RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Michigan >> Grand Traverse County >> Old Mission >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Old Mission, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Old Mission 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 Old Mission:
    • 44.961718, -85.485286
    • 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 Old Mission
  • 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 Grand Traverse County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Grand Traverse County
    • Since Old Mission is near Antrim County and also Leelanau County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Antrim County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Leelanau 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 Old Mission

Communities Also Named Old Mission ...

We found one communities that are also named Old Mission.

Within Michigan, the name Old Mission is unique.

Beyond Michigan, there is another community also named Old Mission in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Idaho
      • Kootenai 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 Idaho community of Old Mission [Kootenai County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Old Mission ...

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.

  • Acme
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Angel
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Central Lake
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Clam Lake ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Clam River
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Clam River is located in Antrim County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clam River
  • Crystal Spring
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Crystal Spring is located in Leelanau County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crystal Spring
  • Elk Rapids
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Fountain Point
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Fountain Point is located in Leelanau County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fountain Point
  • Hatchs
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Hatchs is located in Leelanau County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hatchs
  • Rapid City
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Snowflake
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Snowflake is located in Antrim County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Snowflake
  • Torch Lake
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Torch Lake is located in Antrim County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Torch Lake
  • Torch River
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Torch River is located in Kalkaska County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Torch River

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

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

  • Traverse City, which is the Seat of Grand Traverse County, lies 15 miles [24.1 km]<3> to the south southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Old Mission to Traverse City, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Lansing, which is the State Capital of Michigan, lies 160 miles [257.5 km] to the south southeast (SSE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 9 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 602 miles [968.8 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<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,957 miles [9,586.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,700 miles [10,782.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,589 miles [7,385.3 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 Old Mission 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 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Old Mission) 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 Old Mission 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 Old Mission. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.9617, Longitude: -85.4853    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.917 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 310.055 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.487 degrees.