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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Pine River, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Pine River 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 Pine River:
    • 43.983022, -83.889072
    • 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 Pine River
  • 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 Arenac County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Arenac County
    • Since Pine River is near Bay County and also Ogemaw County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Bay County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Ogemaw 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 Pine River

Communities Also Named Pine River ...

We found eight communities that are also named Pine River.

There is one other community in Michigan that is also named Pine River.

Beyond Michigan, we know of seven communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these seven communities, six are located in the United States and two are in Canada.

  • Communities Located In Michigan ...
    • Chippewa 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 Pine River [Chippewa County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Colorado
      • La Plata 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 Colorado community of Pine River [La Plata County].
    • Manitoba
      • This Pine River lies 936 miles [1,506.3 km]<2> to the northwest of the Pine River that is located in Arenac County.
    • Minnesota
      • Cass County
      • This Pine River is located in Cass County and lies 543 miles [873.9 km]<2> to the west northwest of the Pine River that is located in Arenac County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cass County community of Pine River.
    • New Hampshire
      • Carroll County
      • This Pine River is located in Carroll County and lies 637 miles [1,025.2 km]<2> to the east of the Pine River that is located in Arenac County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Carroll County community of Pine River.
    • Ontario
      • This Pine River lies 110 miles [177 km]<2> to the east of the Pine River that is located in Arenac County.
    • Wisconsin
      • Lincoln County
      • This Pine River is located in Lincoln County and lies 292 miles [469.9 km]<2> to the west northwest of the Pine River that is located in Arenac County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lincoln County community of Pine River.
      • Waushara County
      • This Pine River is located in Waushara County and lies 257 miles [413.6 km] to the west of the Pine River that is located in Arenac County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Waushara County community of Pine River.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Pine River ...

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.

  • Elbow Lake
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Elbow Lake is located in Ogemaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elbow Lake
  • Greenwood
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Hard Luck
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Hard Luck is located in Gladwin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hard Luck
    • Hard Luck has also been known as:
    • Hardluck
  • Knights Mill
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Knights Mill is located in Arenac County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knights Mill
  • Maple Ridge
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Skidway Lake
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Turtle
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Turtle is located in Iosco County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Turtle
  • Twining
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Worth
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Worth is located in Arenac County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Worth

How Far From Pine River to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers & Almanacs that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Pine River to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Standish, which is the Seat of Arenac County, lies just to the West.
  • Lansing, which is the State Capital of Michigan, lies 92 miles [148.1 km]<2> to the south southwest (SSW). If you could drive a straight line from Pine River to Lansing, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 6 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 498 miles [801.5 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 20 days and walking would take 29 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,945 miles [9,567.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,683 miles [10,755.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,566 miles [7,348.3 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 Pine River 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Pine River) 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 Pine River 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 Pine River. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.9830, Longitude: -83.8891       In this case, the coordinates for Pine River have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.898 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.758 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.011 degrees.