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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Prestonia, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Prestonia 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 Prestonia:
    • 36.512564, -92.350160
    • 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 Prestonia
  • 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 Prestonia is near Baxter County and also Fulton County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Baxter 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 Prestonia

Communities Also Named Prestonia ...

We found two communities that are also named Prestonia.

Within Missouri, the name Prestonia is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Kentucky
      • Jefferson County
      • This Prestonia is located in Jefferson County and lies 381 miles [613.2 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Prestonia that is located in Ozark County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jefferson County community of Prestonia.
    • West Virginia
      • Webster 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 West Virginia community of Prestonia [Webster County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Prestonia ...

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.

  • Fawn Park
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Fawn Park is located in Baxter County (AR)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fawn Park
  • Fay
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Fay is located in Ozark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fay
  • Howards Ridge
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Howards Ridge is located in Ozark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Howards Ridge
  • Luna
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Luna is located in Ozark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Luna
  • Mallard Point
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Mallard Point is located in Baxter County (AR)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mallard Point
  • Mammoth
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Mammoth is located in Ozark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mammoth
  • Sharp
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Sharp is located in Ozark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sharp
  • Three Brothers
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Three Brothers is located in Baxter County (AR)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Three Brothers

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

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

  • Gainesville, which is the Seat of Ozark County, lies just to the Northwest.
  • Jefferson City, which is the State Capital of Missouri, lies 142 miles [228.5 km]<1> to the north (N). If you could drive a straight line from Prestonia to Jefferson City, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 8 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 851 miles [1,369.6 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 34 days and walking would take 49 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,624 miles [10,660.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,358 miles [11,841.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,237 miles [8,428.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 from Point A (ie- Prestonia) 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 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 Prestonia 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 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.
<4>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 Prestonia 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 Prestonia. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.5126, Longitude: -92.3502       In this case, the coordinates for Prestonia have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 317.368 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 313.967 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.089 degrees.