RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Virginia >> Wise County >> Cranes Nest >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Cranes Nest, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Cranes Nest 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 Cranes Nest:
    • 36.973992, -82.472374
    • 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 Cranes Nest
  • 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 Wise County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wise County
    • Since Cranes Nest is near Dickenson County and also Norton City, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dickenson County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Norton City
  • 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 Cranes Nest

Communities Also Named Cranes Nest ...

We found one communities that are also named Cranes Nest.

There is one other community in Virginia that is also named Cranes Nest.

Beyond Virginia.

  • Communities Located In Virginia ...
    • Dickenson 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 Virginia community of Cranes Nest [Dickenson County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Cranes Nest ...

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.

  • Bondtown
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Bondtown is located in Wise County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bondtown
  • Crab Orchard
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Crab Orchard is located in Wise County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crab Orchard
  • Dry Fork
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Dry Fork is located in Wise County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dry Fork
  • Flat Top
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Flat Top is located in Dickenson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flat Top
  • Herald
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Herald is located in Dickenson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Herald
  • Hurricane
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Hurricane is located in Wise County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hurricane
  • Ibex ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Ibex is located in Dickenson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ibex
  • Lyons
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Lyons is located in Wise County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyons
  • Maytown
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Maytown is located in Wise County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maytown
  • Riverview
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Riverview is located in Wise County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverview
  • Round Top
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Round Top is located in Wise County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Round Top
  • Toms Creek
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Toms Creek is located in Wise County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Toms Creek
  • Wise
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Cranes Nest and extending to:

  • Wise, which is the Seat of Wise County, lies just to the West.
  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 279 miles [449 km]<3> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Cranes Nest to Richmond, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 16 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 11 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 324 miles [521.4 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take five to six hours, a buggy would take 13 days and walking would take 19 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,210 miles [9,994 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,921 miles [11,138.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,797 miles [7,720 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 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 Cranes Nest 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>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Cranes Nest) 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 Cranes Nest 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 Cranes Nest. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.9740, Longitude: -82.4724       In this case, the coordinates for Cranes Nest have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.183 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.908 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.645 degrees.