RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania >> Luzerne County >> Ketcham >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Ketcham, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Ketcham 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 Ketcham:
    • 41.360079, -75.913531
    • 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 Ketcham
  • 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 Luzerne County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Luzerne County
    • Since Ketcham is near Wyoming County and also Lackawanna County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wyoming County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lackawanna 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 Ketcham

Communities Also Named Ketcham ...

We found one communities that are also named Ketcham.

Within Pennsylvania, the name Ketcham is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Wisconsin
      • Fond du Lac 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 Wisconsin community of Ketcham [Fond du Lac County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Ketcham ...

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.

  • Chase
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Chase is located in Luzerne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chase
  • Dickville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Dickville is located in Luzerne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dickville
  • Fern Brook
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Fern Brook is located in Luzerne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fern Brook
  • Forty Fort
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Forty Fort is located in Luzerne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forty Fort
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,025 people
  • Happy Valley
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Happy Valley is located in Luzerne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Happy Valley
  • Hays Corner
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Hays Corner is located in Luzerne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hays Corner
  • Hillside
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Hillside is located in Luzerne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillside
  • Huntsville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Huntsville is located in Luzerne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huntsville
  • Kunkle
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Kunkle is located in Luzerne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kunkle
  • Lockville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Lockville is located in Wyoming County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lockville
  • Maplewood Heights
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Maplewood Heights is located in Luzerne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maplewood Heights
  • Orange
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Orange is located in Luzerne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orange
  • Continue List   (7 more) ...
    • Plainsville
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
      • Plainsville is located in Luzerne County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plainsville
    • Pringle
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Pringle is located in Luzerne County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pringle
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 913 people
    • Ransom
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • Ransom is located in Lackawanna County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ransom
    • Shavertown
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Trucksville
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
      • Trucksville is located in Luzerne County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trucksville
    • Trucksville Gardens
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
      • Trucksville Gardens is located in Luzerne County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trucksville Gardens
    • Wyoming
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Ketcham and extending to:

  • Wilkes-Barre, which is the Seat of Luzerne County, lies just to the South.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 89 miles [143.2 km]<3> to the southwest (SW). If you could drive a straight line from Ketcham to Harrisburg, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 180 miles [289.7 km] to the south southwest (SSW). Driving would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 11 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,747 miles [9,248.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,460 miles [10,396.4 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,335 miles [6,976.5 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<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 Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock 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 Ketcham 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>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Ketcham) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Ketcham 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 Ketcham. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.3601, Longitude: -75.9135       In this case, the coordinates for Ketcham have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.023 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 302.842 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 303.222 degrees.