RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Indiana >> Fountain County >> Harrison Lake >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Harrison Lake, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Harrison Lake 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 Harrison Lake:
    • 40.166983, -87.237787
    • 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 Harrison Lake
  • 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 Fountain County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Fountain County
    • Since Harrison Lake is near Warren County and also Montgomery County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Warren County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Montgomery 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 Harrison Lake

Communities Also Named Harrison Lake ...

We found one communities that are also named Harrison Lake.

There is one other community in Indiana that is also named Harrison Lake.

Beyond Indiana.

  • Communities Located In Indiana ...
    • Bartholomew 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 Indiana community of Harrison Lake [Bartholomew County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Harrison Lake ...

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.

  • Centennial
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Centennial is located in Fountain County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Centennial
  • Coal Creek
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Coal Creek is located in Fountain County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coal Creek
  • Elmdale
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Elmdale is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elmdale
  • Five Points
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Five Points is located in Warren County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Points
  • Fountain
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Fountain is located in Fountain County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fountain
  • Graham
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Graham is located in Fountain County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Graham
  • Hunter Corner
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Hunter Corner is located in Fountain County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hunter Corner
  • Rob Roy
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Rob Roy is located in Fountain County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rob Roy
  • Romine Corner
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Romine Corner is located in Warren County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Romine Corner
  • Steam Corner
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Steam Corner is located in Fountain County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Steam Corner
  • Stone Bluff
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Stone Bluff is located in Fountain County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stone Bluff
  • Tree Spring
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Tree Spring is located in Vermillion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tree Spring
  • Vine
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Vine is located in Fountain County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vine

How Far From Harrison Lake 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 community such as Harrison Lake to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Harrison Lake and extending to:

  • Covington, which is the Seat of Fountain County, lies just to the West.
  • Indianapolis, which is the State Capital of Indiana, lies 63 miles [101.4 km]<2> to the east southeast (ESE). If you could walk a straight line from Harrison Lake to Indianapolis, 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 549 miles [883.5 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take just over a day, a buggy would take 22 days and walking would take 32 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,250 miles [10,058.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,983 miles [11,238 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,862 miles [7,824.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 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 Harrison Lake 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>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- Harrison Lake) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Harrison Lake 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 Harrison Lake. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.1670, Longitude: -87.2378       In this case, the coordinates for Harrison Lake have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.176 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 310.792 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.861 degrees.