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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Ritter, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Ritter 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 Ritter:
    • 37.263659, -93.383803
    • 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 Ritter
  • 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 Greene County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Greene County
    • Since Ritter is near Polk County and also Christian County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Polk County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Christian 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 Ritter

Communities Also Named Ritter ...

We found six communities that are also named Ritter.

Within Missouri, the name Ritter is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Iowa
      • O'Brien County
      • This Ritter is located in O'Brien County and lies 432 miles [695.2 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Ritter that is located in Greene County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the O'Brien County community of Ritter.
    • Kansas
      • Kingman County
      • This community is historic<2> and although located in Kingman County, we don't know where within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Kingman County community of Ritter.
    • Maryland
      • Frederick County
      • This Ritter is located in Frederick County and lies 892 miles [1,435.5 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Ritter that is located in Greene County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Frederick County community of Ritter.
    • Oregon
      • Grant County
      • This Ritter is located in Grant County and lies 1,432 miles [2,304.6 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Ritter that is located in Greene County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Grant County community of Ritter.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Northampton 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 Pennsylvania community of Ritter [Northampton County].
    • South Carolina
      • Colleton County
      • This Ritter is located in Colleton County and lies 783 miles [1,260.1 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Ritter that is located in Greene County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Colleton County community of Ritter.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Ritter ...

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.

  • Cave Spring
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Cave Spring is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cave Spring
  • Ebenezer
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Ebenezer is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ebenezer
  • Harold
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Harold is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harold
  • Heady
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Heady is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heady
  • Hickory Barren
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Hickory Barren is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Barren
  • Mascot
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Mascot is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mascot
  • Pearl
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Pearl is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pearl
  • Roseville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Roseville is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roseville
  • Sacville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Sacville is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sacville
  • Valley Water Mills
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Valley Water Mills is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valley Water Mills

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

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

  • Springfield, which is the Seat of Greene County, lies just to the Southeast.
  • Jefferson City, which is the State Capital of Missouri, lies 111 miles [178.6 km]<1> to the northeast (NE). If you could drive a straight line from Ritter to Jefferson City, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take about two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 7 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 894 miles [1,438.8 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of two days, a buggy would take 35 days and walking would take 51 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> 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).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,362 miles [11,848 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,244 miles [8,439.4 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- Ritter) 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 Ritter, 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 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 Ritter 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 Ritter 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 Ritter. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.2637, Longitude: -93.3838       In this case, the coordinates for Ritter have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 318.105 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 314.92 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.43 degrees.