RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Missouri >> New Madrid County >> Selkirk >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Selkirk, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Selkirk and the surrounding area.

  • 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 Selkirk:
    • 36.723945, -89.454798
    • 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 Selkirk
  • 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 New Madrid County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for New Madrid County
    • Since Selkirk is near Mississippi County and also Scott County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Mississippi County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Scott 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 Selkirk

Communities Also Named Selkirk ...

We found eleven communities that are also named Selkirk.

There is one other community in Missouri that is also named Selkirk.

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

  • Communities Located In Missouri ...
    • Laclede 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 Missouri community of Selkirk [Laclede County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Kansas
      • Wichita County
      • This community is historic<2> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Kansas community of Selkirk [Wichita County].
    • Manitoba
      • This Selkirk lies 997 miles [1,604.5 km]<3> to the north northwest of the Selkirk that is located in New Madrid County.
    • Michigan
      • Ogemaw County
      • This Selkirk is located in Ogemaw County and lies 595 miles [957.6 km]<3> to the north northeast of the Selkirk that is located in New Madrid County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Ogemaw County community of Selkirk.
    • New York
      • Albany County
      • This Selkirk is located in Albany County and lies 922 miles [1,483.8 km]<3> to the east northeast of the Selkirk that is located in New Madrid County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Albany County community of Selkirk.
      • Oswego County
      • This Selkirk is located in Oswego County and lies 842 miles [1,355.1 km] to the northeast of the Selkirk that is located in New Madrid County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Oswego County community of Selkirk.
    • Ontario
      • This Selkirk lies 657 miles [1,057.3 km]<3> to the northeast of the Selkirk that is located in New Madrid County.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Warren County
      • This Selkirk is located in Warren County and lies 629 miles [1,012.3 km]<3> to the northeast of the Selkirk that is located in New Madrid County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Warren County community of Selkirk.
    • Prince Edward Island
      • This Selkirk lies 1,537 miles [2,473.6 km]<3> to the northeast of the Selkirk that is located in New Madrid County.
    • South Carolina
      • Marion 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 South Carolina community of Selkirk [Marion County].
    • Tennessee
      • Roane County
      • This community is historic<2> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Tennessee community of Selkirk [Roane County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Selkirk ...

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.

  • Airline Acres
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Airline Acres is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Airline Acres
  • Buckeye
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Buckeye is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckeye
  • Champion
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Champion is located in New Madrid County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Champion
  • Cody ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Cody is located in New Madrid County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cody
  • Howardville
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Howardville is located in New Madrid County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Howardville
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 329 people
  • Hurricane Ridge
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Hurricane Ridge is located in New Madrid County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hurricane Ridge
  • Miner
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Miner is located in Scott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Miner
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 939 people
  • Never Spur ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Never Spur is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Never Spur
  • Pinhook
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Pinhook is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinhook
    • Estimated population in 2012: 30 people
  • Pulltight
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Pulltight is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pulltight
  • Sky
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Sky is located in New Madrid County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sky
  • Thirtyfour Corner
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Thirtyfour Corner is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thirtyfour Corner
  • Three States
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Three States is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Three States
  • Wolf Island
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Wolf Island is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wolf Island

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

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

  • New Madrid, which is the Seat of New Madrid County, lies 10 miles [16.1 km]<3> to the south southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Selkirk to New Madrid, with an average speed<4> 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.
  • Jefferson City, which is the State Capital of Missouri, lies 196 miles [315.4 km] to the northwest (NW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 8 days and walking would take 12 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 693 miles [1,115.3 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 27 days and walking would take 40 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,503 miles [10,465.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,230 miles [11,635.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,107 miles [8,218.9 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 Selkirk 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>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Selkirk, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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 from Point A (ie- Selkirk) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Selkirk 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 Selkirk. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.7239, Longitude: -89.4548       In this case, the coordinates for Selkirk have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.505 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.84 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.733 degrees.