RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Maryland >> Saint Mary's County >> Golden Beach >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Golden Beach, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Golden Beach 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 Golden Beach:
    • 38.489845, -76.682184
    • 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 Golden Beach
  • 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 Saint Mary's County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Saint Mary's County
    • Since Golden Beach is near Charles County and also Calvert County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Charles County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Calvert 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 Golden Beach

Communities Also Named Golden Beach ...

We found four communities that are also named Golden Beach.

Within Maryland, the name Golden Beach is unique.

Beyond Maryland, we know of four communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these four communities, three are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Florida
      • Miami-Dade County
      • This Golden Beach is located in Miami-Dade County and lies 887 miles [1,427.5 km]<1> to the south southwest of the Golden Beach that is located in Saint Mary's County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Miami-Dade County community of Golden Beach.
      • Sarasota 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 Florida community of Golden Beach [Sarasota County].
    • Ontario
      • This Golden Beach lies 472 miles [759.6 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Golden Beach that is located in Saint Mary's County.
    • Texas
      • Llano County
      • This Golden Beach is located in Llano County and lies 1,342 miles [2,159.7 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Golden Beach that is located in Saint Mary's County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Llano County community of Golden Beach.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Golden Beach ...

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.

  • Big Oak
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Big Oak is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Oak
  • Cedar Beach
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Cedar Beach is located in Calvert County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Beach
  • Cellar Hill
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Cellar Hill is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cellar Hill
  • Follywoods
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Follywoods is located in Calvert County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Follywoods
  • Hidden River
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Hidden River is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hidden River
  • Huntersville
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Huntersville is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huntersville
  • Loves
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Loves is located in Charles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Loves
  • Maxwell Hall
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Maxwell Hall is located in Charles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maxwell Hall
  • Rustic Hills
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Rustic Hills is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rustic Hills
  • Shady Dale
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Shady Dale is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shady Dale
  • Valley Lee
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Valley Lee is located in Calvert County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valley Lee

How Far From Golden Beach to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers & Almanacs that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Golden Beach to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Leonardtown, which is the Seat of Saint Mary's County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<1> to the south. If you could walk a straight line from Golden Beach to Leonardtown, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Annapolis, which is the State Capital of Maryland, lies 35 miles [56.3 km] to the north northeast (NNE). 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 most of two days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 34 miles [54.7 km] to the northwest (NW). Driving would take less than an hour, a buggy would take just about two full days and walking would take most of two days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,900 miles [9,495.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,602 miles [10,624.9 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,480 miles [7,209.9 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Golden Beach) 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 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 Golden Beach 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 Golden Beach 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 Golden Beach. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.4898, Longitude: -76.6822       In this case, the coordinates for Golden Beach have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.707 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.168 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.723 degrees.