RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania >> Pike County >> Silver Spring >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Silver Spring, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Silver Spring 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 Silver Spring:
    • 41.299538, -74.848779
    • 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 Silver Spring
  • 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 Pike County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Pike County
    • Since Silver Spring is near Sussex County and also Orange County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Sussex County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Orange 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 Silver Spring

Communities Also Named Silver Spring ...

We found five communities that are also named Silver Spring.

There is one other community in Pennsylvania that is also named Silver Spring.

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

  • Communities Located In Pennsylvania ...
    • Lancaster County
      • This Silver Spring is located in Lancaster County and lies 119 miles [191.5 km]<1> to the southwest of the Silver Spring that is located in Pike County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lancaster County community of Silver Spring.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Kansas
      • Nemaha 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 Kansas community of Silver Spring [Nemaha County].
    • Maryland
      • Montgomery County
      • This Silver Spring is located in Montgomery County and lies 196 miles [315.4 km]<1> to the southwest of the Silver Spring that is located in Pike County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Montgomery County community of Silver Spring.
    • Rhode Island
      • Providence County
      • This Silver Spring is located in Providence County and lies 183 miles [294.5 km]<1> to the east of the Silver Spring that is located in Pike County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Providence County community of Silver Spring.
    • Wisconsin
      • Milwaukee 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 Wisconsin community of Silver Spring [Milwaukee County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Silver Spring ...

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.

  • Beemerville
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Beemerville is located in Sussex County (NJ)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beemerville
  • Delaware
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Delaware is located in Pike County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delaware
  • Four Corners
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Four Corners is located in Sussex County (NJ)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Four Corners
  • Frenchtown
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Frenchtown is located in Pike County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frenchtown
  • Gold Key Lake
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Gold Key Lake is located in Pike County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gold Key Lake
  • Handsome Eddy
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Handsome Eddy is located in Sullivan County (NY)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Handsome Eddy
  • Hemlock Farms
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Hemlock Farms is located in Pike County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hemlock Farms
  • Indian Point
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Indian Point is located in Pike County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Point
  • Knights Eddy
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Knights Eddy is located in Sullivan County (NY)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knights Eddy
  • Libertyville
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Libertyville is located in Sussex County (NJ)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Libertyville
  • Plumbsock
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Plumbsock is located in Sussex County (NJ)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plumbsock
  • Pond Eddy
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Ranch Lands
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Ranch Lands is located in Pike County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ranch Lands
    • Sparrow Bush
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Sunrise Lake
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Sunrise Lake is located in Pike County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunrise Lake
    • Twin Lakes
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Twin Lakes is located in Pike County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twin Lakes

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

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

  • Milford, which is the Seat of Pike County, lies just to the Northeast.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 127 miles [204.4 km]<1> to the west southwest (WSW). If you could drive a straight line from Silver Spring 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 8 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 202 miles [325.1 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 8 days and walking would take 12 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,705 miles [9,181.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,415 miles [10,323.9 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,291 miles [6,905.7 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Silver Spring) 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 Silver Spring 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 Silver Spring 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 Silver Spring. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.2995, Longitude: -74.8488       In this case, the coordinates for Silver Spring have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 306.385 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 302.112 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 302.773 degrees.