RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Virginia >> Rockingham County >> Edom >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Edom, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Edom 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 Edom:
    • 38.527088, -78.859945
    • 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 Edom
  • 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 Rockingham County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Rockingham County
    • Since Edom is near Harrisonburg City and also Page County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Harrisonburg City
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Page 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 Edom

Communities Also Named Edom ...

We found three communities that are also named Edom.

Within Virginia, the name Edom is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • Riverside County
      • This Edom is located in Riverside County and lies 2,102 miles [3,382.8 km]<1> to the west of the Edom that is located in Rockingham County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Riverside County community of Edom.
    • Tennessee
      • Johnson 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 Tennessee community of Edom [Johnson County].
    • Texas
      • Van Zandt County
      • This Edom is located in Van Zandt County and lies 1,031 miles [1,659.2 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Edom that is located in Rockingham County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Van Zandt County community of Edom.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Edom ...

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.

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

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

  • Harrisonburg, which is the Seat of Rockingham County, lies just to the South.
  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 103 miles [165.8 km]<1> to the southeast (SE). If you could drive a straight line from Edom to Richmond, with an average speed<3>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 4 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 101 miles [162.5 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take less than two hours, a buggy would take three full days and walking would take 6 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,990 miles [9,640 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,698 miles [10,779.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,574 miles [7,361.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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- Edom) 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 Edom 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 Edom 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 Edom. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.5271, Longitude: -78.8599    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.989 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 304.633 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.62 degrees.