RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania >> Schuylkill County >> Pine Junction >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Pine Junction, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Pine Junction 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 Pine Junction:
    • 40.838977, -76.067154
    • 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 Pine Junction
  • 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 Schuylkill County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Schuylkill County
    • Since Pine Junction is near Carbon County and also Luzerne County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Carbon County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Luzerne 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 Pine Junction

Communities Also Named Pine Junction ...

We found three communities that are also named Pine Junction.

Within Pennsylvania, the name Pine Junction is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Colorado
      • Jefferson County
      • This Pine Junction is located in Jefferson County and lies 1,543 miles [2,483.2 km]<1> to the west of the Pine Junction that is located in Schuylkill County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jefferson County community of Pine Junction.
    • Indiana
      • Lake 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 Indiana community of Pine Junction [Lake County].
    • Northwest Territories
      • This Pine Junction lies 2,154 miles [3,466.5 km]<1> to the northwest of the Pine Junction that is located in Schuylkill County.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Pine Junction ...

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.

  • Craigs
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Craigs is located in Schuylkill County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Craigs
  • Ellen Gowan
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Ellen Gowan is located in Schuylkill County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ellen Gowan
  • Haddock
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Haddock is located in Schuylkill County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Haddock
  • Hills Terrace
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Hills Terrace is located in Schuylkill County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hills Terrace
  • Hometown
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Hometown is located in Schuylkill County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hometown
  • Locust Valley
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Locust Valley is located in Schuylkill County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Locust Valley
  • Lofty
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Lofty is located in Schuylkill County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lofty
  • Mary-D
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Shoemakers
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Shoemakers is located in Schuylkill County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shoemakers
  • Still Creek
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Still Creek is located in Schuylkill County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Still Creek
  • Vulcan
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Vulcan is located in Schuylkill County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vulcan

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

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

  • Pottsville, which is the Seat of Schuylkill County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<1> to the south southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Pine Junction to Pottsville, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 57 miles [91.7 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take over two days and walking would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 143 miles [230.1 km] to the south southwest (SSW). Driving would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 6 days and walking would take 9 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,775 miles [9,294 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,486 miles [10,438.2 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,362 miles [7,020 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Pine Junction) 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 Pine Junction 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 Pine Junction 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 Pine Junction. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.8390, Longitude: -76.0672       In this case, the coordinates for Pine Junction have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.164 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 302.919 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 303.513 degrees.