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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Vandyke, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Vandyke 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 Vandyke:
    • 40.532025, -77.293320
    • 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 Vandyke
  • 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 Juniata County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Juniata County
    • Since Vandyke is near Perry County and also Allegheny County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Perry County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Allegheny 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 Vandyke

Communities Also Named Vandyke ...

We found four communities that are also named Vandyke.

Within Pennsylvania, the name Vandyke is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Delaware
      • New Castle County
      • This Vandyke is located in New Castle County and lies 115 miles [185.1 km]<1> to the southeast of the Vandyke that is located in Juniata County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the New Castle County community of Vandyke.
    • Kentucky
      • Anderson 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 Kentucky community of Vandyke [Anderson County].
    • Texas
      • Comanche County
      • This Vandyke is located in Comanche County and lies 1,318 miles [2,121.1 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Vandyke that is located in Juniata County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Comanche County community of Vandyke.
    • Virginia
      • Buchanan County
      • This Vandyke is located in Buchanan County and lies 341 miles [548.8 km]<1> to the southwest of the Vandyke that is located in Juniata County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Buchanan County community of Vandyke.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Vandyke ...

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.

  • Centre
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Centre is located in Juniata County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Centre
  • Cuba Mills
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Cuba Mills is located in Juniata County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cuba Mills
  • Goodville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Goodville is located in Juniata County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goodville
  • Little Roundtop
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Little Roundtop is located in Juniata County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Roundtop
  • Locust Run
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Locust Run is located in Juniata County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Locust Run
  • Mannsville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Mannsville is located in Perry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mannsville
  • Maze
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Maze is located in Juniata County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maze
  • Mexico
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Mexico is located in Juniata County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mexico
  • Mount Pleasant
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Mount Pleasant is located in Juniata County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Pleasant
  • Rockville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Rockville is located in Juniata County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockville
  • Walnut Grove
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Walnut Grove is located in Perry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walnut Grove

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

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

  • Mifflintown, which is the Seat of Juniata County, lies just to the West Northwest.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 27 miles [43.5 km]<1> to the southeast (SE). If you could walk a straight line from Vandyke to Harrisburg, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just about two full days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 113 miles [181.9 km] to the south (S). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 7 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,839 miles [9,397 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,551 miles [10,542.8 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,427 miles [7,124.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Vandyke) 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 Vandyke 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 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 Vandyke 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 Vandyke. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.5320, Longitude: -77.2933       In this case, the coordinates for Vandyke have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.93 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.738 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.182 degrees.