RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Montana >> Wheatland County >> Harlowton >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Harlowton, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Harlowton 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 Harlowton:
    • 46.436963, -109.833828
    • 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 Harlowton
  • 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 Wheatland County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wheatland County
    • Since Harlowton is near Meagher County and also Fergus County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Meagher County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Fergus 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 Harlowton

Curious and Interesting Names Near Harlowton ...

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.

How Far From Harlowton to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers & Almanacs that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a city such as Harlowton to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Harlowton and extending to:

  • Helena, which is the State Capital of Montana, lies 104 miles [167.4 km]<2> to the west (W). If you could drive a straight line from Harlowton to Helena, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 6 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 4 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,730 miles [2,784.2 km] to the east (E). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 68 days and walking would take 99 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,605 miles [10,629.7 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,374 miles [11,867.3 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,377 miles [8,653.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>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 from Point A (ie- Harlowton) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Harlowton 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 Harlowton. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 46.4370, Longitude: -109.8338    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 330.716 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 330.581 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 319.943 degrees.