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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Moorhead, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Moorhead 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 Moorhead:
    • 46.858680, -96.742587
    • 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 Moorhead
  • 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 Clay County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Clay County
    • Since Moorhead is near Cass County and also Cass County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cass County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cass 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 Moorhead

Communities Also Named Moorhead ...

We found five communities that are also named Moorhead.

Within Minnesota, the name Moorhead is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Iowa
      • Monona County
      • This Moorhead is located in Monona County and lies 343 miles [552 km]<1> to the south of the Moorhead that is located in Clay County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Monona County community of Moorhead.
    • Mississippi
      • Sunflower County
      • This Moorhead is located in Sunflower County and lies 981 miles [1,578.8 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Moorhead that is located in Clay County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sunflower County community of Moorhead.
    • Montana
      • Custer 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 Montana community of Moorhead [Custer County].
      • Powder River County
      • This Moorhead is located in Powder River County and lies 455 miles [732.3 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Moorhead that is located in Clay County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Powder River County community of Moorhead.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Erie County
      • This Moorhead is located in Erie County and lies 887 miles [1,427.5 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Moorhead that is located in Clay County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Erie County community of Moorhead.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Moorhead ...

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.

  • Comstock
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Comstock is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Comstock
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 108 people
  • Downer
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Downer is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Downer
  • Fargo
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Fargo is located in Cass County (ND)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fargo
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 125,209 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Fargo <3>
  • Frontier
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Frontier is located in Cass County (ND)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frontier
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 212 people
  • Georgetown
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Georgetown is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Georgetown
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 126 people
  • Oxbow
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Oxbow is located in Cass County (ND)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oxbow
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 303 people
  • Prairie Rose
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Prairie Rose is located in Cass County (ND)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prairie Rose
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 51 people
  • Prosper
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Prosper is located in Cass County (ND)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prosper
  • Wild Rice
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Wild Rice is located in Cass County (ND)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wild Rice

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

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

  • Saint Paul, which is the State Capital of Minnesota, lies 219 miles [352.4 km]<1> to the southeast (SE). If you could drive a straight line from Moorhead to Saint Paul, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take nearly four hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 13 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 9 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,134 miles [1,825 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving would take over two days, a buggy would take 45 days and walking would take 65 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,232 miles [10,029.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,994 miles [11,255.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,925 miles [7,926 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Moorhead) 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 Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird 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 Moorhead 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 Moorhead 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 Moorhead. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 46.8587, Longitude: -96.7426       In this case, the coordinates for Moorhead have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 320.804 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 319.261 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.106 degrees.