RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of North Dakota >> Grand Forks County >> Arvilla >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Arvilla, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Arvilla 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 Arvilla:
    • 47.920268, -97.499374
    • 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 Arvilla
  • 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 Grand Forks County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Grand Forks County
    • Since Arvilla is near Traill County and also Walsh County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Traill County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Walsh 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 Arvilla

Communities Also Named Arvilla ...

We found two communities that are also named Arvilla.

Within North Dakota, the name Arvilla is unique.

Beyond North Dakota, we know of two communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Kansas
      • Osage 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 Kansas community of Arvilla [Osage County].
    • West Virginia
      • Pleasants County
      • This Arvilla is located in Pleasants County and lies 1,004 miles [1,615.8 km]<2> to the east southeast of the Arvilla that is located in Grand Forks County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Pleasants County community of Arvilla.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Arvilla ...

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 Arvilla 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 Arvilla to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Grand Forks, which is the Seat of Grand Forks County, lies 20 miles [32.2 km]<2> to the east. If you could walk a straight line from Arvilla to Grand Forks, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just over a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of a day.
  • Bismarck, which is the State Capital of North Dakota, lies 171 miles [275.2 km] to the west southwest (WSW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 10 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,195 miles [1,923.2 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving would take about three full days, a buggy would take 47 days and walking would take 68 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,197 miles [9,973.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,961 miles [11,202.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,902 miles [7,889 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 Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock 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 Arvilla 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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Arvilla) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Arvilla 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 Arvilla. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.9203, Longitude: -97.4994    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 321.362 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 320.029 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.277 degrees.