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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Kneeland, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Kneeland 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 Kneeland:
    • 44.710459, -84.091042
    • 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 Kneeland
  • 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 Oscoda County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Oscoda County
    • Since Kneeland is near Alcona County and also Montmorency County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Alcona County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Montmorency 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 Kneeland

Communities Also Named Kneeland ...

We found three communities that are also named Kneeland.

There is one other community in Michigan that is also named Kneeland.

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

  • Communities Located In Michigan ...
    • Crawford 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 Michigan community of Kneeland [Crawford County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • Humboldt County
      • This Kneeland is located in Humboldt County and lies 2,021 miles [3,252.5 km]<2> to the west of the Kneeland that is located in Oscoda County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Humboldt County community of Kneeland.
    • Wisconsin
      • Racine County
      • This Kneeland is located in Racine County and lies 234 miles [376.6 km]<2> to the west southwest of the Kneeland that is located in Oscoda County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Racine County community of Kneeland.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Kneeland ...

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 Rock ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
  • Bucks
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • Curtisville
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Eldorado
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Eldorado is located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eldorado
  • Five Corners
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Five Corners is located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Corners
  • Keno
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Keno is located in Roscommon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keno
  • Long Lake
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Red Oak
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Rose City
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
  • Rust
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Rust is located in Montmorency County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rust
  • Shady Shores
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Shady Shores is located in Ogemaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shady Shores
  • Wildwood
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Wildwood is located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wildwood

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

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

  • Mio, which is the Seat of Oscoda County, lies just to the South Southwest.
  • Lansing, which is the State Capital of Michigan, lies 138 miles [222.1 km]<2> to the south (S). If you could drive a straight line from Kneeland to Lansing, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 8 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 540 miles [869 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 21 days and walking would take 31 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,919 miles [9,525.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,659 miles [10,716.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,545 miles [7,314.5 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 Kneeland 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- Kneeland) 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 Kneeland 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 Kneeland. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.7105, Longitude: -84.0910    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.994 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.975 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.852 degrees.