RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Oregon >> Josephine County >> Wilderville >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Wilderville, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Wilderville 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 Wilderville:
    • 42.382854, -123.466535
    • 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 Wilderville
  • 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 Josephine County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Josephine County
    • Since Wilderville is near Jackson County and also Douglas County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Jackson County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Douglas 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 Wilderville

Communities Also Named Wilderville ...

We found two communities that are also named Wilderville.

Within Oregon, the name Wilderville is unique.

Beyond Oregon, we know of two communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Michigan
      • Calhoun 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 Michigan community of Wilderville [Calhoun County].
    • Texas
      • Falls County
      • This Wilderville is located in Falls County and lies 1,654 miles [2,661.9 km]<2> to the east southeast of the Wilderville that is located in Josephine County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Falls County community of Wilderville.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Wilderville ...

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.

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

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

  • Grants Pass, which is the Seat of Josephine County, lies just to the East Northeast.
  • Salem, which is the State Capital of Oregon, lies 177 miles [284.9 km]<2> to the north (N). If you could drive a straight line from Wilderville to Salem, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take a little over three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 10 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,414 miles [3,885 km] to the east (E). Driving would take 5 days, a buggy would take 95 days and walking would take 138 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,132 miles [11,477.8 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,896 miles [12,707.4 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,995 miles [9,648 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<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 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 Wilderville 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' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Wilderville) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Wilderville 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 Wilderville. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.3829, Longitude: -123.4665    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 341.501 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 342.917 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 328.764 degrees.