RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Ohio >> Darke County >> Dawn >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Dawn, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Dawn 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 Dawn:
    • 40.217336, -84.578093
    • 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 Dawn
  • 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 Darke County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Darke County
    • Since Dawn is near Miami County and also Mercer County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Miami County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Mercer 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 Dawn

Communities Also Named Dawn ...

We found five communities that are also named Dawn.

Within Ohio, the name Dawn is unique.

Beyond Ohio, we know of five communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these five communities, four are located in the United States and two are in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Missouri
      • Livingston County
      • This Dawn is located in Livingston County and lies 480 miles [772.5 km]<1> to the west of the Dawn that is located in Darke County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Livingston County community of Dawn.
    • Ontario
      • 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 Ontario community of Dawn.
    • Tennessee
      • Coffee County
      • This community is historic<3> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Tennessee community of Dawn [Coffee County].
    • Texas
      • Deaf Smith County
      • This Dawn is located in Deaf Smith County and lies 1,029 miles [1,656 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Dawn that is located in Darke County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Deaf Smith County community of Dawn.
    • Virginia
      • Caroline 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 Virginia community of Dawn [Caroline County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Dawn ...

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

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

  • Greenville, which is the Seat of Darke County, lies just to the South Southwest.
  • Columbus, which is the State Capital of Ohio, lies 85 miles [136.8 km]<1> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Dawn to Columbus, with an average speed<5>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 411 miles [661.4 km] to the east (E). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 16 days and walking would take 24 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,146 miles [9,891 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,873 miles [11,061 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,750 miles [7,644.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Dawn) 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 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 Dawn 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>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Dawn, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>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.
<6>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 Dawn 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 Dawn. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.2173, Longitude: -84.5781    
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.465 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.845 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.597 degrees.