RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of North Carolina >> Hoke County >> McCain >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in McCain, we use the following websites to find information relevant to McCain 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 McCain:
    • 35.060717, -79.345590
    • 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 McCain
  • 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 Hoke County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Hoke County
    • Since McCain is near Moore County and also Scotland County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Moore County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Scotland 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 McCain

Communities Also Named McCain ...

We found two communities that are also named McCain.

There is one other community in North Carolina that is also named McCain.

Beyond North Carolina, there is another community also named McCain in the United States.

  • Communities Located In North Carolina ...
    • Union 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 North Carolina community of McCain [Union County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Florida
      • 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 Florida community of McCain [Marion County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near McCain ...

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.

  • Edinburgh
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Edinburgh is located in Hoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edinburgh
  • Five Points
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Five Points is located in Hoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Points
  • Hickory Grove
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Hickory Grove is located in Hoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Grove
  • Hillcrest
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Hillcrest is located in Hoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillcrest
  • Hog Island
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Hog Island is located in Moore County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hog Island
  • Huntcliff
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Huntcliff is located in Moore County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huntcliff
  • Lincoln Park
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Lincoln Park is located in Moore County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lincoln Park
  • Manly
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Manly is located in Moore County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manly
  • Roseland
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Roseland is located in Moore County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roseland
  • Silver City
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Silver City is located in Hoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver City
  • Silver Springs
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Silver Springs is located in Moore County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Springs

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in McCain and extending to:

  • Raeford, which is the Seat of Hoke County, lies just to the Southeast.
  • Raleigh, which is the State Capital of North Carolina, lies 63 miles [101.4 km]<2> to the northeast (NE). If you could walk a straight line from McCain to Raleigh, 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 about three full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 293 miles [471.5 km] to the north northeast (NNE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take four to five hours, a buggy would take 12 days and walking would take 17 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,162 miles [9,916.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,856 miles [11,033.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,738 miles [7,625.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 McCain 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 'straight-line' (or 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- McCain) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 McCain 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 McCain. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.0607, Longitude: -79.3456       In this case, the coordinates for McCain have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 309.365 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 304.547 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.976 degrees.