RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Welcome to Opal ...

Opal is located in Fauquier County<1>.

While we don't have a date for the founding of Opal, you might consider that their post office opened in 1888.

Opal is 440 feet [134 m] above sea level.<2>.

Time Zone: Opal lies in the Eastern Time Zone (EST/EDT) and observes daylight saving time

Area Codes for Opal: 540 & 826<3>

Communities Also Named Opal ...

Using our Gazetteer, we found that there are 13 communities that are also named Opal - they are located in Alabama, Alberta, Arkansas (3), Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming (2).

For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Opal.

Communities near Opal ...

We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Opal.

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Opal. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Opal.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Opal. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Opal.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Opal. See our Newspapers Page for Opal.

TripAdvisor Tourism Pages for Opal ...

Looking for more information about Opal? A wonderful source is the TripAdvisor website. We always start with the TripAdvisor Tourism page, where you can read an overview with links that will help you find lodging, restaurants and attractions.

While we are unaware of a Tourism page that is specific to Opal, there are neighboring communities that do have Tourism pages. A map of those communities can be found with our TripAdvisor Page for Opal.

Adding Opal to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Opal in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found (so far) for Opal was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<5>

From that list, the Opal post office opened in 1888. The Opal post office closed in 1907.

For more details, see References and Mentions for Opal.

Footnotes ...

<1>If you're interested in how the shape of Virginia's counties, including Fauquier, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<2>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Opal - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<3>When there's a risk of an area code running out of phone numbers, an 'Overlay Area Code' is created that has the same geographic boundaries as the existing area code. In this case, the 540 code has been Overlayed with the 826 area code. New phone numbers in the Opal area will be assigned with one of these codes: 540 or 826. As a result, placing a call in the Opal area will require 10-digit dialing (where you enter both the area code and then the phone number).
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>A copy of the Blevins & Helbock Post Office list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/