Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Great Falls, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Great Falls and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Great Falls
- 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 Great Falls:
- 43.803410, -70.447831
- 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.
- The Heavens-Above Website, centered on Great Falls
- 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 Cumberland County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Cumberland County
- Since Great Falls is near York County and also Androscoggin County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for York County
- eBird sighting report for Androscoggin 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:
- Waymark.com
Communities Also Named Great Falls ...
We found seven communities that share the name Great Falls.
There is one other community in Maine which is also named Great Falls.
Beyond Maine, we know of another six communities that are located throughout in the United States and Canada. Of these six communities, six are located in the United States and one is in Canada.
- Communities Located In Maine ...
- Androscoggin 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 Maine community of Great Falls [Androscoggin County].
- Androscoggin County
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Manitoba
- This Great Falls lies 1,277 miles [2,055.1 km]<2> to the west northwest of the Great Falls that is located in Cumberland County.
- Maryland
- Montgomery County
- This Great Falls is located in Montgomery County and lies 483 miles [777.3 km]<2> to the southwest of the Great Falls that is located in Cumberland County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Montgomery County community of Great Falls.
- Montana
- Cascade County
- This Great Falls is located in Cascade County and lies 1,965 miles [3,162.4 km]<2> to the west northwest of the Great Falls that is located in Cumberland County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cascade County community of Great Falls.
- New York
- Greene 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 New York community of Great Falls [Greene County].
- South Carolina
- Chester County
- This Great Falls is located in Chester County and lies 846 miles [1,361.5 km]<2> to the southwest of the Great Falls that is located in Cumberland County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Chester County community of Great Falls.
- Virginia
- Fairfax County
- This Great Falls is located in Fairfax County and lies 485 miles [780.5 km]<2> to the southwest of the Great Falls that is located in Cumberland County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Fairfax County community of Great Falls.
- Manitoba
Curious and Interesting Names Near Great Falls ...
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.
- Blackstrap
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Blackstrap have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blackstrap
- Blackstrap is located in Cumberland County
- Dog Corner
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dog Corner have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dog Corner
- Dog Corner is located in Cumberland County
- Gag Corner
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gag Corner have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gag Corner
- Gag Corner is located in Cumberland County
- Gates Hill ‑ Historic
(Less than 2 miles to the northeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gates Hill have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gates Hill
- Gates Hill is located in Cumberland County
- Ireland Corner
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ireland Corner
- Ireland Corner is located in Cumberland County
- Little Falls
(5 miles [8 km] to the south)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Little Falls have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Falls
- Little Falls is located in Cumberland County
- Popeville
(Less than 2 miles to the southeast) - Raymond
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Raymond have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Raymond
- Raymond is located in Cumberland County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 4,550 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Raymond <4>
- Richville
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the west) - Scotland
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
How Far From Great Falls 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 Great Falls to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers and using the location of where the historic<5> community of Great Falls once stood, the straight-line distance beginning in Great Falls and extending to:
- Portland, which is the Seat of Cumberland County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<2> to the southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Great Falls to Portland, with an average speed<6> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
- Augusta, which is the State Capital of Maine, lies 48 miles [77.2 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take most of two days and walking would take about three full days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 480 miles [772.5 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 19 days and walking would take 28 days.
- The shortest distance<7> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,423 miles [8,727.5 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<8>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,135 miles [9,873.3 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<9>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,010 miles [6,453.5 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<10>
Off-the-Road Links ...
The official website for Cumberland County: www.cumberlandcounty.org/
The official website for State of Maine: https://www.maine.gov/
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 Great Falls 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- Great Falls) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Great Falls. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.8034, Longitude: -70.4478 In this case, the coordinates for Great Falls have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <3> | The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required. |
| <4> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |
| <5> | We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Great Falls, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <6> | 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. |
| <7> | 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 Great Falls to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East. |
| <8> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 303.374 degrees. |
| <9> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 299.142 degrees. |
| <10> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 299.528 degrees. |