RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Maryland >> Harford County >> Chapel Hills >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Chapel Hills, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Chapel Hills 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 Chapel Hills:
    • 39.558999, -76.170231
    • 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 Chapel Hills
  • 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 Harford County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Harford County
    • Since Chapel Hills is near Cecil County and also Lancaster County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cecil County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lancaster 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 Chapel Hills

Communities Also Named Chapel Hills ...

We found two communities that are also named Chapel Hills.

Within Maryland, the name Chapel Hills is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Colorado
      • El Paso 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 Colorado community of Chapel Hills [El Paso County].
    • Virginia
      • Albemarle County
      • This Chapel Hills is located in Albemarle County and lies 161 miles [259.1 km]<2> to the southwest of the Chapel Hills that is located in Harford County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Albemarle County community of Chapel Hills.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Chapel Hills ...

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.

  • Foxridge
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Foxridge is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Foxridge
  • Grace Harbour
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Grace Harbour is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grace Harbour
  • Green Valley
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Green Valley is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Valley
  • Hill Land
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Hill Land is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hill Land
  • Hillside
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Hillside is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillside
  • Holly Haven
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Holly Haven is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holly Haven
  • Hopewell Village
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Hopewell Village is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hopewell Village
  • Level
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Level is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Level
  • Meadowbrook
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Meadowbrook is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadowbrook
  • Meadowvale
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Meadowvale is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadowvale
  • Paradise Heights
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Paradise Heights is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paradise Heights
  • Quaker Hills
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Quaker Hills is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quaker Hills
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Rock Run
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Rock Run is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Run
    • Swan Creek
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Swan Creek is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swan Creek
    • Swan Meadows
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
      • Swan Meadows is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swan Meadows
    • Woodside
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
      • Woodside is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodside

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

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

  • Bel Air, which is the Seat of Harford County, lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<2> to the west. If you could walk a straight line from Chapel Hills to Bel Air, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
  • Annapolis, which is the State Capital of Maryland, lies 43 miles [69.2 km] to the south southwest (SSW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take just about two full days and walking would take about three full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 65 miles [104.6 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving would take less than an hour, a buggy would take about three full days and walking would take most of three days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,833 miles [9,387.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,539 miles [10,523.5 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,415 miles [7,105.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<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 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 Chapel Hills 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 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Chapel Hills) 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 Chapel Hills 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 Chapel Hills. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.5590, Longitude: -76.1702       In this case, the coordinates for Chapel Hills have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.331 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 302.907 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.086 degrees.