RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Missouri >> Ozark County >> Elijah >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Elijah, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Elijah 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 Elijah:
    • 36.611769, -92.149276
    • 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 Elijah
  • 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 Ozark County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Ozark County
    • Since Elijah is near Howell County and also Fulton County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Howell County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Fulton 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 Elijah

Communities Also Named Elijah ...

We found three communities that are also named Elijah.

Within Missouri, the name Elijah is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Pennsylvania
      • McKean County
      • This Elijah is located in McKean County and lies 791 miles [1,273 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Elijah that is located in Ozark County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the McKean County community of Elijah.
    • Tennessee
      • White County
      • This community is historic<2> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Tennessee community of Elijah [White County].
    • Virginia
      • Patrick County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Virginia community of Elijah [Patrick County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Elijah ...

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.

  • County Line
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • County Line is located in Fulton County (AR)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for County Line
  • Cross Roads
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Cross Roads is located in Ozark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cross Roads
  • Cureall
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Cureall is located in Howell County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cureall
  • Egypt Grove
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Egypt Grove is located in Howell County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Egypt Grove
  • Luna
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Luna is located in Ozark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Luna
  • Moody
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Moody is located in Howell County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moody
  • Oak Mound
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Oak Mound is located in Ozark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Mound
  • Pottersville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Pottersville is located in Howell County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pottersville
  • Sharp
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Sharp is located in Ozark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sharp

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

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

  • Gainesville, which is the Seat of Ozark County, lies 15 miles [24.1 km]<1> to the west. If you could walk a straight line from Elijah to Gainesville, 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 four to five hours.
  • Jefferson City, which is the State Capital of Missouri, lies 135 miles [217.3 km] to the north (N). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 6 days and walking would take 8 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 838 miles [1,348.6 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 33 days and walking would take 48 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,611 miles [10,639.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,345 miles [11,820.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,224 miles [8,407.2 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Elijah) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Elijah, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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 Elijah 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.
<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 Elijah 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 Elijah. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.6118, Longitude: -92.1493    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 317.243 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 313.835 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 311.978 degrees.