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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Wall Lake, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Wall 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 Wall Lake:
    • 46.290793, -95.964777
    • 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 Wall 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 Otter Tail County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Otter Tail County
    • Since Wall Lake is near Grant County and also Wilkin County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Grant County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wilkin 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 Wall Lake

Communities Also Named Wall Lake ...

We found four communities that are also named Wall Lake.

Within Minnesota, the name Wall Lake is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Indiana
      • LaGrange 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 Indiana community of Wall Lake [LaGrange County].
    • Iowa
      • Sac County
      • This Wall Lake is located in Sac County and lies 281 miles [452.2 km]<2> to the south of the Wall Lake that is located in Otter Tail County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sac County community of Wall Lake.
    • Louisiana
      • Ouachita Parish
      • This Wall Lake is located in Ouachita Parish and lies 964 miles [1,551.4 km]<2> to the south southeast of the Wall Lake that is located in Otter Tail County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Ouachita Parish community of Wall Lake.
    • Michigan
      • Barry 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 Wall Lake [Barry County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Wall 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.

  • Basswood
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Basswood is located in Otter Tail County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Basswood
  • Dent
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Dent is located in Otter Tail County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dent
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 185 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Dent <3>
  • Edwards
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Edwards is located in Otter Tail County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edwards
  • Elbow Lake
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
  • Elizabeth
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Foxhome
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Foxhome is located in Wilkin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Foxhome
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 112 people
  • French
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • French is located in Otter Tail County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for French
  • Maine
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Maine is located in Otter Tail County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maine
  • Ottertail
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Pelican Rapids
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
  • Richville
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Woodland Park
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Woodland Park is located in Otter Tail County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodland Park

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

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

  • Fergus Falls, which is the Seat of Otter Tail County, lies just to the West.
  • Saint Paul, which is the State Capital of Minnesota, lies 166 miles [267.2 km]<2> to the east southeast (ESE). If you could drive a straight line from Wall Lake to Saint Paul, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take about three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 10 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,085 miles [1,746.1 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving would take over two days, a buggy would take 43 days and walking would take 62 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,239 miles [10,040.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,999 miles [11,263.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,924 miles [7,924.4 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 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 Wall 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- Wall 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 Wall 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 Wall Lake. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 46.2908, Longitude: -95.9648       In this case, the coordinates for Wall Lake have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 320.235 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 318.541 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 311.804 degrees.