RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Kentucky >> Wolfe County >> Wolf Pen >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Wolf Pen, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Wolf Pen 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 Wolf Pen:
    • 37.693147, -83.291963
    • 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 Wolf Pen
  • 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 Wolfe County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wolfe County
    • Since Wolf Pen is near Breathitt County and also Morgan County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Breathitt County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Morgan 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 Wolf Pen

Communities Also Named Wolf Pen ...

We found two communities that are also named Wolf Pen.

Within Kentucky, the name Wolf Pen is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arkansas
      • Carroll County
      • This community is historic<1> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Arkansas community of Wolf Pen [Carroll County].
    • West Virginia
      • Wyoming 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 Wolf Pen [Wyoming County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Wolf Pen ...

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.

  • Dale
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Dale is located in Magoffin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dale
  • Lee City
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Lee City is located in Wolfe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lee City
  • Mountain Valley
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Mountain Valley is located in Breathitt County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain Valley
  • Right Middle Fork
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Right Middle Fork is located in Magoffin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Right Middle Fork
  • Road Fork
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Road Fork is located in Morgan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Road Fork
  • Rock Lick
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Rock Lick is located in Breathitt County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Lick
  • Rosefork
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Rosefork is located in Wolfe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosefork
  • Wheel Rim
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Wheel Rim is located in Morgan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wheel Rim
  • Wheelrim Fork
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Wheelrim Fork is located in Morgan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wheelrim Fork

How Far From Wolf Pen 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 community such as Wolf Pen to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Wolf Pen and extending to:

  • Campton, which is the Seat of Wolfe County, lies 14 miles [22.5 km]<3> to the west northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Wolf Pen to Campton, with an average speed<4> 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 four to five hours.
  • Frankfort, which is the State Capital of Kentucky, lies 92 miles [148.1 km] to the west northwest (WNW). 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 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 348 miles [560.1 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take five to six hours, a buggy would take 14 days and walking would take 20 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,211 miles [9,995.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,927 miles [11,147.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,802 miles [7,728.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Wolf Pen, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 Wolf Pen 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>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Wolf Pen) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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.
<5>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 Wolf Pen 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 Wolf Pen. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.6931, Longitude: -83.2920       In this case, the coordinates for Wolf Pen have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.679 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 307.58 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.781 degrees.