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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Oley, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Oley 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 Oley:
    • 40.386352, -75.787773
    • 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 Oley
  • 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 Berks County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Berks County
    • Since Oley is near Montgomery County and also Lehigh County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Montgomery County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lehigh 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 Oley

Communities Also Named Oley ...

We found one communities that are also named Oley.

Within Pennsylvania, the name Oley is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • West Virginia
      • Raleigh 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 West Virginia community of Oley [Raleigh County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Oley ...

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.

  • Basket
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Basket is located in Berks County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Basket
  • Beavers Mill
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Beavers Mill is located in Berks County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beavers Mill
  • Breezy Corner
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Breezy Corner is located in Berks County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Breezy Corner
  • Farming Ridge
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Farming Ridge is located in Berks County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Farming Ridge
  • Fleetwood
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Forest Court
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Forest Court is located in Berks County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest Court
  • Limekiln
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • New Jerusalem
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • New Jerusalem is located in Berks County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Jerusalem
  • Overlook Woods
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Overlook Woods is located in Berks County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Overlook Woods
  • Pikeville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Pine Waters
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Pine Waters is located in Berks County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Waters
  • Pricetown
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Pricetown is located in Berks County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pricetown
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...

How Far From Oley to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Oley to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Reading, which is the Seat of Berks County, lies just to the West Southwest.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 57 miles [91.7 km]<3> to the west (W). If you could walk a straight line from Oley to Harrisburg, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of three days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take over two days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 122 miles [196.3 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 7 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,782 miles [9,305.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,491 miles [10,446.3 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,367 miles [7,028 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 Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird 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 Oley 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 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Oley) 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 Oley 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 Oley. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.3864, Longitude: -75.7878    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.036 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 302.703 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 303.58 degrees.