RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Oklahoma >> Choctaw County >> Messer >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Messer, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Messer 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 Messer:
    • 34.087326, -95.469405
    • 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 Messer
  • 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 Choctaw County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Choctaw County
    • Since Messer is near Pushmataha County and also Lamar County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Pushmataha County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lamar 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 Messer

Communities Also Named Messer ...

We found one communities that are also named Messer.

Within Oklahoma, the name Messer is unique.

Beyond Oklahoma, there is another community also named Messer in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Kansas
      • Cherokee 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 Messer [Cherokee County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Messer ...

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.

  • Apple
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Apple is located in Choctaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Apple
  • Big Rocks
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Big Rocks is located in Pushmataha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Rocks
  • Ethel
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Ethel is located in Pushmataha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ethel
  • Goodland
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Goodland is located in Choctaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goodland
  • Grant
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Greenwood
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Greenwood is located in Pushmataha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenwood
  • High Hill
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • High Hill is located in Choctaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for High Hill
  • Hugo
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Hugo is located in Choctaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hugo
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,070 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hugo <2>
  • Kent
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Kent is located in Choctaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kent

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Messer and extending to:

  • Hugo, which is the Seat of Choctaw County, lies just to the South Southwest.
  • Oklahoma City, which is the State Capital of Oklahoma, lies 149 miles [239.8 km]<3> to the northwest (NW). If you could drive a straight line from Messer to Oklahoma City, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 9 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,073 miles [1,726.8 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take over two days, a buggy would take 42 days and walking would take 61 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,866 miles [11,049.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,600 miles [12,231 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,479 miles [8,817.6 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 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 Messer 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>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Messer) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Messer 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 Messer. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.0873, Longitude: -95.4694       In this case, the coordinates for Messer have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 319.21 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 315.796 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 313.90 degrees.