RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Nebraska >> Red Willow County >> Indianola >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Indianola, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Indianola 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 Indianola:
    • 40.237249, -100.417179
    • 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 Indianola
  • 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 Red Willow County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Red Willow County
    • Since Indianola is near Furnas County and also Frontier County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Furnas County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Frontier 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 Indianola

Communities Also Named Indianola ...

We found fourteen communities that are also named Indianola.

Within Nebraska, the name Indianola is unique.

Beyond Nebraska, we know of fourteen communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • Humboldt County
      • This Indianola is located in Humboldt County and lies 1,239 miles [1,994 km]<1> to the west of the Indianola that is located in Red Willow County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Humboldt County community of Indianola.
    • Florida
      • Brevard County
      • This Indianola is located in Brevard County and lies 1,384 miles [2,227.3 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Indianola that is located in Red Willow County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Brevard County community of Indianola.
    • Georgia
      • Lowndes County
      • This Indianola is located in Lowndes County and lies 1,160 miles [1,866.8 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Indianola that is located in Red Willow County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lowndes County community of Indianola.
    • Illinois
      • Vermilion County
      • This Indianola is located in Vermilion County and lies 669 miles [1,076.7 km]<1> to the east of the Indianola that is located in Red Willow County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Vermilion County community of Indianola.
    • Indiana
      • LaGrange County
      • This Indianola is located in LaGrange County and lies 795 miles [1,279.4 km]<1> to the east of the Indianola that is located in Red Willow County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the LaGrange County community of Indianola.
    • Iowa
      • Warren County
      • This Indianola is located in Warren County and lies 366 miles [589 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Indianola that is located in Red Willow County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Warren County community of Indianola.
    • Kansas
      • Butler 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 Kansas community of Indianola [Butler County].
      • Shawnee County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Kansas community of Indianola [Shawnee County].
    • Mississippi
      • Sunflower County
      • This Indianola is located in Sunflower County and lies 714 miles [1,149.1 km]<1> to the southeast of the Indianola that is located in Red Willow County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sunflower County community of Indianola.
    • Oklahoma
      • Pittsburg County
      • This Indianola is located in Pittsburg County and lies 432 miles [695.2 km]<1> to the southeast of the Indianola that is located in Red Willow County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Pittsburg County community of Indianola.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Allegheny County
      • This Indianola is located in Allegheny County and lies 1,078 miles [1,734.9 km]<1> to the east of the Indianola that is located in Red Willow County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Allegheny County community of Indianola.
    • Texas
      • Calhoun County
      • This Indianola is located in Calhoun County and lies 839 miles [1,350.2 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Indianola that is located in Red Willow County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Calhoun County community of Indianola.
    • Utah
      • Sanpete County
      • This Indianola is located in Sanpete County and lies 585 miles [941.5 km]<1> to the west of the Indianola that is located in Red Willow County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sanpete County community of Indianola.
    • Washington
      • Kitsap County
      • This Indianola is located in Kitsap County and lies 1,208 miles [1,944.1 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Indianola that is located in Red Willow County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Kitsap County community of Indianola.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Indianola ...

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

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

  • McCook, which is the Seat of Red Willow County, lies 11 miles [17.7 km]<1> to the west. If you could walk a straight line from Indianola to McCook, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
  • Lincoln, which is the State Capital of Nebraska, lies 198 miles [318.7 km] to the east northeast (ENE). 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 12 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,244 miles [2,002 km] to the east (E). Driving would take about three full days, a buggy would take 49 days and walking would take 71 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,705 miles [10,790.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,463 miles [12,010.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,375 miles [8,650.2 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 from Point A (ie- Indianola) 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 Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's 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 Indianola 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 Indianola 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 Indianola. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.2372, Longitude: -100.4172    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 323.213 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 321.224 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 315.452 degrees.