Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Indian, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Indian and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Indian
- 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 Indian:
- 37.110109, -82.157358
- 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.
- The Heavens-Above Website, centered on Indian
- 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 Buchanan County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Buchanan County
- Since Indian is near Dickenson County and also Russell County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for Dickenson County
- eBird sighting report for Russell 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:
- Waymark.com
Communities Also Named Indian ...
We found eight communities that share the name Indian.
There is one other community in Virginia which is also named Indian.
Beyond Virginia, we know of another seven communities that are located throughout in the United States and Canada. Of these seven communities, seven are located in the United States and one is in Canada.
- Communities Located In Virginia ...
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Curious and Interesting Names Near Indian ...
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.
- Birchleaf
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest) - Carrie
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest) - Council
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Council
- Council is located in Buchanan County
- Deel
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast) - Flatwoods
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast) - Fuller Corner
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fuller Corner have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fuller Corner
- Fuller Corner is located in Russell County
- Fullers
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast) - Hazel
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest) - Judge ‑ Historic
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest) - Mart
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest) - Mount Heron
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mount Heron have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Heron
- Mount Heron is located in Buchanan County
- Murphy
(Less than 2 miles to the northwest) - Nancy
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the west) - Tiny
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
How Far From Indian 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 Indian 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<5> community of Indian once stood, the straight-line distance beginning in Indian and extending to:
- Grundy, which is the Seat of Buchanan County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<1> to the north northeast. If you could walk a straight line from Indian to Grundy, with an average speed<6> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
- Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 260 miles [418.4 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take four to five hours, a buggy would take 11 days and walking would take 15 days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 304 miles [489.2 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take five to six hours, a buggy would take 12 days and walking would take 18 days.
- The shortest distance<7> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,191 miles [9,963.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,901 miles [11,106.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,777 miles [7,687.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<10>
Off-the-Road Links ...
The official website for State of Virginia: https://www.virginia.gov/
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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Indian) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Indian. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.1101, Longitude: -82.1574 In this case, the coordinates for Indian have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <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 Indian 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> | The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required. |
| <4> | An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace. |
| <5> | 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 Indian, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <6> | 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. |
| <7> | 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 Indian to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East. |
| <8> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.993 degrees. |
| <9> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.71 degrees. |
| <10> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.473 degrees. |