RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Virginia >> Stafford County >> Chapel Heights >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Chapel Heights, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Chapel Heights 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 Chapel Heights:
    • 38.285100, -77.351300
    • 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 Chapel Heights
  • 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 Stafford County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Stafford County
    • Since Chapel Heights is near King George County and also Spotsylvania County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for King George County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Spotsylvania 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 Chapel Heights

Communities Also Named Chapel Heights ...

We found two communities that are also named Chapel Heights.

Within Virginia, the name Chapel Heights is unique.

Beyond Virginia, we know of two communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Maryland
      • Carroll County
      • This Chapel Heights is located in Carroll County and lies 88 miles [141.6 km]<1> to the north of the Chapel Heights that is located in Stafford County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Carroll County community of Chapel Heights.
    • New Jersey
      • Gloucester 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 New Jersey community of Chapel Heights [Gloucester County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Chapel Heights ...

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.

  • Butzner Corner
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Butzner Corner is located in Stafford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Butzner Corner
  • Deer Forest
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Deer Forest is located in Stafford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deer Forest
  • Fines Corner
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Fines Corner is located in Stafford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fines Corner
  • Grandview
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Grandview is located in Stafford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grandview
  • Little Creek
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Little Creek is located in Stafford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Creek
  • Little Falls
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Little Falls is located in Stafford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Falls
  • Marshall Woods
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Marshall Woods is located in Stafford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marshall Woods
  • Part Little Falls
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Part Little Falls is located in Stafford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Part Little Falls
  • River Bend
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • River Bend is located in Stafford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for River Bend
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Sandy Ridge
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • Sandy Ridge is located in Stafford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandy Ridge
    • Stones Corner
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Stones Corner is located in Stafford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stones Corner
    • Sycamore Ridge
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Sycamore Ridge is located in Stafford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sycamore Ridge
    • Wildcat Corner
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Wildcat Corner is located in Stafford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wildcat Corner
    • Will-More
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Will-More is located in Stafford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Will-More
    • Woodlanding Village
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Woodlanding Village is located in Stafford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodlanding Village

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

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

  • Stafford, which is the Seat of Stafford County, lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<1> to the north northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Chapel Heights to Stafford, 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.
  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 51 miles [82.1 km] to the south (S). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take most of two days and walking would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 45 miles [72.4 km] to the north northeast (NNE). Driving would take less than an hour, a buggy would take most of two days and walking would take about three full days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,937 miles [9,554.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,640 miles [10,686 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,518 miles [7,271 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 from Point A (ie- Chapel Heights) 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 Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird 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 Chapel Heights 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 Chapel Heights 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 Chapel Heights. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.2851, Longitude: -77.3513       In this case, the coordinates for Chapel Heights have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.11 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.596 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.078 degrees.