RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Minnesota >> Dakota County >> Argonne >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Argonne, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Argonne 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 Argonne:
    • 44.695798, -93.285778
    • 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 Argonne
  • 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 Dakota County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dakota County
    • Since Argonne is near Scott County and also Hennepin County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Scott County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Hennepin 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 Argonne

Communities Also Named Argonne ...

We found three communities that are also named Argonne.

Within Minnesota, the name Argonne is unique.

Beyond Minnesota, we know of three communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • South Dakota
      • Miner County
      • This Argonne is located in Miner County and lies 219 miles [352.4 km]<1> to the west of the Argonne that is located in Dakota County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Miner County community of Argonne.
    • West Virginia
      • Logan 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 West Virginia community of Argonne [Logan County].
    • Wisconsin
      • Forest County
      • This Argonne is located in Forest County and lies 224 miles [360.5 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Argonne that is located in Dakota County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Forest County community of Argonne.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Argonne ...

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.

  • Antlers Park
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Antlers Park is located in Dakota County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Antlers Park
  • Apple Valley
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Credit River
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Credit River is located in Scott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Credit River
  • Deer Park
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Deer Park is located in Dakota County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deer Park
  • Grainwood
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Grainwood is located in Scott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grainwood
  • Lakeville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Orchard Garden
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Orchard Garden is located in Dakota County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orchard Garden
  • Prior Lake
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Savage
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)

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

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

  • Hastings, which is the Seat of Dakota County, lies 21 miles [33.8 km]<1> to the east. If you could walk a straight line from Argonne to Hastings, with an average speed<4> 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 most of a day.
  • Saint Paul, which is the State Capital of Minnesota, lies 20 miles [32.2 km] to the north northeast (NNE). The buggy would take most of a day and walking would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 925 miles [1,488.6 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of two days, a buggy would take 37 days and walking would take 53 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,238 miles [10,039.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,992 miles [11,252.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,899 miles [7,884.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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 drawn from Point A (ie- Argonne) 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 Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's 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 Argonne 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>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 Argonne 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 Argonne. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.6958, Longitude: -93.2858       In this case, the coordinates for Argonne have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 318.309 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 316.137 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.726 degrees.