RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of New Jersey >> Ocean County >> Midwood >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Midwood, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Midwood 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 Midwood:
    • 40.097336, -74.418206
    • 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 Midwood
  • 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 Ocean County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Ocean County
    • Since Midwood is near Monmouth County and also Burlington County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Monmouth County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Burlington 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 Midwood

Communities Also Named Midwood ...

We found three communities that are also named Midwood.

Within New Jersey, the name Midwood is unique.

Beyond New Jersey, we know of three communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these three communities, .

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • New Brunswick
      • This Midwood lies 555 miles [893.2 km]<1> to the northeast of the Midwood that is located in Ocean County.
    • New York
      • Kings 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 New York community of Midwood [Kings County].
    • North Carolina
      • Mecklenburg County
      • This Midwood is located in Mecklenburg County and lies 484 miles [778.9 km]<1> to the southwest of the Midwood that is located in Ocean County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Mecklenburg County community of Midwood.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Midwood ...

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.

  • Cream Ridge
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Cream Ridge is located in Monmouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cream Ridge
  • Francis Mills
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Francis Mills is located in Ocean County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Francis Mills
  • Harmony
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Harmony is located in Ocean County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harmony
  • Hockamik
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Hockamik is located in Burlington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hockamik
  • Kirbys Mills
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Kirbys Mills is located in Monmouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kirbys Mills
  • Leesville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Leesville is located in Ocean County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leesville
  • Maryland
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Maryland is located in Ocean County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maryland
  • New Egypt
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • New Egypt is located in Ocean County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Egypt
  • Pleasant Grove
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Pleasant Grove is located in Ocean County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Grove
  • Prospertown
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Prospertown is located in Monmouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prospertown
  • Red Valley
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Red Valley is located in Monmouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Valley
  • Stone Tavern
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Stone Tavern is located in Monmouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stone Tavern
  • Vista Center
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Vista Center is located in Ocean County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vista Center

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

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

  • Toms River, which is the Seat of Ocean County, lies 15 miles [24.1 km]<1> to the southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Midwood to Toms River, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Trenton, which is the State Capital of New Jersey, lies 19 miles [30.6 km] to the west northwest (WNW). The buggy would take 6 hours and walking would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 162 miles [260.7 km] to the west southwest (WSW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 10 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,736 miles [9,231.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,440 miles [10,364.2 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,317 miles [6,947.5 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Midwood) 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 Midwood 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 Midwood 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 Midwood. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.0973, Longitude: -74.4182       In this case, the coordinates for Midwood have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 306.25 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 301.767 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 303.113 degrees.