RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Minnesota >> Scott County >> Belle Plaine >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Belle Plaine, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Belle Plaine 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 Belle Plaine:
    • 44.623001, -93.768256
    • 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 Belle Plaine
  • 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 Scott County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Scott County
    • Since Belle Plaine is near Carver County and also Sibley County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Carver County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Sibley 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 Belle Plaine

Communities Also Named Belle Plaine ...

We found five communities that are also named Belle Plaine.

Within Minnesota, the name Belle Plaine is unique.

Beyond Minnesota, we know of five communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these five communities, four are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Iowa
      • Benton County
      • This Belle Plaine is located in Benton County and lies 202 miles [325.1 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Belle Plaine that is located in Scott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Benton County community of Belle Plaine.
    • Kansas
      • Sumner County
      • This Belle Plaine is located in Sumner County and lies 531 miles [854.6 km]<1> to the south southwest of the Belle Plaine that is located in Scott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sumner County community of Belle Plaine.
    • North Dakota
      • Sargent 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 North Dakota community of Belle Plaine [Sargent County].
    • Saskatchewan
      • This Belle Plaine lies 662 miles [1,065.4 km]<1> to the northwest of the Belle Plaine that is located in Scott County.
    • Wisconsin
      • Shawano County
      • This Belle Plaine is located in Shawano County and lies 250 miles [402.3 km]<1> to the east of the Belle Plaine that is located in Scott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Shawano County community of Belle Plaine.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Belle Plaine ...

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 Belle Plaine 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 city such as Belle Plaine to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Shakopee, which is the Seat of Scott County, lies 17 miles [27.4 km]<1> to the northeast. If you could walk a straight line from Belle Plaine to Shakopee, 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 five to six hours.
  • Saint Paul, which is the State Capital of Minnesota, lies 40 miles [64.4 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take just about two full days and walking would take over two days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 945 miles [1,520.8 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving would take most of two days, a buggy would take 37 days and walking would take 54 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,257 miles [10,069.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,012 miles [11,284.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,921 miles [7,919.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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- Belle Plaine) 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 Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock 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 Belle Plaine 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 Belle Plaine 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 Belle Plaine. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.6230, Longitude: -93.7683    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 318.65 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 316.516 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 311.007 degrees.