RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania >> Erie County >> Orchard Beach >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Orchard Beach, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Orchard Beach 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 Orchard Beach:
    • 42.241447, -79.828660
    • 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 Orchard Beach
  • 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 Erie County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Erie County
    • Since Orchard Beach is near Chautauqua County and also Warren County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Chautauqua County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Warren 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 Orchard Beach

Communities Also Named Orchard Beach ...

We found five communities that are also named Orchard Beach.

Within Pennsylvania, the name Orchard Beach is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Maryland
      • Anne Arundel County
      • This Orchard Beach is located in Anne Arundel County and lies 273 miles [439.4 km]<1> to the southeast of the Orchard Beach that is located in Erie County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Anne Arundel County community of Orchard Beach.
    • Michigan
      • Cheboygan County
      • This Orchard Beach is located in Cheboygan County and lies 324 miles [521.4 km]<1> to the northwest of the Orchard Beach that is located in Erie County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cheboygan County community of Orchard Beach.
      • Oakland 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 Orchard Beach [Oakland County].
    • Ohio
      • Erie County
      • This Orchard Beach is located in Erie County and lies 144 miles [231.7 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Orchard Beach that is located in Erie County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Erie County community of Orchard Beach.
    • 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 Orchard Beach.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Orchard Beach ...

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.

  • Bogus Corners
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Bogus Corners is located in Erie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bogus Corners
  • Forest Park
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Forest Park is located in Chautauqua County (NY)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest Park
  • Freeport
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Freeport is located in Erie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freeport
  • French Creek
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • French Creek is located in Chautauqua County (NY)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for French Creek
  • Harborcreek
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Little Hope
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Little Hope is located in Erie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Hope
  • Lowville
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Lowville is located in Erie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lowville
  • Moorhead
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Moorhead is located in Erie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moorhead
  • Moorheadville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Moorheadville is located in Erie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moorheadville
  • Pleasant Hill
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Pleasant Hill is located in Erie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Hill
  • Slab City
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Slab City is located in Chautauqua County (NY)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Slab City
  • Summerdale
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Summerdale is located in Chautauqua County (NY)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summerdale

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

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

  • Erie, which is the Seat of Erie County, lies 15 miles [24.1 km]<1> to the west southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Orchard Beach to Erie, with an average speed<4> 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 204 miles [328.3 km] to the southeast (SE). 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 273 miles [439.4 km] to the south southeast (SSE). Driving would take four to five hours, a buggy would take 11 days and walking would take 16 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> 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).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,592 miles [10,608.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,468 miles [7,190.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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- Orchard Beach) 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 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 Orchard Beach 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're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 Orchard Beach 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 Orchard Beach. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.2414, Longitude: -79.8287       In this case, the coordinates for Orchard Beach have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 309.376 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.64 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.669 degrees.