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Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Sparks, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Sparks 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 Sparks:
- 45.590963, -118.814153
- 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 Sparks
- 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 Umatilla County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- Open the eBird sighting report for Umatilla County
- Since Sparks is near Union County and also Morrow County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- Open the eBird sighting report for Union 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 Sparks
Communities Also Named Sparks ...
We found fifteen communities that are also named Sparks.
Within Oregon, the name Sparks is unique.
Beyond Oregon, we know of fifteen communities that are located in the United States.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Colorado
- Moffat County
- This Sparks is located in Moffat County and lies 596 miles [959.2 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Sparks that is located in Umatilla County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Moffat County community of Sparks.
- Georgia
- Berrien 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 Georgia community of Sparks [Berrien County].
- Cook County
- This Sparks is located in Cook County and lies 2,134 miles [3,434.3 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Sparks that is located in Umatilla County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cook County community of Sparks.
- Washington County
- This Sparks is located in Washington County and lies 2,088 miles [3,360.3 km] to the east southeast of the Sparks that is located in Umatilla County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Washington County community of Sparks.
- Kansas
- Doniphan County
- This Sparks is located in Doniphan County and lies 1,256 miles [2,021.3 km]<1> to the east of the Sparks that is located in Umatilla County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Doniphan County community of Sparks.
- Kentucky
- Estill County
- This Sparks is located in Estill County and lies 1,871 miles [3,011.1 km]<1> to the east of the Sparks that is located in Umatilla County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Estill County community of Sparks.
- Jackson County
- This Sparks is located in Jackson County and lies 1,870 miles [3,009.5 km] to the east of the Sparks that is located in Umatilla County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jackson County community of Sparks.
- Louisiana
- Pointe Coupee Parish
- This Sparks is located in Pointe Coupee Parish and lies 1,798 miles [2,893.6 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Sparks that is located in Umatilla County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Pointe Coupee Parish community of Sparks.
- Maryland
- Baltimore County
- This Sparks is located in Baltimore County and lies 2,159 miles [3,474.6 km]<1> to the east of the Sparks that is located in Umatilla County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Baltimore County community of Sparks.
- Nebraska
- Cherry County
- This Sparks is located in Cherry County and lies 933 miles [1,501.5 km]<1> to the east of the Sparks that is located in Umatilla County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cherry County community of Sparks.
- Nevada
- Washoe County
- This Sparks is located in Washoe County and lies 420 miles [675.9 km]<1> to the south of the Sparks that is located in Umatilla County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Washoe County community of Sparks.
- Oklahoma
- Lincoln County
- This Sparks is located in Lincoln County and lies 1,336 miles [2,150.1 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Sparks that is located in Umatilla County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lincoln County community of Sparks.
- Texas
- Bell County
- This Sparks is located in Bell County and lies 1,533 miles [2,467.1 km]<1> to the southeast of the Sparks that is located in Umatilla County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Bell County community of Sparks.
- El Paso County
- This Sparks is located in El Paso County and lies 1,173 miles [1,887.8 km] to the southeast of the Sparks that is located in Umatilla County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the El Paso County community of Sparks.
- West Virginia
- Nicholas 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 West Virginia community of Sparks [Nicholas County].
Curious and Interesting Names Near Sparks ...
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.
- Apex
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
- Apex is located in Umatilla County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Apex
- Echo
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
- Green Meadows
(Less than 2 miles to the north)
- Green Meadows is located in Umatilla County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Meadows
- Havana
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
- Havana is located in Umatilla County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Havana
- Helix
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
- Holdman
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
- Holdman is located in Umatilla County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holdman
- Mission
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
- Mission is located in Umatilla County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mission
- Pilot Rock
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
- Thorn Hollow
(18 miles [29 km] to the east)
- Thorn Hollow is located in Umatilla County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thorn Hollow
How Far From Sparks 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 Sparks to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Sparks and extending to:
- Pendleton, which is the Seat of Umatilla County, lies just to the North Northeast.
- Salem, which is the State Capital of Oregon, lies 209 miles [336.4 km]<1> to the west (W). If you could drive a straight line from Sparks to Salem, with an average speed<5>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take a little over three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 12 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 9 days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,159 miles [3,474.6 km] to the east (E). Driving would take 5 days, a buggy would take 85 days and walking would take 123 days.
- The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,844 miles [11,014.4 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 7,611 miles [12,248.7 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<8>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,684 miles [9,147.5 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<9>'
Footnotes ...
| <1> | 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- Sparks) 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 Sparks 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 Sparks, 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 Sparks 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 Sparks. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.5910, Longitude: -118.8142 In this case, the coordinates for Sparks have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <7> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 337.866 degrees. |
| <8> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 338.817 degrees. |
| <9> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 325.633 degrees. |
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