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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Tartown, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Tartown and the surrounding area.

  • 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 Tartown:
    • 39.822871, -77.439710
    • 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 Tartown
  • 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 Adams County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Adams County
    • Since Tartown is near Franklin County and also Frederick County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Franklin County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Frederick 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 Tartown

Communities Also Named Tartown ...

We found one communities that are also named Tartown.

There is one other community in Pennsylvania that is also named Tartown.

Beyond Pennsylvania.

  • Communities Located In Pennsylvania ...
    • Franklin 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 Pennsylvania community of Tartown [Franklin County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Tartown ...

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.

  • Beartown
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Beartown is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beartown
  • Cashtown
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Cashtown is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cashtown
  • Fountain Dale
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Fountain Dale is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fountain Dale
  • Fox Hill
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Fox Hill is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fox Hill
  • Gladhill
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Gladhill is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gladhill
  • Hilltown
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Hilltown is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hilltown
  • Iron Springs
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Iron Springs is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iron Springs
  • Jacks Mountain
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Jacks Mountain is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jacks Mountain
  • Maria Furnace
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Maria Furnace is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maria Furnace
  • Marshall
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Marshall is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marshall
  • Mount Hope
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Mount Hope is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Hope
  • Pond Bank
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Pond Bank is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pond Bank
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Roadside
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Roadside is located in Franklin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roadside
    • Slabtown
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Slabtown is located in Franklin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Slabtown
    • Tomstown
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Tomstown is located in Franklin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tomstown
    • Virginia Mills
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • Virginia Mills is located in Adams County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Virginia Mills

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Tartown and extending to:

  • Gettysburg, which is the Seat of Adams County, lies 11 miles [17.7 km]<2> to the east. If you could walk a straight line from Tartown to Gettysburg, with an average speed<3> 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 43 miles [69.2 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take just about two full days and walking would take about three full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 67 miles [107.8 km] to the south southeast (SSE). Driving would take less than two hours, a buggy would take about three full days and walking would take three full days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,875 miles [9,454.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,585 miles [10,597.5 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,461 miles [7,179.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 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 Tartown 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>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 from Point A (ie- Tartown) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<4>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 Tartown 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 Tartown. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.8229, Longitude: -77.4397       In this case, the coordinates for Tartown have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.068 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.785 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.527 degrees.