Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Draper, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Draper and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Draper
- 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 Draper:
- 43.925822, -100.538191
- 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.
- The Heavens-Above Website, centered on Draper
- 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 Jones County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Jones County
- Since Draper is near Lyman County and also Mellette County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for Lyman County
- eBird sighting report for Mellette 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:
- Waymark.com
Communities Also Named Draper ...
We found eleven communities that share the name Draper.
Within South Dakota, the name Draper is unique.
Beyond South Dakota, we know of another eleven communities that are located throughout in the United States.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Arkansas
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- North Carolina
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Texas
- Utah
- Salt Lake County
- This Draper is located in Salt Lake County and lies 624 miles [1,004.2 km]<3> to the west southwest of the Draper that is located in Jones County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Salt Lake County community of Draper.
- Sanpete 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 Draper [Sanpete County].
- Virginia
- Wisconsin
How Far From Draper 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 town such as Draper to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Draper and extending to:
- Murdo, which is the Seat of Jones County, lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<3> to the west southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Draper to Murdo, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
- Pierre, which is the State Capital of South Dakota, lies 32 miles [51.5 km] to the north northeast (NNE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take just over a day and walking would take most of two days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,260 miles [2,027.8 km] to the east (E). Driving would take about three full days, a buggy would take 50 days and walking would take 72 days.
- The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,505 miles [10,468.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,267 miles [11,695.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,198 miles [8,365.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
Off-the-Road Links ...
Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Draper. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.
The official website for State of South Dakota: sd.gov/
Footnotes ...
| <1> | 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 Draper, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <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 Draper 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> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Draper) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Draper. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.9258, Longitude: -100.5382 In this case, the coordinates for Draper have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <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 Draper to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East. |
| <6> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 323.52 degrees. |
| <7> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 322.012 degrees. |
| <8> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 314.897 degrees. |