RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Wisconsin >> Sauk County >> Prairie du Sac village >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Prairie du Sac village, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Prairie du Sac village and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
    • Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
    • The National Weather Service forecast for Prairie du Sac village
  • 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 Prairie du Sac village:
    • 43.285578, -89.729356
    • 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 Prairie du Sac village
  • 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 Sauk County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Sauk County
    • Since Prairie du Sac village is near Dane County and also Columbia County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dane County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Columbia 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 Prairie du Sac village

Curious and Interesting Names Near Prairie du Sac village ...

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 Prairie du Sac village 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 village such as Prairie du Sac village to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<1> beginning in Prairie du Sac village and extending to:

  • Baraboo, which is the Seat of Sauk County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<1> to the north. If you could walk a straight line from Prairie du Sac village to Baraboo, with an average speed<2> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Madison, which is the State Capital of Wisconsin, lies 22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast (SE). The buggy would take most of a day and walking would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 725 miles [1,166.8 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 29 days and walking would take 42 days.
  • The shortest distance<3> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,188 miles [9,958.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<4>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,935 miles [11,160.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,826 miles [7,766.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Prairie du Sac village) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>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.
<3>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 Prairie du Sac village 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 Prairie du Sac village. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.2856, Longitude: -89.7294    
<4>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.839 degrees.
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 313.129 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.224 degrees.