RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Kansas >> Johnson County >> Overland Park >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Overland Park, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Overland Park 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 Overland Park:
    • 38.914729, -94.685236
    • 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 Overland Park
  • 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 Johnson County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Johnson County
    • Since Overland Park is near Jackson County and also Cass County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Jackson County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cass 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 Overland Park

Communities Also Named Overland Park ...

We found one communities that are also named Overland Park.

Within Kansas, the name Overland Park is unique.

Beyond Kansas, there is another community also named Overland Park in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Colorado
      • Arapahoe 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 Colorado community of Overland Park [Arapahoe County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Overland Park ...

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.

  • Countryside
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Countryside is located in Johnson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Countryside
  • Craig
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Craig is located in Johnson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Craig
  • Fairway
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Indian Village
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Indian Village is located in Jackson County (MO)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Village
  • Martin City
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Martin City is located in Jackson County (MO)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Martin City
  • Mission
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Mission is located in Johnson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mission
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 9,873 people
    • Former name for Mission:
    • Mission Hill Acres
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mission <2>
  • Mission Hills
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Mission Hills is located in Johnson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mission Hills
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,533 people
  • Morse
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Morse is located in Johnson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morse
    • Morse has also been known as:
    • Morris
  • Prairie Village
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Red Bridge
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Red Bridge is located in Jackson County (MO)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Bridge
  • Stanley
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Waldo
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Waldo is located in Jackson County (MO)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waldo

How Far From Overland Park 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 Overland Park to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Overland Park and extending to:

  • Olathe, which is the Seat of Johnson County, lies just to the West Southwest.
  • Topeka, which is the State Capital of Kansas, lies 53 miles [85.3 km]<3> to the west (W). If you could walk a straight line from Overland Park to Topeka, with an average speed<4> 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 over two days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 946 miles [1,522.4 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of two days, a buggy would take 37 days and walking would take 54 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,585 miles [10,597.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,330 miles [11,796.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,219 miles [8,399.2 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 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 Overland Park 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>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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 from Point A (ie- Overland Park) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Overland Park 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 Overland Park. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.9147, Longitude: -94.6852       In this case, the coordinates for Overland Park have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 319.092 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 316.278 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.749 degrees.