RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Oregon >> Douglas County >> Oak Creek >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Oak Creek, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Oak Creek 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 Oak Creek:
    • 43.266506, -123.208122
    • 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 Oak Creek
  • 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 Douglas County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Douglas County
    • Since Oak Creek is near Lane County and also Coos County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lane County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Coos 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 Oak Creek

Communities Also Named Oak Creek ...

We found eleven communities that are also named Oak Creek.

Within Oregon, the name Oak Creek is unique.

Beyond Oregon, we know of eleven communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arizona
      • Yavapai County
      • This Oak Creek is located in Yavapai County and lies 847 miles [1,363.1 km]<1> to the southeast of the Oak Creek that is located in Douglas County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Yavapai County community of Oak Creek.
    • Colorado
      • Fremont 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 Colorado community of Oak Creek [Fremont County].
      • Routt County
      • This Oak Creek is located in Routt County and lies 860 miles [1,384 km]<1> to the east of the Oak Creek that is located in Douglas County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Routt County community of Oak Creek.
    • Georgia
      • Paulding County
      • This Oak Creek is located in Paulding County and lies 2,150 miles [3,460.1 km]<1> to the east of the Oak Creek that is located in Douglas County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Paulding County community of Oak Creek.
    • Mississippi
      • Hinds County
      • This Oak Creek is located in Hinds County and lies 1,934 miles [3,112.5 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Oak Creek that is located in Douglas County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hinds County community of Oak Creek.
    • South Carolina
      • Greenville County
      • This Oak Creek is located in Greenville County and lies 2,247 miles [3,616.2 km]<1> to the east of the Oak Creek that is located in Douglas County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Greenville County community of Oak Creek.
      • Lexington County
      • This Oak Creek is located in Lexington County and lies 2,330 miles [3,749.8 km] to the east of the Oak Creek that is located in Douglas County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lexington County community of Oak Creek.
      • Spartanburg County
      • This Oak Creek is located in Spartanburg County and lies 2,264 miles [3,643.6 km] to the east of the Oak Creek that is located in Douglas County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Spartanburg County community of Oak Creek.
    • Texas
      • Bexar County
      • Although located in Bexar County, we don't know the location within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Bexar County community of Oak Creek.
    • Utah
      • Sanpete County
      • This Oak Creek is located in Sanpete County and lies 656 miles [1,055.7 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Oak Creek that is located in Douglas County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sanpete County community of Oak Creek.
    • Wisconsin
      • Milwaukee County
      • This Oak Creek is located in Milwaukee County and lies 1,769 miles [2,846.9 km]<1> to the east of the Oak Creek that is located in Douglas County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Milwaukee County community of Oak Creek.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Oak Creek ...

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.

  • Edenbower
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Edenbower is located in Douglas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edenbower
  • Fair Oaks
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Fair Oaks is located in Douglas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fair Oaks
  • Glide
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Green
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Green is located in Douglas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green
  • Oaks
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Oaks is located in Douglas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oaks
  • Peel
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Peel is located in Douglas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peel
  • Redbell
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Redbell is located in Douglas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redbell
  • Riversdale
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Riversdale is located in Douglas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riversdale
  • Rockland ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Rockland is located in Douglas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockland
  • Shady
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Shady is located in Douglas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shady
  • Union Gap
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Union Gap is located in Douglas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Union Gap

How Far From Oak Creek to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Oak Creek to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers and using the location of where the historic<4> community of Oak Creek once stood, the straight-line distance beginning in Oak Creek and extending to:

  • Roseburg, which is the Seat of Douglas County, lies just to the West Southwest.
  • Salem, which is the State Capital of Oregon, lies 115 miles [185.1 km]<1> to the north (N). If you could drive a straight line from Oak Creek to Salem, with an average speed<5>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take about two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 7 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,391 miles [3,847.9 km] to the east (E). Driving would take 5 days, a buggy would take 94 days and walking would take 136 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,070 miles [11,378.1 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,834 miles [12,607.6 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,936 miles [9,553.1 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Oak Creek) 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 Oak Creek 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>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 Oak Creek, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 Oak Creek 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 Oak Creek. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.2665, Longitude: -123.2081       In this case, the coordinates for Oak Creek have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 341.349 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 342.776 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 328.57 degrees.