RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Utah >> Utah County >> Colton >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Colton, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Colton 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 Colton:
    • 39.852435, -111.013178
    • 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 Colton
  • 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 Utah County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Utah County
    • Since Colton is near Emery County and also Wasatch County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Emery County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wasatch 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 Colton

Communities Also Named Colton ...

We found nine communities that are also named Colton.

Within Utah, the name Colton is unique.

Beyond Utah, we know of nine communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • San Bernardino County
      • This Colton is located in San Bernardino County and lies 528 miles [849.7 km]<1> to the southwest of the Colton that is located in Utah County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the San Bernardino County community of Colton.
    • Kentucky
      • Letcher 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 Kentucky community of Colton [Letcher County].
    • Nebraska
      • Cheyenne County
      • This Colton is located in Cheyenne County and lies 437 miles [703.3 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Colton that is located in Utah County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cheyenne County community of Colton.
    • New York
      • Saint Lawrence County
      • This Colton is located in Saint Lawrence County and lies 1,857 miles [2,988.6 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Colton that is located in Utah County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Saint Lawrence County community of Colton.
    • Ohio
      • Henry County
      • This Colton is located in Henry County and lies 1,416 miles [2,278.8 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Colton that is located in Utah County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Henry County community of Colton.
    • Oregon
      • Clackamas County
      • This Colton is located in Clackamas County and lies 687 miles [1,105.6 km]<1> to the northwest of the Colton that is located in Utah County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Clackamas County community of Colton.
    • South Dakota
      • Minnehaha County
      • This Colton is located in Minnehaha County and lies 772 miles [1,242.4 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Colton that is located in Utah County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Minnehaha County community of Colton.
    • Texas
      • Travis County
      • This Colton is located in Travis County and lies 1,005 miles [1,617.4 km]<1> to the southeast of the Colton that is located in Utah County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Travis County community of Colton.
    • Washington
      • Whitman County
      • This Colton is located in Whitman County and lies 556 miles [894.8 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Colton that is located in Utah County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Whitman County community of Colton.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Colton ...

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 Colton 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 Colton 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<3> community of Colton once stood, the straight-line distance beginning in Colton and extending to:

  • Provo, which is the Seat of Utah County, lies 43 miles [69.2 km]<1> to the northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Colton to Provo, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take about three full days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just about two full days.
  • Salt Lake City, which is the State Capital of Utah, lies 78 miles [125.5 km] to the northwest (NW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take most of three days and walking would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,803 miles [2,901.6 km] to the east (E). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 71 days and walking would take 103 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,031 miles [11,315.3 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 7,799 miles [12,551.3 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,766 miles [9,279.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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 drawn from Point A (ie- Colton) 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 Colton 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 Colton, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 Colton 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 Colton. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.8524, Longitude: -111.0132       In this case, the coordinates for Colton have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 331.147 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 330.488 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 321.327 degrees.