RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Montana >> Mineral County >> Spring Gulch >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Spring Gulch, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Spring Gulch 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 Spring Gulch:
    • 47.230206, -114.980690
    • 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 Spring Gulch
  • 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 Mineral County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Mineral County
    • Since Spring Gulch is near Sanders County and also Missoula County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Sanders County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Missoula 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 Spring Gulch

Communities Also Named Spring Gulch ...

We found two communities that are also named Spring Gulch.

There is one other community in Montana that is also named Spring Gulch.

Beyond Montana, there is another community also named Spring Gulch in the United States.

  • Communities Located In Montana ...
    • Missoula 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 Montana community of Spring Gulch [Missoula County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Colorado
      • Pitkin 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 Colorado community of Spring Gulch [Pitkin County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Spring Gulch ...

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.

  • Cedar Junction ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Cedar Junction is located in Mineral County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Junction
  • Cedar Mouth ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Cedar Mouth is located in Mineral County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Mouth
  • Crescent City ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Crescent City is located in Mineral County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crescent City
  • Island City ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Island City is located in Sanders County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Island City
  • Keystone ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Keystone is located in Mineral County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keystone
  • Oliverville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Oliverville is located in Mineral County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oliverville
  • Paradise
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Riverbend
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Riverbend is located in Mineral County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverbend
  • Superior
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)

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

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

  • Superior, which is the Seat of Mineral County, lies just to the East Southeast.
  • Helena, which is the State Capital of Montana, lies 146 miles [235 km]<3> to the east southeast (ESE). If you could drive a straight line from Spring Gulch to Helena, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 9 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,976 miles [3,180.1 km] to the east (E). Driving would take three full days, a buggy would take 78 days and walking would take 113 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,668 miles [10,731.1 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 7,436 miles [11,967.1 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,486 miles [8,828.9 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 Spring Gulch 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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Spring Gulch) 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 Spring Gulch 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 Spring Gulch. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.2302, Longitude: -114.9807       In this case, the coordinates for Spring Gulch have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 334.846 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 335.422 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 323.047 degrees.