RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Montana >> Blaine County >> Lodge Pole >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Lodge Pole, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Lodge Pole 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 Lodge Pole:
    • 48.034718, -108.533204
    • 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 Lodge Pole
  • 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 Blaine County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Blaine County
    • Since Lodge Pole is near Phillips County and also Fergus County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Phillips 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 Lodge Pole

Communities Also Named Lodge Pole ...

We found one communities that are also named Lodge Pole.

Within Montana, the name Lodge Pole is unique.

Beyond Montana, there is another community also named Lodge Pole in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • Tulare County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the California community of Lodge Pole [Tulare County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Lodge Pole ...

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.

  • Big Warm ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Big Warm is located in Blaine County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Warm
  • Cow Island ‑ Historic
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Cow Island is located in Blaine County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cow Island
  • Dogtown ‑ Historic
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
    • Dogtown is located in Blaine County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dogtown
  • Dry Lake
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Dry Lake is located in Blaine County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dry Lake
  • Hays
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Power Plant ‑ Historic
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Power Plant is located in Blaine County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Power Plant
  • Rattlesnake
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Rattlesnake is located in Blaine County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rattlesnake
  • Rocky Point ‑ Historic
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
    • Rocky Point is located in Fergus County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rocky Point

How Far From Lodge Pole to ...

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Lodge Pole and extending to:

  • Chinook, which is the Seat of Blaine County, lies 50 miles [80.5 km]<3> to the northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Lodge Pole to Chinook, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of three days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of two days.
  • Helena, which is the State Capital of Montana, lies 191 miles [307.4 km] to the west southwest (WSW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 8 days and walking would take 11 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,685 miles [2,711.7 km] to the east (E). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 66 days and walking would take 96 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,479 miles [10,426.9 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 7,248 miles [11,664.5 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,254 miles [8,455.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Lodge Pole 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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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- Lodge Pole) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Lodge Pole 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 Lodge Pole. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 48.0347, Longitude: -108.5332       In this case, the coordinates for Lodge Pole have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 329.763 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 329.635 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 318.903 degrees.