RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Massachusetts >> Barnstable County >> Old Harbor >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Old Harbor, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Old Harbor 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 Old Harbor:
    • 41.600114, -69.982793
    • 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 Old Harbor
  • 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 Barnstable County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Barnstable County
    • Since Old Harbor is near Nantucket County and also Dukes County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Nantucket County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dukes 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 Old Harbor

Communities Also Named Old Harbor ...

We found two communities that are also named Old Harbor.

Within Massachusetts, the name Old Harbor is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alaska
      • This Old Harbor lies 3,642 miles [5,861.2 km]<1> to the northwest of the Old Harbor that is located in Barnstable County.
    • Rhode Island
      • Washington 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 Rhode Island community of Old Harbor [Washington County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Old Harbor ...

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.

  • Bass River
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Bass River is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bass River
  • Dennis
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Dennis is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dennis
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 13,890 people
  • Dennis Port
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Dennis Port is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dennis Port
  • First Encounter Beach
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • First Encounter Beach is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for First Encounter Beach
  • Orleans
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Orleans is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orleans
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,802 people
  • Pleasant Lake
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Pleasant Lake is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Lake
  • Rock Harbor
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Rock Harbor is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Harbor
  • Shooters Island
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Shooters Island is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shooters Island

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

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

  • Barnstable, which is the Seat of Barnstable County, lies 17 miles [27.4 km]<1> to the west northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Old Harbor to Barnstable, 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.
  • Boston, which is the State Capital of Massachusetts, lies 76 miles [122.3 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 most of three days and walking would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 415 miles [667.9 km] to the west southwest (WSW). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 17 days and walking would take 24 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,487 miles [8,830.5 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,188 miles [9,958.6 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,066 miles [6,543.6 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- Old Harbor) 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 Old Harbor 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 Old Harbor 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 Old Harbor. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.6001, Longitude: -69.9828       In this case, the coordinates for Old Harbor have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 303.453 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 298.855 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 300.487 degrees.