RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Delaware >> New Castle County >> McDonough >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in McDonough, we use the following websites to find information relevant to McDonough 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 McDonough:
    • 39.491501, -75.649651
    • 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 McDonough
  • 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 New Castle County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for New Castle County
    • Since McDonough is near Cecil County and also Salem County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cecil County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Salem 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 McDonough

Communities Also Named McDonough ...

We found four communities that are also named McDonough.

Within Delaware, the name McDonough is unique.

Beyond Delaware, we know of four communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Georgia
      • Henry County
      • This McDonough is located in Henry County and lies 629 miles [1,012.3 km]<1> to the southwest of the McDonough that is located in New Castle County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Henry County community of McDonough.
    • Michigan
      • Saginaw 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 McDonough [Saginaw County].
    • New York
      • Chenango County
      • This McDonough is located in Chenango County and lies 207 miles [333.1 km]<1> to the north of the McDonough that is located in New Castle County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Chenango County community of McDonough.
    • Texas
      • Harris 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 Texas community of McDonough [Harris County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near McDonough ...

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.

  • Dutch Neck Farms
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Dutch Neck Farms is located in New Castle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dutch Neck Farms
  • Evergreen Farms
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Evergreen Farms is located in New Castle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evergreen Farms
  • Gander Hill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Gander Hill is located in New Castle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gander Hill
  • Greylag
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Greylag is located in New Castle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greylag
  • Little Jersey
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Little Jersey is located in New Castle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Jersey
  • Mount Pleasant
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Mount Pleasant is located in New Castle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Pleasant
  • Pine Tree Corners
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Pine Tree Corners is located in New Castle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Tree Corners
  • Shingle Landing
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Shingle Landing is located in New Castle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shingle Landing
  • Sugar Loaf Chase
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Sugar Loaf Chase is located in New Castle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sugar Loaf Chase
  • Summit Bridge
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Summit Bridge is located in New Castle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit Bridge
  • Sycamore Farms
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Sycamore Farms is located in New Castle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sycamore Farms
  • Thorntown
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Thorntown is located in New Castle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thorntown

How Far From McDonough to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers & Almanacs that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as McDonough to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Wilmington, which is the Seat of New Castle County, lies 17 miles [27.4 km]<1> to the north northeast. If you could walk a straight line from McDonough to Wilmington, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take five to six hours.
  • Dover, which is the State Capital of Delaware, lies 23 miles [37 km] to the south southeast (SSE). The buggy would take most of a day and walking would take just about two full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 84 miles [135.2 km] to the west southwest (WSW). 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 shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,814 miles [9,356.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,518 miles [10,489.7 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,395 miles [7,073.1 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- McDonough) 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 McDonough 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 McDonough 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 McDonough. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.4915, Longitude: -75.6497       In this case, the coordinates for McDonough have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.029 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 302.554 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 303.893 degrees.