RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Missouri >> Harrison County >> Washington Center >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Washington Center, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Washington Center 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 Washington Center:
    • 40.426941, -94.156898
    • 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 Washington Center
  • 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 Harrison County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Harrison County
    • Since Washington Center is near Gentry County and also Worth County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Gentry County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Worth 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 Washington Center

Communities Also Named Washington Center ...

We found three communities that are also named Washington Center.

Within Missouri, the name Washington Center is unique.

Beyond Missouri, we know of three communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Indiana
      • Noble County
      • This Washington Center is located in Noble County and lies 450 miles [724.2 km]<1> to the east of the Washington Center that is located in Harrison County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Noble County community of Washington Center.
      • Whitley County
      • This Washington Center is located in Whitley County and lies 454 miles [730.6 km] to the east of the Washington Center that is located in Harrison County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Whitley County community of Washington Center.
    • Kansas
      • Washington 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 Kansas community of Washington Center [Washington County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Washington Center ...

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.

  • Bethany
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Eagleville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Lee ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Lee is located in Ringgold County (IA)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lee
  • Lone Star
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Lone Star is located in Gentry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lone Star
  • Martinsville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Martinsville is located in Harrison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Martinsville
  • Pinhook
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Pinhook is located in Gentry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinhook
  • Prohibition City
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Prohibition City is located in Worth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prohibition City
  • Worth
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Worth is located in Worth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Worth
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 57 people

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

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

  • Bethany, which is the Seat of Harrison County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<1> to the south southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Washington Center to Bethany, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
  • Jefferson City, which is the State Capital of Missouri, lies 165 miles [265.5 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 10 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 914 miles [1,470.9 km] to the east (E). Driving would take most of two days, a buggy would take 36 days and walking would take 52 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,488 miles [10,441.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,235 miles [11,643.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,128 miles [8,252.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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- Washington Center) 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 Washington Center 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'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 Washington Center 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 Washington Center. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.4269, Longitude: -94.1569       In this case, the coordinates for Washington Center have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 318.811 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 316.149 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.185 degrees.