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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Varennes, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Varennes 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 Varennes:
    • 34.437607, -82.609576
    • 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 Varennes
  • 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 Anderson County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Anderson County
    • Since Varennes is near Abbeville County and also Hart County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Abbeville County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Hart 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 Varennes

Communities Also Named Varennes ...

We found one communities that are also named Varennes.

Within South Carolina, the name Varennes is unique.

Beyond South Carolina, there is another community also named Varennes in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Quebec
      • 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 Quebec community of Varennes.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Varennes ...

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.

  • Cherokee Farms
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Cherokee Farms is located in Anderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cherokee Farms
  • Clover Hill
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Clover Hill is located in Anderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clover Hill
  • Cloverdale
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Cloverdale is located in Anderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cloverdale
  • Flat Rock
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Flat Rock is located in Anderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flat Rock
  • Green Acres
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Green Acres is located in Anderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Acres
  • Heritage Hills
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Heritage Hills is located in Anderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heritage Hills
  • Homeland Park
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Homeland Park is located in Anderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Homeland Park
  • Indian Trail
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Indian Trail is located in Anderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Trail
  • Lyonswood
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Lyonswood is located in Anderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyonswood
  • Meadow Brook
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Meadow Brook is located in Anderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadow Brook
  • Meadow Fields
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Meadow Fields is located in Anderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadow Fields
  • Meadow Park
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Meadow Park is located in Anderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadow Park
  • Mountain Creek
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Mountain Creek is located in Anderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain Creek
  • Storeville ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Storeville is located in Anderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Storeville

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers and using the location of where the historic<2> community of Varennes once stood, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Varennes and extending to:

  • Anderson, which is the Seat of Anderson County, lies just to the North Northwest.
  • Columbia, which is the State Capital of South Carolina, lies 94 miles [151.3 km]<3> to the east southeast (ESE). If you could drive a straight line from Varennes to Columbia, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 6 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 435 miles [700.1 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 17 days and walking would take 25 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,331 miles [10,188.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,032 miles [11,316.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,911 miles [7,903.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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 Varennes 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>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Varennes, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Varennes) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Varennes 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 Varennes. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.4376, Longitude: -82.6096       In this case, the coordinates for Varennes have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.236 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.604 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.416 degrees.