RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Michigan >> Ionia County >> Ionia >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Ionia, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Ionia and the surrounding area.

  • 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 Ionia:
    • 42.987356, -85.063897
    • 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 Ionia
  • 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 Ionia County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Ionia County
    • Since Ionia is near Montcalm County and also Kent County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Montcalm County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Kent 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 Ionia

Communities Also Named Ionia ...

We found eleven communities that are also named Ionia.

Within Michigan, the name Ionia is unique.

Beyond Michigan, we know of eleven communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arkansas
      • Benton County
      • This Ionia is located in Benton County and lies 680 miles [1,094.4 km]<1> to the southwest of the Ionia that is located in Ionia County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Benton County community of Ionia.
    • Florida
      • Clay 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 Florida community of Ionia [Clay County].
    • Iowa
      • Chickasaw County
      • This Ionia is located in Chickasaw County and lies 373 miles [600.3 km]<1> to the west of the Ionia that is located in Ionia County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Chickasaw County community of Ionia.
    • Kansas
      • Jewell County
      • This Ionia is located in Jewell County and lies 725 miles [1,166.8 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Ionia that is located in Ionia County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jewell County community of Ionia.
    • Missouri
      • Benton County
      • This Ionia is located in Benton County and lies 531 miles [854.6 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Ionia that is located in Ionia County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Benton County community of Ionia.
    • Nebraska
      • Dixon County
      • This community is historic<3> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Nebraska community of Ionia [Dixon County].
    • New York
      • Onondaga County
      • This Ionia is located in Onondaga County and lies 438 miles [704.9 km]<1> to the east of the Ionia that is located in Ionia County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Onondaga County community of Ionia.
      • Ontario County
      • This Ionia is located in Ontario County and lies 382 miles [614.8 km] to the east of the Ionia that is located in Ionia County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Ontario County community of Ionia.
    • North Carolina
      • Robeson 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 North Carolina community of Ionia [Robeson County].
    • South Carolina
      • Sumter 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 South Carolina community of Ionia [Sumter County].
    • Virginia
      • Dinwiddie 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 Virginia community of Ionia [Dinwiddie County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Ionia ...

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 Ionia 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 Ionia to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Lansing, which is the State Capital of Michigan, lies 31 miles [49.9 km]<1> to the southeast (SE). If you could walk a straight line from Ionia to Lansing, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of two days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 504 miles [811.1 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take just over a day, a buggy would take 20 days and walking would take 29 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,035 miles [9,712.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,772 miles [10,898.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,654 miles [7,489.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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- Ionia) 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 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 Ionia 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>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 Ionia, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>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.
<6>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 Ionia 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 Ionia. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.9874, Longitude: -85.0639    
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.716 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 309.536 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.945 degrees.