RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Illinois >> Cook County >> South Pole >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in South Pole, we use the following websites to find information relevant to South Pole 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 South Pole:
    • 41.683924, -87.559489
    • 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 South Pole
  • 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:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cook County
    • Since South Pole is near Lake County and also Will County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lake County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Will 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 South Pole

Communities Also Named South Pole ...

We found one communities that are also named South Pole.

Within Illinois, the name South Pole is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • New York
      • New York 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 New York community of South Pole [New York County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near South Pole ...

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.

  • Beverly
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Beverly is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beverly
  • Globe
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Globe is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Globe
  • Grand Crossing
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Grand Crossing is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Crossing
  • Greenwood
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Greenwood is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenwood
  • Harvey
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Honeymoon Row
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Honeymoon Row is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Honeymoon Row
  • Indiana Harbor
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Indiana Harbor is located in Lake County (IN)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indiana Harbor
  • Irondale ‑ Historic
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Irondale is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Irondale
  • Italian Bowery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Italian Bowery is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Italian Bowery
  • Pierces Park
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Pierces Park is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pierces Park
  • Poverty Row
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Poverty Row is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poverty Row
  • Roseland
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Roseland is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roseland
  • Stony Island
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Stony Island is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stony Island
  • Woodlawn
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Woodlawn is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodlawn

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

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

  • Chicago, which is the Seat of Cook County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<3> to the north northwest. If you could walk a straight line from South Pole to Chicago, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Springfield, which is the State Capital of Illinois, lies 170 miles [273.6 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 10 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 586 miles [943.1 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 23 days and walking would take 34 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,189 miles [9,960.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,927 miles [11,147.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,810 miles [7,740.9 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 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 South Pole 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 '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- South Pole) 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 South Pole 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 South Pole. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.6839, Longitude: -87.5595       In this case, the coordinates for South Pole have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.388 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.249 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.587 degrees.