RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Wisconsin >> Polk County >> Little Falls >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Little Falls, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Little Falls 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 Little Falls:
    • 45.273852, -92.418805
    • 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 Little Falls
  • 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 Polk County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Polk County
    • Since Little Falls is near Saint Croix County and also Chisago County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Saint Croix County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Chisago 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 Little Falls

Communities Also Named Little Falls ...

We found eleven communities that are also named Little Falls.

Within Wisconsin, the name Little Falls is unique.

Beyond Wisconsin, we know of eleven communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these eleven communities, nine are located in the United States and two are in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Maine
      • Cumberland County
      • This Little Falls is located in Cumberland County and lies 1,084 miles [1,744.5 km]<1> to the east of the Little Falls that is located in Polk County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cumberland County community of Little Falls.
    • Michigan
      • Ontonagon 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 Michigan community of Little Falls [Ontonagon County].
    • Minnesota
      • Morrison County
      • This Little Falls is located in Morrison County and lies 105 miles [169 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Little Falls that is located in Polk County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Morrison County community of Little Falls.
    • New Jersey
      • Passaic County
      • This Little Falls is located in Passaic County and lies 965 miles [1,553 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Little Falls that is located in Polk County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Passaic County community of Little Falls.
    • New York
      • Herkimer County
      • This Little Falls is located in Herkimer County and lies 881 miles [1,417.8 km]<1> to the east of the Little Falls that is located in Polk County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Herkimer County community of Little Falls.
    • Newfoundland and Labrador
      • We haven't found the location of this community yet.
    • Ontario
      • 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 Ontario community of Little Falls.
    • Virginia
      • Stafford County
      • This Little Falls is located in Stafford County and lies 908 miles [1,461.3 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Little Falls that is located in Polk County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Stafford County community of Little Falls.
    • Washington
      • Lewis County
      • This community is historic<3> and although located in Lewis County, we don't know where within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lewis County community of Little Falls.
      • Lincoln County
      • This Little Falls is located in Lincoln County and lies 1,217 miles [1,958.6 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Little Falls that is located in Polk County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lincoln County community of Little Falls.
    • West Virginia
      • Monongalia County
      • This Little Falls is located in Monongalia County and lies 744 miles [1,197.4 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Little Falls that is located in Polk County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Monongalia County community of Little Falls.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Little Falls ...

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.

  • Clear Lake
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Clear Lake is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clear Lake
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,099 people
  • Cylon
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Cylon is located in Saint Croix County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cylon
  • Deer Park
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Deer Park is located in Saint Croix County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deer Park
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 212 people
  • Horse Creek
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Horse Creek is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Horse Creek
  • Joel
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Joel is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Joel
  • Range
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Range is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Range
  • Sand Lake
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Sand Lake is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sand Lake
  • Star Prairie
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Star Prairie is located in Saint Croix County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Star Prairie
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 549 people

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

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

  • Balsam Lake, which is the Seat of Polk County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<1> to the north. If you could walk a straight line from Little Falls to Balsam Lake, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
  • Madison, which is the State Capital of Wisconsin, lies 213 miles [342.8 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 9 days and walking would take 13 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 900 miles [1,448.4 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving would take most of two days, a buggy would take 36 days and walking would take 52 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,180 miles [9,945.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,934 miles [11,159.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,841 miles [7,790.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Little Falls) 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 Little Falls 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 Little Falls, 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 Little Falls 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 Little Falls. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.2739, Longitude: -92.4188       In this case, the coordinates for Little Falls have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 317.697 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 315.517 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.098 degrees.