RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of South Dakota >> Roberts County >> Shady Beach >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Shady Beach, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Shady Beach 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 Shady Beach:
    • 45.404178, -96.635699
    • 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 Shady Beach
  • 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 Roberts County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Roberts County
    • Since Shady Beach is near Big Stone County and also Grant County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Big Stone County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Grant 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 Shady Beach

Communities Also Named Shady Beach ...

We found one communities that are also named Shady Beach.

Within South Dakota, the name Shady Beach is unique.

Beyond South Dakota, there is another community also named Shady Beach in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Illinois
      • Henry County
      • This Shady Beach is located in Henry County and lies 418 miles [672.7 km]<1> to the southeast of the Shady Beach that is located in Roberts County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Henry County community of Shady Beach.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Shady Beach ...

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 Shady Beach 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 Shady Beach to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Sisseton, which is the Seat of Roberts County, lies 26 miles [41.8 km]<1> to the northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Shady Beach to Sisseton, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just about two full days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just over a day.
  • Pierre, which is the State Capital of South Dakota, lies 195 miles [313.8 km] to the west southwest (WSW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 8 days and walking would take 11 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,095 miles [1,762.2 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving would take over two days, a buggy would take 43 days and walking would take 63 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,306 miles [10,148.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,066 miles [11,371.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,989 miles [8,029 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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- Shady Beach) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<4>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 Shady Beach 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 Shady Beach. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.4042, Longitude: -96.6357    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 320.714 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 318.973 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.399 degrees.