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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Shawtown, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Shawtown 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 Shawtown:
    • 40.334792, -79.705044
    • 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 Shawtown
  • 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 Westmoreland County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Westmoreland County
    • Since Shawtown is near Allegheny County and also Washington County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Allegheny County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Washington 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 Shawtown

Communities Also Named Shawtown ...

We found six communities that are also named Shawtown.

Within Pennsylvania, the name Shawtown is unique.

Beyond Pennsylvania, we know of six communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alabama
      • Bibb County
      • This Shawtown is located in Bibb County and lies 645 miles [1,038 km]<1> to the southwest of the Shawtown that is located in Westmoreland County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Bibb County community of Shawtown.
    • Delaware
      • New Castle 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 Delaware community of Shawtown [New Castle County].
    • North Carolina
      • Harnett County
      • This Shawtown is located in Harnett County and lies 345 miles [555.2 km]<1> to the south of the Shawtown that is located in Westmoreland County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Harnett County community of Shawtown.
    • Ohio
      • Hancock County
      • This Shawtown is located in Hancock County and lies 224 miles [360.5 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Shawtown that is located in Westmoreland County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hancock County community of Shawtown.
      • Morrow County
      • This Shawtown is located in Morrow County and lies 171 miles [275.2 km] to the west of the Shawtown that is located in Westmoreland County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Morrow County community of Shawtown.
    • Wisconsin
      • Eau Claire County
      • This Shawtown is located in Eau Claire County and lies 675 miles [1,086.3 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Shawtown that is located in Westmoreland County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Eau Claire County community of Shawtown.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Shawtown ...

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.

  • Cereal
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Cereal is located in Westmoreland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cereal
  • Circleville
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Circleville is located in Westmoreland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Circleville
  • Irwin
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Irwin is located in Westmoreland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Irwin
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,716 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Irwin <3>
  • Jacktown
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Jacktown is located in Westmoreland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jacktown
  • Manor
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Manor is located in Westmoreland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manor
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,322 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Manor <3>
  • Paintertown
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Paintertown is located in Westmoreland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paintertown
  • Scab Hill
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Scab Hill is located in Westmoreland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scab Hill
  • Sunset Valley
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Sunset Valley is located in Westmoreland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunset Valley

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

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

  • Greensburg, which is the Seat of Westmoreland County, lies just to the East Southeast.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 148 miles [238.2 km]<1> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Shawtown to Harrisburg, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 9 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 173 miles [278.4 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving would take about three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 10 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,946 miles [9,569.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,663 miles [10,723.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,539 miles [7,304.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Shawtown) 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 Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock 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 Shawtown 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 Shawtown 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 Shawtown. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.3348, Longitude: -79.7050       In this case, the coordinates for Shawtown have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 309.413 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.39 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.332 degrees.