RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Maine >> Cumberland County >> Scarborough >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Scarborough, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Scarborough 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 Scarborough:
    • 43.578139, -70.321715
    • 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 Scarborough
  • 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 Cumberland County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cumberland County
    • Since Scarborough is near York County and also Sagadahoc County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for York County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Sagadahoc 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 Scarborough

Communities Also Named Scarborough ...

We found three communities that are also named Scarborough.

Within Maine, the name Scarborough is unique.

Beyond Maine, we know of three communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these three communities, .

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • New York
      • Westchester County
      • This Scarborough is located in Westchester County and lies 246 miles [395.9 km]<1> to the southwest of the Scarborough that is located in Cumberland County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Westchester County community of Scarborough.
    • North Carolina
      • Pitt County
      • This Scarborough is located in Pitt County and lies 666 miles [1,071.8 km]<1> to the southwest of the Scarborough that is located in Cumberland County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Pitt County community of Scarborough.
    • Ontario
      • 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 Ontario community of Scarborough.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Scarborough ...

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.

  • Cash Corner
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Cash Corner is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cash Corner
  • Crocketts Corner
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Crocketts Corner is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crocketts Corner
  • Danish Village ‑ Historic
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Danish Village is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Danish Village
  • Elizabeth Park
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Elizabeth Park is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elizabeth Park
  • Grand Beach
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Grand Beach is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Beach
  • Knightville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Knightville is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knightville
  • Lone Creek Village ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Lone Creek Village is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lone Creek Village
  • Pine Point
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Pine Point is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Point
  • Pine Point Beach
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Pine Point Beach is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Point Beach
  • Pond Cove
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Pond Cove is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pond Cove
  • Sunset Park
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Sunset Park is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunset Park
  • Surfside
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Surfside is located in York County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Surfside
  • Town Landing
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Town Landing is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Town Landing

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

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

  • Portland, which is the Seat of Cumberland County, lies just to the North Northeast.
  • Augusta, which is the State Capital of Maine, lies 57 miles [91.7 km]<1> to the north northeast (NNE). If you could walk a straight line from Scarborough to Augusta, with an average speed<3> 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 over two days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 475 miles [764.4 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of a day, a buggy would take 19 days and walking would take 27 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,426 miles [8,732.3 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 6,137 miles [9,876.5 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,012 miles [6,456.7 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Scarborough) 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 Scarborough 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 Scarborough 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 Scarborough. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.5781, Longitude: -70.3217       In this case, the coordinates for Scarborough have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 303.335 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 299.06 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 299.591 degrees.