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Gays Illinois Map

Explore Gays, Illinois, with this interactive street and satellite map.

This page also offers TOPO MAPS — the official USGS topographic sheets — plus USGS aerial imagery, a labelled USNG grid overlay, a distance and bearing tool, and a GPS grid-reference readout. See How to Use This Map below.

Interactive Map of Gays, Illinois

How to Use This Gays, Illinois Map

This interactive map shows the street layout and satellite imagery for Gays, Illinois. Use the Map and Satellite buttons above to switch between street map and aerial imagery views. Use the + and − buttons to zoom in or out, or scroll your mouse wheel while holding the Control key to zoom. On a touchscreen, use a two-finger pinch gesture. Drag the map to pan to any area of Illinois or beyond.

Click ⛶ Fullscreen to expand the map to fill your screen. To return to the normal page view, press the Escape key, click the ✕ Exit Fullscreen button that appears above the map, or on a mobile device tap the back button (Android) or the close icon (iOS).

TOPO MAPS — NEW. Click the green 🔍 Search Maps button below the map to open a second map with a Base map row offering three choices. OSM is the standard OpenStreetMap street map. Topo shows the official USGS topographic maps from The National Map — contours, hydrography, land cover and shaded relief, the same mapping used for hiking, hunting and back-country navigation in the Adirondacks, the Catskills and the Finger Lakes. Imagery shows USGS aerial photography, mostly 1-metre NAIP. The search box finds any US town, county or landmark by name, so you are not limited to Gays.

Reading the map like a paper quad. Click Grid to overlay the U.S. National Grid (USNG), labelled along the edges exactly as a printed topographic sheet is — at normal zoom the squares are one kilometre across, so you can read a six-figure grid reference by eye and judge distance directly off the map. Click Measure, then tap two points, to get the distance between them together with the grid bearing in degrees and mils, the true bearing, and the magnetic bearing to set on a compass.

Click 📍 My position to take a single GPS reading from your device. It marks where you are and reports your position as a USNG grid reference as well as plain latitude and longitude — USNG being the format FEMA and US search and rescue teams work from — with a Copy position button so you can paste it straight into a text message. It takes one reading and stops, rather than tracking continuously, to conserve your battery. Note that map tiles need cell coverage, but a GPS reading does not — your coordinates stay correct even where the map itself cannot load.

City	Gays
State	Illinois (IL)
County	Moultrie County
Country	United States of America
Timezone	Central Time (America/Chicago)

Latitude	39.45809
Longitude	-88.493941
Population	218
Density	218.1 /km²
Incorporated	Yes
ZIP Code	61928
Area Code	309
County Seat	Sullivan
School District	Windsor Community Unit School District 1

🌦 Goto Gays Weather Page: Gays, Illinois — Weather Warnings, Forecast, Radar, Satellite & Current Conditions

About Gays, Illinois

Gays is a locality in Moultrie County, Illinois, United States. It is a small community with a population of 218. The population density is 218.1 people per km². Gays is located at 39.4581°N, 88.4939°W. It observes the Central Time (America/Chicago) timezone. Gays is an incorporated locality. ZIP code: 61928.

Gays sits amidst the vast, flat expanse of the Illinois prairie, where the horizon stretches wide and unencumbered under a sky that seems to possess more depth than the earth itself. It lies 6.7 miles west-southwest of Mattoon, IL (from Mattoon, IL: bearing 255°T), and is situated 17.2 miles west of Charleston. The landscape is defined by the steady, rhythmic geometry of agriculture, broken only by the thin, silver threading of Sexson Branch as it carves a shallow path through the black, fertile soil. To the west, the distant, hazy silhouette of Fox Ridge provides a permanent anchor for the eye, while the localized moisture of Lake Paradise, a mere four miles away, draws songbirds and the occasional wanderer toward its quiet edges. The air here holds a singular clarity at dusk, turning the tall stalks of corn into silhouettes of deep violet against a darkening, amber light.

Gays emerged from the expansion of the railroad era, a point of transit where the pulse of commerce once beat in time with the arrival of heavy freight and the seasonal movement of grain. Today, the economy remains tethered to the rhythm of the fields, a cycle of planting and harvest that dictates the pace of existence far more effectively than any clock. Residents find respite in the nearby verdant stretches of Hidden Springs State Forest or the local quietude of Lytle Park, where the shade offers a cool reprieve from the relentless summer heat. There is an enduring modesty to Gays, a place where the work of the day leaves a faint, honest exhaustion upon the brow, and the stillness of the evening feels less like a silence and more like a long, shared breath.

Nearby Outdoor Places

Two Story Outhouse (Attraction) — 0.1 mi, 304° NW
Lytle Park (Local Park) — 5.3 mi, 073° E
Kinzel Park (Local Park) — 5.6 mi, 077° E
Kinzel Field (Local Recreation) — 6.0 mi, 082° E
Lake Shelbyville (Recreation Area) — 6.4 mi, 314° NW
Burgess-Osborne Auditorium (Theatre) — 6.5 mi, 076° E
Unknown Park (Local Recreation) — 7.1 mi, 075° E
WW2 Tank (Monument) — 7.4 mi, 076° E
Douglas Hart Nature Center (Local Conservation Area) — 9.9 mi, 075° E
Recreation Area (State Recreation Area) — 10.9 mi, 282° W
Hidden Springs State Forest (State Resource Management Area) — 12.1 mi, 228° SW
Fox Ridge State Park (State Park) — 17.1 mi, 098° E
Margaret Guzy Pothole Wetlands State Natural Area (State Conservation Area) — 17.8 mi, 290° W
Prairie Wind (State Recreation Area) — 17.9 mi, 000° N
Civil War Monument (Monument) — 18.2 mi, 315° NW
Warbler Woods Nature Preserve (State Conservation Area) — 18.4 mi, 092° E
Illinois Central Depot (Attraction) — 18.4 mi, 315° NW
Raggedy Ann and Andy Statue (Public Artwork) — 18.5 mi, 032° NE
Hippie Memorial (Monument) — 18.6 mi, 032° NE
Effingham County Cultural Center and Museum (Museum) — 23.4 mi, 186° S
The Heart Theatre (Cinema) — 23.4 mi, 186° S
Village Mall Cinemas (Cinema) — 24.7 mi, 186° S
Douglas County Museum (Museum) — 25.6 mi, 025° NE
Porch Swing (Attraction) — 28.9 mi, 112° E
CE&I Depot (Attraction) — 31.7 mi, 262° W
Reptiles (Viewpoint) — 33.8 mi, 319° NW
Amphitheater (Theatre) — 34.4 mi, 319° NW
Staley Museum (Museum) — 36.5 mi, 317° NW
Hieronymus Mueller Museum (Museum) — 36.5 mi, 317° NW
Robert Ridgeway Grasslands (Nature Reserve) — 41.7 mi, 156° SE

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