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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Oden, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Oden 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 Oden:
    • 45.423351, -84.826900
    • 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 Oden
  • 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 Emmet County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Emmet County
    • Since Oden is near Cheboygan County and also Charlevoix County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cheboygan County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Charlevoix 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 Oden

Communities Also Named Oden ...

We found six communities that are also named Oden.

Within Michigan, the name Oden is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arkansas
      • Montgomery County
      • This Oden is located in Montgomery County and lies 882 miles [1,419.4 km]<1> to the southwest of the Oden that is located in Emmet County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Montgomery County community of Oden.
    • Idaho
      • Bonner County
      • This Oden is located in Bonner County and lies 1,493 miles [2,402.8 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Oden that is located in Emmet County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Bonner County community of Oden.
      • Kootenai 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 Idaho community of Oden [Kootenai County].
    • Louisiana
      • Rapides Parish
      • 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 Louisiana community of Oden [Rapides Parish].
    • New Mexico
      • Grant County
      • This community is historic<3> and although located in Grant County, we don't know where within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Grant County community of Oden.
    • Texas
      • Leon 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 Texas community of Oden [Leon County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Oden ...

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

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

  • Petoskey, which is the Seat of Emmet County, lies just to the West Southwest.
  • Lansing, which is the State Capital of Michigan, lies 186 miles [299.3 km]<1> to the south (S). If you could drive a straight line from Oden to Lansing, with an average speed<5>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take a little over three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 11 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 8 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 601 miles [967.2 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 24 days and walking would take 35 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,912 miles [9,514.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,655 miles [10,710.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,545 miles [7,314.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Oden) 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 Oden 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 Oden, 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 Oden 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 Oden. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.4234, Longitude: -84.8269    
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.448 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 309.595 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.976 degrees.