RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Indiana >> Marion County >> Sterling Heights >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Sterling Heights, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Sterling Heights 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 Sterling Heights:
    • 39.742544, -86.284157
    • 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 Sterling Heights
  • 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 Marion County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Marion County
    • Since Sterling Heights is near Hendricks County and also Morgan County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Hendricks County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Morgan 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 Sterling Heights

Communities Also Named Sterling Heights ...

We found five communities that are also named Sterling Heights.

Within Indiana, the name Sterling Heights is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Florida
      • Hillsborough County
      • This Sterling Heights is located in Hillsborough County and lies 837 miles [1,347 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Sterling Heights that is located in Marion County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hillsborough County community of Sterling Heights.
    • Georgia
      • Fulton County
      • This Sterling Heights is located in Fulton County and lies 406 miles [653.4 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Sterling Heights that is located in Marion County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Fulton County community of Sterling Heights.
      • Richmond County
      • This Sterling Heights is located in Richmond County and lies 489 miles [787 km] to the south southeast of the Sterling Heights that is located in Marion County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Richmond County community of Sterling Heights.
    • Michigan
      • Macomb County
      • This Sterling Heights is located in Macomb County and lies 258 miles [415.2 km]<1> to the northeast of the Sterling Heights that is located in Marion County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Macomb County community of Sterling Heights.
    • Ohio
      • Warren 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 Ohio community of Sterling Heights [Warren County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Sterling Heights ...

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.

  • Big Four Yard
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Big Four Yard is located in Hendricks County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Four Yard
  • Chapel Hill
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Chapel Hill is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chapel Hill
  • Flackville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Flackville is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flackville
  • Indianapolis
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Maple Ridge
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Maple Ridge is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maple Ridge
  • Maywood
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Maywood is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maywood
  • Mickleyville
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Mickleyville is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mickleyville
  • Speedway
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Sunshine Gardens
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Sunshine Gardens is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunshine Gardens
  • Valley Mills
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Valley Mills is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valley Mills

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

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

  • Indianapolis, which is the Seat of Marion County, lies just to the East Northeast.
  • Indianapolis, which is the State Capital of Indiana, lies just to the east northeast (ENE).
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 497 miles [799.8 km]<1> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Sterling Heights to White House, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 29 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 20 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,234 miles [10,032.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,964 miles [11,207.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,841 miles [7,790.8 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Sterling Heights) 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 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 Sterling Heights 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 Sterling Heights 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 Sterling Heights. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.7425, Longitude: -86.2842       In this case, the coordinates for Sterling Heights have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 313.558 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 310.024 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.532 degrees.