of Pottsville.
    • Tennessee
      • Maury County
      • This Pottsville is located in Maury County and lies 186 miles [299.3 km]<1> to the southeast of the Pottsville that is located in Union County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Maury County community of Pottsville.
    • Texas
      • Hamilton County
      • This Pottsville is located in Hamilton County and lies 645 miles [1,038 km]<1> to the southwest of the Pottsville that is located in Union County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hamilton County community of Pottsville.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Pottsville ...

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.

  • Anna
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Anna is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Anna
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,059 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Anna <4>
  • Dutch Mills
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Dutch Mills is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dutch Mills
  • Egypt Mills
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Egypt Mills is located in Cape Girardeau County (MO)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Egypt Mills
  • Mason
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Mason is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mason
  • Moccasin Springs
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Moccasin Springs is located in Cape Girardeau County (MO)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moccasin Springs
  • Mountain Glen
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Mountain Glen is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain Glen
  • Oriole
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Oriole is located in Cape Girardeau County (MO)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oriole
  • Valley Mission
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Valley Mission is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valley Mission
  • Wolf Lake
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)

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

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

  • Jonesboro, which is the Seat of Union County, lies just to the East Northeast.
  • Springfield, which is the State Capital of Illinois, lies 163 miles [262.3 km]<1> to the north (N). If you could drive a straight line from Pottsville to Springfield, with an average speed<5>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than 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 676 miles [1,087.9 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 27 days and walking would take 39 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,465 miles [10,404.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,194 miles [11,577.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,071 miles [8,161 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Pottsville) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Pottsville, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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 Pottsville 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.
<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 Pottsville 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 Pottsville. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.4220, Longitude: -89.3576       In this case, the coordinates for Pottsville have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.476 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.902 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.534 degrees.