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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Penbrook, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Penbrook 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 Penbrook:
    • 40.278145, -76.847750
    • 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 Penbrook
  • 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 Dauphin County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dauphin County
    • Since Penbrook is near Cumberland County and also York 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 York 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 Penbrook

Communities Also Named Penbrook ...

We found one communities that are also named Penbrook.

Within Pennsylvania, the name Penbrook is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Nebraska
      • Cherry 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 Nebraska community of Penbrook [Cherry County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Penbrook ...

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.

  • Chartwood
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Chartwood is located in Dauphin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chartwood
  • Chestnut Hill
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Chestnut Hill is located in Dauphin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chestnut Hill
  • Fort Couch
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Fort Couch is located in Cumberland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Couch
  • Harrisburg
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Haven Croft
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Haven Croft is located in Dauphin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Haven Croft
  • Hillside Village
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Hillside Village is located in Dauphin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillside Village
  • Jackson Lick
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Jackson Lick is located in Dauphin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jackson Lick
  • Kent Gardens
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Kent Gardens is located in Dauphin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kent Gardens
  • Lakeview Heights
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Lakeview Heights is located in Dauphin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview Heights
  • Locust Lane Gardens
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Locust Lane Gardens is located in Dauphin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Locust Lane Gardens
  • Pleasant Hills
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Pleasant Hills is located in Dauphin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Hills
  • Poplar Gardens
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Poplar Gardens is located in Dauphin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poplar Gardens
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Progress
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
      • Progress is located in Dauphin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Progress
    • Ridgeview
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Ridgeview is located in Dauphin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ridgeview
    • Rustic Hills
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Rustic Hills is located in Dauphin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rustic Hills
    • Spring Valley
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
      • Spring Valley is located in Dauphin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Valley
    • Twin Lakes
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
      • Twin Lakes is located in Dauphin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twin Lakes
    • Twin Lakes Park
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
      • Twin Lakes Park is located in Dauphin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twin Lakes Park

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

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

  • Harrisburg, which is the Seat of Dauphin County, lies just to the West Northwest.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies just to the west northwest (WNW).
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 95 miles [152.9 km]<3> to the south (S). If you could drive a straight line from Penbrook to White House, 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 6 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take three full days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,831 miles [9,384.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,542 miles [10,528.3 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,417 miles [7,108.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<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 Penbrook 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Penbrook) 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 Penbrook 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 Penbrook. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.2781, Longitude: -76.8478       In this case, the coordinates for Penbrook have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.68 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.415 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.088 degrees.