RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Oregon >> Grant County >> Monument >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Monument, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Monument 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 Monument:
    • 44.819442, -119.420401
    • 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 Monument
  • 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 Grant County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Grant County
    • Since Monument is near Wheeler County and also Morrow County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wheeler County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Morrow 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 Monument

Communities Also Named Monument ...

We found eight communities that are also named Monument.

Within Oregon, the name Monument is unique.

Beyond Oregon, we know of eight communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these eight communities, seven are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Colorado
      • El Paso County
      • This Monument is located in El Paso County and lies 844 miles [1,358.3 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Monument that is located in Grant County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the El Paso County community of Monument.
    • Kansas
      • Logan County
      • This Monument is located in Logan County and lies 1,021 miles [1,643.1 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Monument that is located in Grant County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Logan County community of Monument.
    • New Brunswick
      • This Monument lies 2,461 miles [3,960.6 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Monument that is located in Grant County.
    • New Mexico
      • Lea County
      • This Monument is located in Lea County and lies 1,206 miles [1,940.9 km]<1> to the southeast of the Monument that is located in Grant County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lea County community of Monument.
    • New York
      • Saratoga 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 Monument [Saratoga County].
    • Pennsylvania
      • Centre County
      • This Monument is located in Centre County and lies 2,099 miles [3,378 km]<1> to the east of the Monument that is located in Grant County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Centre County community of Monument.
      • Clinton 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 Monument [Clinton County].
    • Utah
      • Box Elder 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 Utah community of Monument [Box Elder County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Monument ...

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

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

  • Canyon City, which is the Seat of Grant County, lies 37 miles [59.5 km]<1> to the southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Monument to Canyon City, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take over two days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just about two full days.
  • Salem, which is the State Capital of Oregon, lies 176 miles [283.2 km] to the west (W). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 10 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,192 miles [3,527.7 km] to the east (E). Driving would take 5 days, a buggy would take 86 days and walking would take 125 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,905 miles [11,112.5 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,671 miles [12,345.3 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,745 miles [9,245.7 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<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 drawn from Point A (ie- Monument) 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 Monument 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 Monument 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 Monument. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.8194, Longitude: -119.4204    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 338.315 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 339.294 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 326.073 degrees.