RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of South Carolina >> Kershaw County >> McCaskill >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in McCaskill, we use the following websites to find information relevant to McCaskill 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 McCaskill:
    • 34.123484, -80.703695
    • 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 McCaskill
  • 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 Kershaw County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Kershaw County
    • Since McCaskill is near Richland County and also Sumter County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Richland County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Sumter 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 McCaskill

Communities Also Named McCaskill ...

We found two communities that are also named McCaskill.

There is one other community in South Carolina that is also named McCaskill.

Beyond South Carolina, there is another community also named McCaskill in the United States.

  • Communities Located In South Carolina ...
    • Chesterfield 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 South Carolina community of McCaskill [Chesterfield County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arkansas
      • Hempstead County
      • This McCaskill is located in Hempstead County and lies 740 miles [1,190.9 km]<2> to the west of the McCaskill that is located in Kershaw County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hempstead County community of McCaskill.

Curious and Interesting Names Near McCaskill ...

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.

  • Beaver Creek
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Beaver Creek is located in Kershaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beaver Creek
  • Cedar Creek ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Cedar Creek is located in Kershaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Creek
  • English ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • English is located in Richland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for English
  • Four Seasons
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Four Seasons is located in Kershaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Four Seasons
  • Green Valley
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Green Valley is located in Kershaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Valley
  • Meadow View
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Meadow View is located in Kershaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadow View
  • Pecan Grove
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Pecan Grove is located in Kershaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pecan Grove
  • Pecan Orchard
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Pecan Orchard is located in Kershaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pecan Orchard
  • Pepper Ridge
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Pepper Ridge is located in Kershaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pepper Ridge
  • Pine Mark
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Pine Mark is located in Kershaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Mark
  • Sandwood Hills
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Sandwood Hills is located in Kershaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandwood Hills
  • Spears Creek
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Spears Creek is located in Kershaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spears Creek

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

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

  • Camden, which is the Seat of Kershaw County, lies 10 miles [16.1 km]<2> to the north northeast. If you could walk a straight line from McCaskill to Camden, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
  • Columbia, which is the State Capital of South Carolina, lies 20 miles [32.2 km] to the west southwest (WSW). The buggy would take most of a day and walking would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 387 miles [622.8 km] to the north northeast (NNE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of a day, a buggy would take 16 days and walking would take 22 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,263 miles [10,079.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,957 miles [11,196.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,838 miles [7,786 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 McCaskill 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 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- McCaskill) 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 McCaskill 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 McCaskill. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.1235, Longitude: -80.7037       In this case, the coordinates for McCaskill have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.136 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.295 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.772 degrees.