RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of New York >> Cortland County >> McGraw >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in McGraw, we use the following websites to find information relevant to McGraw 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 McGraw:
    • 42.593809, -76.097492
    • 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 McGraw
  • 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 Cortland County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cortland County
    • Since McGraw is near Tompkins County and also Cayuga County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Tompkins County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cayuga 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 McGraw

Communities Also Named McGraw ...

We found four communities that are also named McGraw.

Within New York, the name McGraw is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Kansas
      • Harvey County
      • This McGraw is located in Harvey County and lies 1,160 miles [1,866.8 km]<1> to the west of the McGraw that is located in Cortland County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Harvey County community of McGraw.
      • Sheridan 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 McGraw [Sheridan County].
    • Maine
      • Aroostook County
      • This McGraw is located in Aroostook County and lies 493 miles [793.4 km]<1> to the northeast of the McGraw that is located in Cortland County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Aroostook County community of McGraw.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Warren 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 Pennsylvania community of McGraw [Warren County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near McGraw ...

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.

  • Freetown Corners
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Freetown Corners is located in Cortland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freetown Corners
  • Gracie
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Gracie is located in Cortland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gracie
  • Halls Corner
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Halls Corner is located in Cayuga County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Halls Corner
  • Homer
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Homer is located in Cortland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Homer
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,080 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Homer <3>
  • Little York
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Little York is located in Cortland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little York
  • Maybury Mills
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Maybury Mills is located in Cortland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maybury Mills
  • Messengerville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Messengerville is located in Cortland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Messengerville
  • Pratt Corners
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Pratt Corners is located in Cortland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pratt Corners
  • Slab City
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Slab City is located in Cortland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Slab City
  • Texas Valley
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Texas Valley is located in Cortland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Texas Valley

How Far From McGraw to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a village such as McGraw to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Cortland, which is the Seat of Cortland County, lies just to the West.
  • Albany, which is the State Capital of New York, lies 118 miles [189.9 km]<1> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from McGraw to Albany, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take about two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 7 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 259 miles [416.8 km] to the south southwest (SSW). Driving would take four to five hours, a buggy would take 11 days and walking would take 15 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,703 miles [9,178.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,421 miles [10,333.6 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,297 miles [6,915.4 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<8>'

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 drawn from Point A (ie- McGraw) 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 McGraw 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 McGraw 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 McGraw. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.5938, Longitude: -76.0975       In this case, the coordinates for McGraw have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.013 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.029 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 302.768 degrees.