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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 Volunteer, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Volunteer 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 Volunteer:
- 44.511931, -103.132957
- 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 Volunteer
- 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 Meade County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- Open the eBird sighting report for Meade County
- Since Volunteer is near Butte County and also Lawrence County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- Open the eBird sighting report for Butte County
- Open the eBird sighting report for Lawrence 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 Volunteer
Communities Also Named Volunteer ...
We found two communities that are also named Volunteer.
There is one other community in South Dakota that is also named Volunteer.
Beyond South Dakota, there is another community also named Volunteer in the United States.
- Communities Located In South Dakota ...
- Lawrence County
- We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the South Dakota community of Volunteer [Lawrence County].
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- North Carolina
- Stokes County
- This Volunteer is located in Stokes County and lies 1,313 miles [2,113.1 km]<2> to the east southeast of the Volunteer that is located in Meade County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Stokes County community of Volunteer.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Volunteer ...
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.
- Bear Butte
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
- Bear Butte is located in Meade County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bear Butte
- Blackhawk
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
- Carwye ‑ Historic
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
- Carwye is located in Meade County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carwye
- Centennial City ‑ Historic
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
- Centennial City is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Centennial City
- Crook City
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
- Crook City is located in Lawrence County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crook City
- Empire
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
- Empire is located in Butte County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Empire
- Fairpoint
(23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
- Fairpoint is located in Meade County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairpoint
- Haydraw
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
- Haydraw is located in Meade County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Haydraw
- Summerset
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
- Union Center
(23 miles [37 km] to the east)
How Far From Volunteer to ...
We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers & Almanacs that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Volunteer to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Volunteer and extending to:
- Sturgis, which is the Seat of Meade County, lies 19 miles [30.6 km]<2> to the west southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Volunteer to Sturgis, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just over a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 hours.
- Pierre, which is the State Capital of South Dakota, lies 137 miles [220.5 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 6 days and walking would take 8 days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,393 miles [2,241.8 km] to the east (E). Driving would take about three full days, a buggy would take 55 days and walking would take 80 days.
- The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,546 miles [10,534.8 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 7,311 miles [11,765.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,259 miles [8,463.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'
Footnotes ...
| <1> | 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 Volunteer 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. |
| <2> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Volunteer) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |
| <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 Volunteer 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 Volunteer. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.5119, Longitude: -103.1330 In this case, the coordinates for Volunteer have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <6> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 325.476 degrees. |
| <7> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 324.335 degrees. |
| <8> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 316.265 degrees. |
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