RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Montana >> Lewis and Clark County >> Iron >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Iron, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Iron 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 Iron:
    • 46.686603, -112.060556
    • 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 Iron
  • 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 Lewis and Clark County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lewis and Clark County
    • Since Iron is near Jefferson County and also Powell County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Jefferson County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Powell 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 Iron

Communities Also Named Iron ...

We found three communities that are also named Iron.

Within Montana, the name Iron is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Illinois
      • White County
      • This Iron is located in White County and lies 1,349 miles [2,171 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Iron that is located in Lewis and Clark County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the White County community of Iron.
    • Minnesota
      • Saint Louis 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 Minnesota community of Iron [Saint Louis County].
    • North Carolina
      • Lincoln 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 North Carolina community of Iron [Lincoln County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Iron ...

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.

  • Birdseye
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Birdseye is located in Lewis and Clark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Birdseye
  • Blue Cloud ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Blue Cloud is located in Lewis and Clark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blue Cloud
  • Four Range
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Four Range is located in Lewis and Clark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Four Range
  • Gearing
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Gearing is located in Lewis and Clark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gearing
  • Helena
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Helena is located in Lewis and Clark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Helena
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 33,737 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Helena <3>
  • Park City
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Park City is located in Lewis and Clark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Park City
  • Seven Mile ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Seven Mile is located in Lewis and Clark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seven Mile
  • Silver City
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Silver City is located in Lewis and Clark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver City
  • Skyline
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Skyline is located in Lewis and Clark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Skyline
  • Trinity ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Trinity is located in Lewis and Clark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trinity
  • Unionville
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Unionville is located in Lewis and Clark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Unionville
  • Weed
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Weed is located in Lewis and Clark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Weed

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

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

  • Helena, which is the Seat of Lewis and Clark County, lies just to the South Southeast.
  • Helena, which is the State Capital of Montana, lies just to the south southeast (SSE).
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,837 miles [2,956.4 km]<1> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Iron to White House, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take most of three days to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 105 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 72 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,640 miles [10,686 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,409 miles [11,923.6 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,431 miles [8,740.3 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Iron) 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 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 Iron 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>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 Iron 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 Iron. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 46.6866, Longitude: -112.0606       In this case, the coordinates for Iron have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 332.485 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 332.647 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 321.281 degrees.