RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Indiana >> Jefferson County >> North Madison >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in North Madison, we use the following websites to find information relevant to North Madison 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 North Madison:
    • 38.767837, -85.396625
    • 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 North Madison
  • 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 Jefferson County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Jefferson County
    • Since North Madison is near Trimble County and also Carroll County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Trimble County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Carroll 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 North Madison

Communities Also Named North Madison ...

We found three communities that are also named North Madison.

Within Indiana, the name North Madison is unique.

Beyond Indiana, we know of three communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Connecticut
      • New Haven County
      • This North Madison is located in New Haven County and lies 696 miles [1,120.1 km]<1> to the east northeast of the North Madison that is located in Jefferson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the New Haven County community of North Madison.
    • Ohio
      • Lake County
      • This North Madison is located in Lake County and lies 310 miles [498.9 km]<1> to the northeast of the North Madison that is located in Jefferson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lake County community of North Madison.
    • Wisconsin
      • Dane 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 Wisconsin community of North Madison [Dane County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near North Madison ...

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.

  • Barbersville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Barbersville is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barbersville
  • Central
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Central is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central
  • China
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • China is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for China
  • Five Points
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Five Points is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Points
  • Kent
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Kent is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kent
  • Locust
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Locust is located in Carroll County (KY)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Locust
  • Manville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Manville is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manville
  • Monitor
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Monitor is located in Trimble County (KY)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monitor
  • Mount Pleasant
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Mount Pleasant is located in Trimble County (KY)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Pleasant
  • Swanville
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Swanville is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swanville
  • Trout
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Trout is located in Trimble County (KY)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trout

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

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

  • Madison, which is the Seat of Jefferson County, lies just to the South.
  • Indianapolis, which is the State Capital of Indiana, lies 80 miles [128.7 km]<1> to the north northwest (NNW). If you could drive a straight line from North Madison to Indianapolis, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 449 miles [722.6 km] to the east (E). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 18 days and walking would take 26 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,245 miles [10,050.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,970 miles [11,217.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,846 miles [7,798.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- North Madison) 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 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 North Madison 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 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 North Madison 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 North Madison. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.7678, Longitude: -85.3966       In this case, the coordinates for North Madison have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.988 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 309.234 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.40 degrees.