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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Wilderness, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Wilderness 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 Wilderness:
    • 38.247349, -76.597737
    • 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 Wilderness
  • 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 Wilderness is near Westmoreland County and also Calvert County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Westmoreland 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 Wilderness

Communities Also Named Wilderness ...

We found four communities that are also named Wilderness.

Within Maryland, the name Wilderness is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Florida
      • Clay 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 Florida community of Wilderness [Clay County].
    • Missouri
      • Oregon County
      • This Wilderness is located in Oregon County and lies 804 miles [1,293.9 km]<2> to the west of the Wilderness that is located in Saint Mary's County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Oregon County community of Wilderness.
    • Virginia
      • Orange County
      • This Wilderness is located in Orange County and lies 61 miles [98.2 km]<2> to the west of the Wilderness that is located in Saint Mary's County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Orange County community of Wilderness.
    • Washington
      • King County
      • This Wilderness is located in King County and lies 2,350 miles [3,782 km]<2> to the west northwest of the Wilderness that is located in Saint Mary's County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the King County community of Wilderness.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Wilderness ...

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.

  • Buzzard Point
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Buzzard Point is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buzzard Point
  • Green Acres
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Green Acres is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Acres
  • Laceys Venture
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Laceys Venture is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laceys Venture
  • Lane Beach
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Lane Beach is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lane Beach
  • Leonardtown
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Maple Run
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Maple Run is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maple Run
  • Pawpaw Hollow
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Pawpaw Hollow is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pawpaw Hollow
  • Sandyland Beach
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Sandyland Beach is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandyland Beach
  • Society Hill
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Society Hill is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Society Hill

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

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

  • Leonardtown, which is the Seat of Saint Mary's County, lies just to the North Northwest.
  • Annapolis, which is the State Capital of Maryland, lies 50 miles [80.5 km]<2> to the north (N). If you could walk a straight line from Wilderness to Annapolis, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of three days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of two days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 50 miles [80.5 km] to the north northwest (NNW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take most of two days and walking would take most of three days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,906 miles [9,504.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,607 miles [10,632.9 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,486 miles [7,219.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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 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 Wilderness 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- Wilderness) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 Wilderness 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 Wilderness. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.2473, Longitude: -76.5977       In this case, the coordinates for Wilderness have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.673 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.092 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.782 degrees.