RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Illinois >> DuPage County >> Wood Dale >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Wood Dale, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Wood Dale 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 Wood Dale:
    • 41.966083, -87.980675
    • 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 Wood Dale
  • 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 DuPage County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for DuPage County
    • Since Wood Dale is near Cook County and also Lake County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cook County
    • Open the 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:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Wood Dale

Communities Also Named Wood Dale ...

We found two communities that are also named Wood Dale.

Within Illinois, the name Wood Dale is unique.

Beyond Illinois, we know of two communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Mississippi
      • Oktibbeha County
      • This Wood Dale is located in Oktibbeha County and lies 587 miles [944.7 km]<1> to the south of the Wood Dale that is located in DuPage County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Oktibbeha County community of Wood Dale.
    • North Carolina
      • New Hanover County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the North Carolina community of Wood Dale [New Hanover County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Wood Dale ...

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.

  • Churchville
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Churchville is located in DuPage County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Churchville
  • Cloverdale
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Cloverdale is located in DuPage County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cloverdale
  • Creekside
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Creekside is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Creekside
  • Edison
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Edison is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edison
  • Elk Grove Village
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Flowerfield
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Flowerfield is located in DuPage County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flowerfield
  • Forest River
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Forest River is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest River
  • Hillside
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Mammoth Springs
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Mammoth Springs is located in DuPage County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mammoth Springs
  • Norma
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Norma is located in Cook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norma
  • Ontarioville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Ontarioville is located in DuPage County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ontarioville
  • Park Ridge
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (5 more) ...
    • Riverview
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Riverview is located in Cook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverview
    • Rolling Meadows
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Saddlewood
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Saddlewood is located in DuPage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saddlewood
    • Stone Park
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Swift
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Swift is located in DuPage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swift

How Far From Wood Dale to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a city such as Wood Dale to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Wheaton, which is the Seat of DuPage County, lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<1> to the southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Wood Dale to Wheaton, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
  • Springfield, which is the State Capital of Illinois, lies 174 miles [280 km] to the south southwest (SSW). 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 612 miles [984.9 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 24 days and walking would take 35 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,191 miles [9,963.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,930 miles [11,152.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,815 miles [7,749 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Wood Dale) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>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 Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock 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 Wood Dale 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.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 Wood Dale 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 Wood Dale. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.9661, Longitude: -87.9807       In this case, the coordinates for Wood Dale have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.666 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.607 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.714 degrees.