RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania >> Crawford County >> Drakes Mills >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Drakes Mills, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Drakes Mills 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 Drakes Mills:
    • 41.829778, -80.082000
    • 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 Drakes Mills
  • 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 Crawford County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Crawford County
    • Since Drakes Mills is near Erie County and also Venango County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Erie County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Venango 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 Drakes Mills

Curious and Interesting Names Near Drakes Mills ...

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.

  • Bagdad
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Bagdad is located in Erie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bagdad
  • Branchville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Branchville is located in Erie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Branchville
  • Coons Corners
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Coons Corners is located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coons Corners
  • Crossingville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Crossingville is located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crossingville
  • Draketown
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Draketown is located in Erie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Draketown
  • Fountain House Corners
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Indian Head
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Indian Head is located in Erie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Head
  • New Ireland
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • New Ireland is located in Erie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Ireland
  • Pageville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Pageville is located in Erie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pageville
  • Paperville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Paperville is located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paperville
  • Reeds Corners
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Reeds Corners is located in Erie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reeds Corners

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<1> beginning in Drakes Mills and extending to:

  • Meadville, which is the Seat of Crawford County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<1> to the south southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Drakes Mills to Meadville, with an average speed<2> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 197 miles [317 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 8 days and walking would take 12 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 258 miles [415.2 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving would take four to five hours, a buggy would take 10 days and walking would take 15 days.
  • The shortest distance<3> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,896 miles [9,488.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<4>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,619 miles [10,652.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,495 miles [7,234 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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- Drakes Mills) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>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.
<3>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 Drakes Mills 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 Drakes Mills. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.8298, Longitude: -80.0820       In this case, the coordinates for Drakes Mills have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<4>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 309.562 degrees.
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.787 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.946 degrees.