RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Kentucky >> Letcher County >> Red Star >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Red Star, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Red Star 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 Red Star:
    • 37.139055, -83.615590
    • 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 Red Star
  • 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 Letcher County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Letcher County
    • Since Red Star is near Clay County and also Leslie County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Clay County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Leslie 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 Red Star

Communities Also Named Red Star ...

We found four communities that are also named Red Star.

Within Kentucky, the name Red Star is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alabama
      • Walker County
      • This Red Star is located in Walker County and lies 307 miles [494.1 km]<1> to the southwest of the Red Star that is located in Letcher County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Walker County community of Red Star.
    • Arkansas
      • Madison County
      • This Red Star is located in Madison County and lies 557 miles [896.4 km]<1> to the west of the Red Star that is located in Letcher County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Madison County community of Red Star.
    • South Carolina
      • Lexington County
      • This Red Star is located in Lexington County and lies 246 miles [395.9 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Red Star that is located in Letcher County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lexington County community of Red Star.
    • West Virginia
      • Fayette 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 West Virginia community of Red Star [Fayette County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Red Star ...

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.

  • Big Creek
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Big Creek is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Creek
  • Bobs Fork
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Bobs Fork is located in Leslie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bobs Fork
  • Creekville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Creekville is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Creekville
  • Goose Rock
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Goose Rock is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goose Rock
  • Hector
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Hector is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hector
  • Jacks Creek
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jacks Creek is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jacks Creek
  • Mouth of Hector
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Mouth of Hector is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mouth of Hector
  • Peabody
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Peabody is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peabody
  • Plank
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Plank is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plank
  • Spring Creek
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Spring Creek is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Creek

How Far From Red Star to ...

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

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

  • Whitesburg, which is the Seat of Letcher County, lies 43 miles [69.2 km]<1> to the east. If you could walk a straight line from Red Star to Whitesburg, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take about three full days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just about two full days.
  • Frankfort, which is the State Capital of Kentucky, lies 100 miles [160.9 km] to the northwest (NW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take three full days and walking would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 377 miles [606.7 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take 6 hours, a buggy would take 15 days and walking would take 22 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,250 miles [10,058.4 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 4,839 miles [7,787.6 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Red Star) 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 Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock 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 Red Star 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 Red Star 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 Red Star. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.1391, Longitude: -83.6156       In this case, the coordinates for Red Star have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.874 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 307.724 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.08 degrees.