RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Massachusetts >> Plymouth County >> West Hanover >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in West Hanover, we use the following websites to find information relevant to West Hanover 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 West Hanover:
    • 42.119545, -70.882821
    • 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 West Hanover
  • 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 Plymouth County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Plymouth County
    • Since West Hanover is near Norfolk County and also Suffolk County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Norfolk County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Suffolk 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 West Hanover

Communities Also Named West Hanover ...

We found one communities that are also named West Hanover.

Within Massachusetts, the name West Hanover is unique.

Beyond Massachusetts, there is another community also named West Hanover in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Pennsylvania
      • Dauphin County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Pennsylvania community of West Hanover [Dauphin County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near West Hanover ...

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.

  • Accord
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Accord is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Accord
  • Beaver
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Beaver is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beaver
  • Breezy Hill
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Breezy Hill is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Breezy Hill
  • Brimstone Corner
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Brimstone Corner is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brimstone Corner
  • Clapps Corner
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Clapps Corner is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clapps Corner
  • Curtisville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Curtisville is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Curtisville
  • Fireworks
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Fireworks is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fireworks
  • Golden Ring Camp
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Golden Ring Camp is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Golden Ring Camp
  • Gurneys Corner
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Gurneys Corner is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gurneys Corner
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Kings Landing
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Kings Landing is located in Plymouth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kings Landing
    • Liberty Plain
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
      • Liberty Plain is located in Plymouth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Liberty Plain
    • Manns Corner
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
      • Manns Corner is located in Plymouth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manns Corner
    • Mayflower Grove
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Mayflower Grove is located in Plymouth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mayflower Grove
    • Rockland
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Rockland is located in Plymouth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockland
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 17,992 people
    • Town Hall
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
      • Town Hall is located in Plymouth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Town Hall

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in West Hanover and extending to:

  • Plymouth, which is the Seat of Plymouth County, lies 15 miles [24.1 km]<2> to the southeast. If you could walk a straight line from West Hanover to Plymouth, 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 four to five hours.
  • Boston, which is the State Capital of Massachusetts, lies 18 miles [29 km] to the north northwest (NNW). The buggy would take five to six hours and walking would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 392 miles [630.9 km] to the west southwest (WSW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of a day, a buggy would take 16 days and walking would take 23 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,505 miles [8,859.4 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 6,211 miles [9,995.6 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,088 miles [6,579 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 West Hanover 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.
<2>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- West Hanover) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 West Hanover 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 West Hanover. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.1195, Longitude: -70.8828       In this case, the coordinates for West Hanover have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 303.906 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 299.452 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 300.615 degrees.