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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Sagola, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Sagola 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 Sagola:
    • 46.087310, -88.075810
    • 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 Sagola
  • 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 Dickinson County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dickinson County
    • Since Sagola is near Iron County and also Marquette County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Iron County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Marquette 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 Sagola

Curious and Interesting Names Near Sagola ...

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 Sagola to ...

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Sagola and extending to:

  • Iron Mountain, which is the Seat of Dickinson County, lies 18 miles [29 km]<2> to the south. If you could walk a straight line from Sagola to Iron Mountain, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just over a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take five to six hours.
  • Lansing, which is the State Capital of Michigan, lies 289 miles [465.1 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take four to five hours, a buggy would take 12 days and walking would take 17 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 748 miles [1,203.8 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 30 days and walking would take 43 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,994 miles [9,646.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,744 miles [10,853.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,643 miles [7,472.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Sagola) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<4>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 Sagola 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 Sagola. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 46.0873, Longitude: -88.0758    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.641 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 312.168 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.485 degrees.