RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Kansas >> Clay County >> Longford >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Longford, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Longford 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 Longford:
    • 39.172028, -97.329341
    • 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 Longford
  • 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 Clay County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Clay County
    • Since Longford is near Dickinson County and also Ottawa County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dickinson County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Ottawa 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 Longford

Communities Also Named Longford ...

We found three communities that are also named Longford.

Within Kansas, the name Longford is unique.

Beyond Kansas, we know of three communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these three communities, .

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Maryland
      • Baltimore 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 Maryland community of Longford [Baltimore County].
    • North Carolina
      • Iredell 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 North Carolina community of Longford [Iredell County].
    • Ontario
      • This Longford lies 996 miles [1,602.9 km]<2> to the east northeast of the Longford that is located in Clay County.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Longford ...

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.

How Far From Longford to ...

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

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

  • Clay Center, which is the Seat of Clay County, lies 18 miles [29 km]<2> to the northeast. If you could walk a straight line from Longford to Clay Center, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just over a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take five to six hours.
  • Topeka, which is the State Capital of Kansas, lies 89 miles [143.2 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take most of three days and walking would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,086 miles [1,747.7 km] to the east (E). Driving would take over two days, a buggy would take 43 days and walking would take 62 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,663 miles [10,723.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,413 miles [11,930.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,310 miles [8,545.6 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 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 Longford 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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Longford) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Longford 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 Longford. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.1720, Longitude: -97.3293    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 320.939 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 318.451 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 314.023 degrees.