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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Cedar Lake, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Cedar Lake 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 Cedar Lake:
    • 44.587140, -93.440442
    • 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 Cedar Lake
  • 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 Cedar Lake is near Rice County and also Dakota County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Rice County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dakota 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 Cedar Lake

Communities Also Named Cedar Lake ...

We found twenty communities that are also named Cedar Lake.

There is one other community in Minnesota that is also named Cedar Lake.

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

  • Communities Located In Minnesota ...
    • Crow Wing 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 Minnesota community of Cedar Lake [Crow Wing County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alabama
      • Morgan County
      • This Cedar Lake is located in Morgan County and lies 772 miles [1,242.4 km]<2> to the south southeast of the Cedar Lake that is located in Scott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Morgan County community of Cedar Lake.
      • Walker County
      • This Cedar Lake is located in Walker County and lies 824 miles [1,326.1 km] to the south southeast of the Cedar Lake that is located in Scott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Walker County community of Cedar Lake.
    • Connecticut
      • Hartford 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 Connecticut community of Cedar Lake [Hartford County].
      • Middlesex County
      • This Cedar Lake is located in Middlesex County and lies 1,076 miles [1,731.7 km]<2> to the east of the Cedar Lake that is located in Scott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Middlesex County community of Cedar Lake.
    • Georgia
      • Dougherty County
      • This Cedar Lake is located in Dougherty County and lies 1,026 miles [1,651.2 km]<2> to the south southeast of the Cedar Lake that is located in Scott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Dougherty County community of Cedar Lake.
    • Indiana
      • Lake County
      • This Cedar Lake is located in Lake County and lies 375 miles [603.5 km]<2> to the southeast of the Cedar Lake that is located in Scott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lake County community of Cedar Lake.
    • Manitoba
      • We haven't found the location of this community yet.
    • Michigan
      • Montcalm County
      • This Cedar Lake is located in Montcalm County and lies 428 miles [688.8 km]<2> to the east of the Cedar Lake that is located in Scott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Montcalm County community of Cedar Lake.
      • Van Buren 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 Cedar Lake [Van Buren County].
    • Mississippi
      • Harrison County
      • This Cedar Lake is located in Harrison County and lies 1,005 miles [1,617.4 km]<2> to the south southeast of the Cedar Lake that is located in Scott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Harrison County community of Cedar Lake.
    • New Jersey
      • Atlantic County
      • This Cedar Lake is located in Atlantic County and lies 1,008 miles [1,622.2 km]<2> to the east southeast of the Cedar Lake that is located in Scott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Atlantic County community of Cedar Lake.
      • Morris 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 New Jersey community of Cedar Lake [Morris County].
    • New York
      • Herkimer County
      • This Cedar Lake is located in Herkimer County and lies 915 miles [1,472.5 km]<2> to the east of the Cedar Lake that is located in Scott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Herkimer County community of Cedar Lake.
    • Nova Scotia
      • 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 Nova Scotia community of Cedar Lake.
    • Ontario
      • This Cedar Lake lies 837 miles [1,347 km]<2> to the east of the Cedar Lake that is located in Scott County.
    • South Carolina
      • Greenwood County
      • This Cedar Lake is located in Greenwood County and lies 933 miles [1,501.5 km]<2> to the southeast of the Cedar Lake that is located in Scott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Greenwood County community of Cedar Lake.
    • Texas
      • Matagorda County
      • This Cedar Lake is located in Matagorda County and lies 1,089 miles [1,752.6 km]<2> to the south of the Cedar Lake that is located in Scott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Matagorda County community of Cedar Lake.
    • Wisconsin
      • Washington County
      • This Cedar Lake is located in Washington County and lies 269 miles [432.9 km]<2> to the east southeast of the Cedar Lake that is located in Scott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Washington County community of Cedar Lake.
      • Waushara 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 Wisconsin community of Cedar Lake [Waushara County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Cedar Lake ...

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 Cedar Lake 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 Cedar Lake to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Shakopee, which is the Seat of Scott County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<2> to the north. If you could walk a straight line from Cedar Lake to Shakopee, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Saint Paul, which is the State Capital of Minnesota, lies 30 miles [48.3 km] to the north northeast (NNE). The buggy would take just over a day and walking would take most of two days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 929 miles [1,495.1 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 6,248 miles [10,055.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,003 miles [11,270.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,910 miles [7,901.9 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 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 Cedar Lake 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Cedar Lake) 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 Cedar Lake 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 Cedar Lake. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.5871, Longitude: -93.4404    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 318.418 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 316.247 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.838 degrees.