RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania >> Columbia County >> Coles Creek >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Coles Creek, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Coles Creek 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 Coles Creek:
    • 41.241472, -76.364663
    • 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 Coles Creek
  • 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 Columbia County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Columbia County
    • Since Coles Creek is near Luzerne County and also Sullivan County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Luzerne County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Sullivan 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 Coles Creek

Communities Also Named Coles Creek ...

We found one communities that are also named Coles Creek.

Within Pennsylvania, the name Coles Creek is unique.

Beyond Pennsylvania, there is another community also named Coles Creek in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Mississippi
      • 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 Mississippi community of Coles Creek [Calhoun County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Coles Creek ...

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.

  • Central
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Central is located in Columbia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central
  • Divide
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Divide is located in Columbia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Divide
  • Elk Grove
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Elk Grove is located in Columbia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elk Grove
  • Five Points
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Five Points is located in Columbia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Points
  • Honeytown
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Honeytown is located in Columbia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Honeytown
  • Maple Grove
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Maple Grove is located in Columbia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maple Grove
  • Marshall Hollow
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Marshall Hollow is located in Luzerne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marshall Hollow
  • Mossville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Mossville is located in Luzerne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mossville
  • Polkville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Polkville is located in Columbia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Polkville
  • Red Hill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Red Hill is located in Luzerne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Hill
  • Red Rock
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Red Rock is located in Luzerne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Rock
  • Register
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Register is located in Luzerne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Register

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

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

  • Bloomsburg, which is the Seat of Columbia County, lies 17 miles [27.4 km]<2> to the south southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Coles Creek to Bloomsburg, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take five to six hours.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 71 miles [114.3 km] to the south southwest (SSW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take about three full days and walking would take 4 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 165 miles [265.5 km] to the south southwest (SSW). Driving would take about three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 10 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,771 miles [9,287.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,484 miles [10,435 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,359 miles [7,015.1 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<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 Coles Creek 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Coles Creek) 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 Coles Creek 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 Coles Creek. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.2415, Longitude: -76.3647       In this case, the coordinates for Coles Creek have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.308 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.146 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 303.476 degrees.