RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania >> Jefferson County >> O'Donnell >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in O'Donnell, we use the following websites to find information relevant to O'Donnell 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 O'Donnell:
    • 41.096174, -78.938089
    • 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 O'Donnell
  • 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 Jefferson County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Jefferson County
    • Since O'Donnell is near Clearfield County and also Lawrence County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Clearfield County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lawrence 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 O'Donnell

Communities Also Named O'Donnell ...

We found five communities that are also named O'Donnell.

Within Pennsylvania, the name O'Donnell is unique.

Beyond Pennsylvania, we know of four communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these four communities, three are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

In addition to the above occurrences of O'Donnell, we know of another community located outside of the United States and Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Maryland
      • Howard County
      • This O'Donnell is located in Howard County and lies 167 miles [268.8 km]<1> to the southeast of the O'Donnell that is located in Jefferson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Howard County community of O'Donnell.
    • Michigan
      • Barry County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Michigan community of O'Donnell [Barry County].
    • Ontario
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Ontario community of O'Donnell.
    • Texas
      • Lynn County
      • This O'Donnell is located in Lynn County and lies 1,375 miles [2,212.8 km]<1> to the west southwest of the O'Donnell that is located in Jefferson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lynn County community of O'Donnell.
  • Communities Beyond North America ...
    • Philippines
      • Distance: 8,338 miles [13,418.7 km]<1> to the north northwest
      • Open a Google Map centered on O'Donnell

Curious and Interesting Names Near O'Donnell ...

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.

  • Deemers Crossroads
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Deemers Crossroads is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deemers Crossroads
  • Desire
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Desire is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Desire
  • Fuller
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Fuller is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fuller
  • Green Valley
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Green Valley is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Valley
  • Iowa
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Iowa is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iowa
  • Panic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Panic is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Panic
  • Sandy Valley
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Sandy Valley is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandy Valley
  • Soldier
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Soldier is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Soldier

How Far From O'Donnell 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 O'Donnell to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Brookville, which is the Seat of Jefferson County, lies just to the West Northwest.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 121 miles [194.7 km]<1> to the east southeast (ESE). If you could drive a straight line from O'Donnell to Harrisburg, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take about two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 7 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 182 miles [292.9 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 8 days and walking would take 11 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,882 miles [9,466.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,600 miles [10,621.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,476 miles [7,203.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- O'Donnell) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>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 O'Donnell 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.
<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 O'Donnell 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 O'Donnell. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.0962, Longitude: -78.9381       In this case, the coordinates for O'Donnell have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.896 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 304.92 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.698 degrees.