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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in McKinney, we use the following websites to find information relevant to McKinney 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 McKinney:
    • 40.152031, -77.613600
    • 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 McKinney
  • 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 Franklin County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Franklin County
    • Since McKinney is near Cumberland County and also Huntingdon County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cumberland County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Huntingdon 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 McKinney

Communities Also Named McKinney ...

We found eleven communities that are also named McKinney.

There is one other community in Pennsylvania that is also named McKinney.

Beyond Pennsylvania, we know of ten communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Located In Pennsylvania ...
    • Cumberland 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 Pennsylvania community of McKinney [Cumberland County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arkansas
      • Bradley County
      • This McKinney is located in Bradley County and lies 919 miles [1,479 km]<2> to the west southwest of the McKinney that is located in Franklin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Bradley County community of McKinney.
      • Cleveland County
      • This community is historic<3> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Arkansas community of McKinney [Cleveland County].
      • Miller County
      • This McKinney is located in Miller County and lies 1,007 miles [1,620.6 km] to the west southwest of the McKinney that is located in Franklin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Miller County community of McKinney.
    • California
      • Placer 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 California community of McKinney [Placer County].
    • Georgia
      • Upson County
      • This McKinney is located in Upson County and lies 621 miles [999.4 km]<2> to the southwest of the McKinney that is located in Franklin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Upson County community of McKinney.
    • Kansas
      • Douglas 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 Kansas community of McKinney [Douglas County].
    • Kentucky
      • Lincoln County
      • This McKinney is located in Lincoln County and lies 427 miles [687.2 km]<2> to the west southwest of the McKinney that is located in Franklin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lincoln County community of McKinney.
    • North Dakota
      • Renville 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 North Dakota community of McKinney [Renville County].
    • Oklahoma
      • Noble 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 Oklahoma community of McKinney [Noble County].
    • Texas
      • Collin County
      • This McKinney is located in Collin County and lies 1,154 miles [1,857.2 km]<2> to the west southwest of the McKinney that is located in Franklin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Collin County community of McKinney.

Curious and Interesting Names Near McKinney ...

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.

  • Dry Run
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Dry Run is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dry Run
  • Green Spring
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Green Spring is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Spring
  • Green Village
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Green Village is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Village
  • Lees Cross Roads
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Lees Cross Roads is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lees Cross Roads
  • Mainsville
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Mainsville is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mainsville
  • Maple Grove
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Maple Grove is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maple Grove
  • Middle Spring
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Middle Spring is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Middle Spring
  • Mount Hope
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Mount Hope is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Hope
  • Mount Rock
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Mount Rock is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Rock
  • Mountain Green
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Mountain Green is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain Green
  • Mowersville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Mowersville is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mowersville
  • Pleasant Hall
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Pleasant Hall is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Hall
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Spears Grove
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Spears Grove is located in Juniata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spears Grove
    • Spring Run
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Stony Point
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Stony Point is located in Franklin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stony Point
    • Willow Hill
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)

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

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

  • Chambersburg, which is the Seat of Franklin County, lies 15 miles [24.1 km]<2> to the south. If you could walk a straight line from McKinney to Chambersburg, with an average speed<5> 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 four to five hours.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 39 miles [62.8 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take just about two full days and walking would take over two days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 91 miles [146.5 km] to the south southeast (SSE). Driving would take less than two hours, a buggy would take most of three days and walking would take 6 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,868 miles [9,443.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,580 miles [10,589.5 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,456 miles [7,171.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

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 McKinney 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- McKinney) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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 McKinney, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>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.
<6>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 McKinney 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 McKinney. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.1520, Longitude: -77.6136       In this case, the coordinates for McKinney have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.151 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.929 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.474 degrees.