Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Valentine, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Valentine and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Valentine
- 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 Valentine:
- 40.222274, -84.058273
- 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.
- The Heavens-Above Website, centered on Valentine
- 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 Shelby County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Shelby County
- Since Valentine is near Champaign County and also Miami County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for Champaign County
- eBird sighting report for Miami 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:
- Waymark.com
Communities Also Named Valentine ...
We found twelve communities that share the name Valentine.
Within Ohio, the name Valentine is unique.
Beyond Ohio, we know of another twelve communities that are located throughout in the United States.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- Georgia
- Indiana
- Louisiana
- Montana
- Nebraska
- New Jersey
- South Carolina
- Hampton County
- This Valentine is located in Hampton County and lies 533 miles [857.8 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Valentine that is located in Shelby County.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hampton County community of Valentine.
- Lexington 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 South Carolina community of Valentine [Lexington County].
- Texas
Curious and Interesting Names Near Valentine ...
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.
- Carysville
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Carysville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carysville
- Carysville is located in Champaign County
- Christiansburg
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Christiansburg have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Christiansburg
- Christiansburg is located in Champaign County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 503 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Christiansburg <4>
- Crayon
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the east) - Lena
(5 miles [8 km] to the south)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lena
- Lena is located in Miami County
- Maplewood
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the north) - Rosewood
(5 miles [8 km] to the east) - Sodom ‑ Historic
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the south) - Twin Lakes ‑ Historic
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Twin Lakes have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twin Lakes
- Twin Lakes is located in Miami County
How Far From Valentine 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 Valentine to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers and using the location of where the historic<5> community of Valentine once stood, the straight-line distance beginning in Valentine and extending to:
- Sidney, which is the Seat of Shelby County, lies just to the Northwest.
- Columbus, which is the State Capital of Ohio, lies 58 miles [93.3 km]<1> to the east southeast (ESE). If you could walk a straight line from Valentine to Columbus, with an average speed<6> 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 384 miles [618 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of a day, a buggy would take 15 days and walking would take 22 days.
- The shortest distance<7> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,125 miles [9,857.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,851 miles [11,025.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,728 miles [7,609 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<10>
Off-the-Road Links ...
The official website for Shelby County: www.co.shelby.oh.us/
The official website for State of Ohio: https://ohio.gov/
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- Valentine) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Valentine. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.2223, Longitude: -84.0583 In this case, the coordinates for Valentine have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <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 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 Valentine 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> | The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required. |
| <4> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |
| <5> | 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 Valentine, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <6> | 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. |
| <7> | 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 Valentine to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East. |
| <8> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.134 degrees. |
| <9> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.469 degrees. |
| <10> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.355 degrees. |