RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Kentucky >> Knott County >> Sylvester >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Sylvester, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Sylvester 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 Sylvester:
    • 37.303741, -82.869576
    • 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 Sylvester
  • 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 Knott County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Knott County
    • Since Sylvester is near Letcher County and also Floyd County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Letcher County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Floyd 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 Sylvester

Communities Also Named Sylvester ...

We found seven communities that are also named Sylvester.

Within Kentucky, the name Sylvester is unique.

Beyond Kentucky, we know of seven communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these seven communities, six are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Georgia
      • Worth County
      • This Sylvester is located in Worth County and lies 402 miles [647 km]<1> to the south of the Sylvester that is located in Knott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Worth County community of Sylvester.
    • Michigan
      • Mecosta County
      • This Sylvester is located in Mecosta County and lies 448 miles [721 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Sylvester that is located in Knott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Mecosta County community of Sylvester.
    • North Carolina
      • Chatham 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 North Carolina community of Sylvester [Chatham County].
    • Nova Scotia
      • This Sylvester lies 1,182 miles [1,902.2 km]<1> to the northeast of the Sylvester that is located in Knott County.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Tioga County
      • This Sylvester is located in Tioga County and lies 427 miles [687.2 km]<1> to the northeast of the Sylvester that is located in Knott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Tioga County community of Sylvester.
    • Texas
      • Fisher County
      • This Sylvester is located in Fisher County and lies 1,031 miles [1,659.2 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Sylvester that is located in Knott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Fisher County community of Sylvester.
    • West Virginia
      • Boone County
      • This Sylvester is located in Boone County and lies 86 miles [138.4 km]<1> to the northeast of the Sylvester that is located in Knott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Boone County community of Sylvester.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Sylvester ...

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.

  • Bath
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Bath is located in Knott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bath
  • Drew
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Drew is located in Knott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Drew
  • Dry Creek
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Dry Creek is located in Knott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dry Creek
  • Hall
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Hall is located in Knott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hall
  • Hollybush
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Hollybush is located in Knott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hollybush
  • Kite
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Kite is located in Knott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kite
  • Larkslane
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Larkslane is located in Knott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Larkslane
  • Martinsville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Martinsville is located in Knott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Martinsville
  • May
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • May is located in Knott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for May
  • Middle Carr Creek
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Middle Carr Creek is located in Knott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Middle Carr Creek
  • Pine Top
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Pine Top is located in Knott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Top
  • Spider
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Spider is located in Knott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spider

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

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

  • Hindman, which is the Seat of Knott County, lies just to the West Northwest.
  • Frankfort, which is the State Capital of Kentucky, lies 125 miles [201.2 km]<1> to the west northwest (WNW). If you could drive a straight line from Sylvester to Frankfort, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take about two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 8 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 335 miles [539.1 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take five to six hours, a buggy would take 13 days and walking would take 19 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,212 miles [9,997.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,925 miles [11,144.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,800 miles [7,724.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<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- Sylvester) 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 Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's 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 Sylvester 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 Sylvester 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 Sylvester. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.3037, Longitude: -82.8696       In this case, the coordinates for Sylvester have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.422 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 307.23 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.715 degrees.