RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of New Hampshire >> Merrimack County >> Loudon >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Loudon, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Loudon 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 Loudon:
    • 43.285636, -71.467293
    • 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 Loudon
  • 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 Merrimack County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Merrimack County
    • Since Loudon is near Belknap County and also Rockingham County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Belknap County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Rockingham 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 Loudon

Communities Also Named Loudon ...

We found five communities that are also named Loudon.

Within New Hampshire, the name Loudon is unique.

Beyond New Hampshire, we know of five communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Louisiana
      • East Baton Rouge Parish
      • This Loudon is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and lies 1,393 miles [2,241.8 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Loudon that is located in Merrimack County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the East Baton Rouge Parish community of Loudon.
    • Ohio
      • Tuscarawas County
      • This Loudon is located in Tuscarawas County and lies 548 miles [881.9 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Loudon that is located in Merrimack County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Tuscarawas County community of Loudon.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Franklin 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 Pennsylvania community of Loudon [Franklin County].
    • Tennessee
      • Loudon County
      • This Loudon is located in Loudon County and lies 860 miles [1,384 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Loudon that is located in Merrimack County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Loudon County community of Loudon.
    • West Virginia
      • Loudon #
      • 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 West Virginia community of Loudon.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Loudon ...

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.

  • Bow Junction
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Bow Junction is located in Merrimack County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bow Junction
  • Hills Corner
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Hills Corner is located in Merrimack County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hills Corner
  • Horse Corner
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Horse Corner is located in Merrimack County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Horse Corner
  • Jones Mills
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Jones Mills is located in Belknap County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jones Mills
  • Pearls Corner
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Pearls Corner is located in Merrimack County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pearls Corner
  • Rings Corner
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Rings Corner is located in Merrimack County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rings Corner
  • Shaker Village
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Shaker Village is located in Merrimack County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shaker Village
  • Short Falls
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Short Falls is located in Merrimack County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Short Falls

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

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

  • Concord, which is the Seat of Merrimack County, lies just to the South Southwest.
  • Concord, which is the State Capital of New Hampshire, lies just to the south southwest (SSW).
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 419 miles [674.3 km]<1> to the southwest (SW). If you could drive a straight line from Loudon to White House, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 24 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 17 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,485 miles [8,827.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,197 miles [9,973.1 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,072 miles [6,553.2 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'

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- Loudon) 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 Loudon 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 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.
<4>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 Loudon 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 Loudon. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.2856, Longitude: -71.4673       In this case, the coordinates for Loudon have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 304.081 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 299.846 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 300.279 degrees.