RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Wisconsin >> Richland County >> Balmoral >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Balmoral, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Balmoral 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 Balmoral:
    • 43.225694, -90.464229
    • 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 Balmoral
  • 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 Richland County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Richland County
    • Since Balmoral is near Grant County and also Iowa County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Grant County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Iowa 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 Balmoral

Communities Also Named Balmoral ...

We found ten communities that are also named Balmoral.

Within Wisconsin, the name Balmoral is unique.

Beyond Wisconsin, we know of ten communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these ten communities, five are located in the United States and five are in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • British Columbia
      • This Balmoral lies 1,446 miles [2,327.1 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Balmoral that is located in Richland County.
    • Louisiana
      • Tensas Parish
      • This Balmoral is located in Tensas Parish and lies 768 miles [1,236 km]<1> to the south of the Balmoral that is located in Richland County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Tensas Parish community of Balmoral.
    • Manitoba
      • This Balmoral lies 583 miles [938.2 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Balmoral that is located in Richland County.
    • Maryland
      • Frederick County
      • This Balmoral is located in Frederick County and lies 730 miles [1,174.8 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Balmoral that is located in Richland County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Frederick County community of Balmoral.
    • Minnesota
      • Otter Tail 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 Minnesota community of Balmoral [Otter Tail County].
    • New Brunswick
      • This Balmoral lies 1,200 miles [1,931.2 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Balmoral that is located in Richland County.
    • Nova Scotia
      • This Balmoral lies 1,450 miles [2,333.5 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Balmoral that is located in Richland County.
    • Ontario
      • This Balmoral lies 529 miles [851.3 km]<1> to the east of the Balmoral that is located in Richland County.
    • South Dakota
      • Balmoral #
      • This community is historic<2> and we have little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for Balmoral.
    • Tennessee
      • Hamilton County
      • This Balmoral is located in Hamilton County and lies 623 miles [1,002.6 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Balmoral that is located in Richland County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hamilton County community of Balmoral.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Balmoral ...

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.

  • Basswood
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Basswood is located in Richland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Basswood
  • Five Points
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Five Points is located in Richland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Points
  • Gotham
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Gotham is located in Richland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gotham
  • Hickory Grove
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Hickory Grove is located in Grant County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Grove
  • Orion
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Orion is located in Richland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orion
  • Sand Prairie
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Sand Prairie is located in Richland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sand Prairie
  • Twin Bluffs
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Twin Bluffs is located in Richland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twin Bluffs
  • Wild Rose
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Wild Rose is located in Richland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wild Rose

How Far From Balmoral 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 Balmoral to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Richland Center, which is the Seat of Richland County, lies just to the North Northeast.
  • Madison, which is the State Capital of Wisconsin, lies 54 miles [86.9 km]<1> to the east (E). If you could walk a straight line from Balmoral to Madison, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of three days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take over two days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 759 miles [1,221.5 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 30 days and walking would take 44 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,217 miles [10,005.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,964 miles [11,207.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,858 miles [7,818.2 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Balmoral) 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 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 Balmoral 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>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 Balmoral 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 Balmoral. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.2257, Longitude: -90.4642       In this case, the coordinates for Balmoral have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 316.342 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 313.694 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.621 degrees.