RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Michigan >> Roscommon County >> Saint Helen >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Saint Helen, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Saint Helen 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 Saint Helen:
    • 44.36354, -84.410278
    • 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 Saint Helen
  • 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 Roscommon County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Roscommon County
    • Since Saint Helen is near Ogemaw County and also Crawford County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Ogemaw County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Crawford 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 Saint Helen

Curious and Interesting Names Near Saint Helen ...

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.

  • Butman
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Deerheart Valley
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Edwards
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Edwards is located in Ogemaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edwards
  • Eldorado
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Eldorado is located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eldorado
  • Five Corners
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Five Corners is located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Corners
  • Greenwood
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
  • Hillcrest
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Hockaday
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Hockaday is located in Gladwin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hockaday
  • Keno
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Keno is located in Roscommon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keno
  • Maple Valley
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Maple Valley is located in Roscommon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maple Valley
  • Meads Landing
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Meads Landing is located in Roscommon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meads Landing
  • Rose City
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
  • Sugar Rapids
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)

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

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

  • Roscommon, which is the Seat of Roscommon County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<2> to the northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Saint Helen to Roscommon, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
  • Lansing, which is the State Capital of Michigan, lies 112 miles [180.2 km] to the south (S). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 535 miles [861 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<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,946 miles [9,569.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,686 miles [10,760.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,571 miles [7,356.3 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 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Saint Helen) 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 Saint Helen 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 Saint Helen. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.3635, Longitude: -84.4103    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.225 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 309.184 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.141 degrees.