RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Montana >> Beaverhead County >> Birch Creek >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Birch Creek, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Birch Creek 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 Birch Creek:
    • 45.409092, -112.711135
    • 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 Birch Creek
  • 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 Beaverhead County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Beaverhead County
    • Since Birch Creek is near Madison County and also Silver Bow County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Madison County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Silver Bow 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 Birch Creek

Communities Also Named Birch Creek ...

We found four communities that are also named Birch Creek.

Within Montana, the name Birch Creek is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alaska
      • This Birch Creek lies 1,884 miles [3,032 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Birch Creek that is located in Beaverhead County.
    • California
      • Inyo 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 California community of Birch Creek [Inyo County].
    • Idaho
      • Bingham 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 Idaho community of Birch Creek [Bingham County].
    • Michigan
      • Menominee County
      • This Birch Creek is located in Menominee County and lies 1,214 miles [1,953.7 km]<1> to the east of the Birch Creek that is located in Beaverhead County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Menominee County community of Birch Creek.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Birch Creek ...

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.

  • Apex
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Apex is located in Beaverhead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Apex
  • Bond
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Bond is located in Beaverhead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bond
  • Centerville ‑ Historic
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Centerville is located in Madison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Centerville
  • Elkhorn ‑ Historic
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Elkhorn is located in Beaverhead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elkhorn
  • Ford
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Ford is located in Beaverhead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ford
  • Glen
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Lion City ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Lion City is located in Beaverhead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lion City
  • Navy
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Navy is located in Beaverhead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Navy

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers and using the location of where the historic<4> community of Birch Creek once stood, the straight-line distance beginning in Birch Creek and extending to:

  • Dillon, which is the Seat of Beaverhead County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<1> to the south southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Birch Creek to Dillon, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Helena, which is the State Capital of Montana, lies 88 miles [141.6 km] to the north northeast (NNE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take most of three days and walking would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,864 miles [2,999.8 km] to the east (E). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 73 days and walking would take 106 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,733 miles [10,835.7 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,502 miles [12,073.3 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,519 miles [8,882 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Birch Creek) 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 Birch Creek 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>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 Birch Creek, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>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.
<6>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 Birch Creek 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 Birch Creek. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.4091, Longitude: -112.7111       In this case, the coordinates for Birch Creek have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 332.931 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 333.057 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 321.833 degrees.