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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Paynesville, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Paynesville 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 Paynesville:
    • 37.331488, -81.892005
    • 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 Paynesville
  • 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:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Buchanan County
    • Since Paynesville is near McDowell County and also Tazewell County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for McDowell County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Tazewell 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 Paynesville

Communities Also Named Paynesville ...

We found eight communities that are also named Paynesville.

Within Virginia, the name Paynesville is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • Alpine County
      • This Paynesville is located in Alpine County and lies 2,047 miles [3,294.3 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Paynesville that is located in Buchanan County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Alpine County community of Paynesville.
    • Indiana
      • Jefferson County
      • This Paynesville is located in Jefferson County and lies 215 miles [346 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Paynesville that is located in Buchanan County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jefferson County community of Paynesville.
    • Michigan
      • Ontonagon County
      • This Paynesville is located in Ontonagon County and lies 734 miles [1,181.3 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Paynesville that is located in Buchanan County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Ontonagon County community of Paynesville.
    • Minnesota
      • Stearns County
      • This Paynesville is located in Stearns County and lies 864 miles [1,390.5 km]<1> to the northwest of the Paynesville that is located in Buchanan County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Stearns County community of Paynesville.
    • Missouri
      • Pike County
      • This Paynesville is located in Pike County and lies 505 miles [812.7 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Paynesville that is located in Buchanan County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Pike County community of Paynesville.
    • New York
      • Allegany County
      • This Paynesville is located in Allegany County and lies 388 miles [624.4 km]<1> to the north northeast of the Paynesville that is located in Buchanan County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Allegany County community of Paynesville.
    • West Virginia
      • McDowell County
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the McDowell County community of Paynesville.
    • Wisconsin
      • Milwaukee 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 Wisconsin community of Paynesville [Milwaukee County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Paynesville ...

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.

  • Beartown
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Beartown is located in McDowell County (WV)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beartown
  • Dan
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Dan is located in McDowell County (WV)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dan
  • Dwight
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Dwight is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dwight
  • Height
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Jewell Valley
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Jewell Valley is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jewell Valley
  • Peapatch
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Rockridge
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Rockridge is located in McDowell County (WV)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockridge
  • Slate
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Slate is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Slate
  • Stacy
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Stacy is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stacy

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

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

  • Grundy, which is the Seat of Buchanan County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<1> to the west southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Paynesville to Grundy, with an average speed<3> 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 244 miles [392.7 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take nearly four hours, a buggy would take 10 days and walking would take 14 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 285 miles [458.7 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take four to five hours, a buggy would take 12 days and walking would take 17 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,170 miles [9,929.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,880 miles [11,072.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,756 miles [7,654 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Paynesville) 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 Paynesville 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 Paynesville 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 Paynesville. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.3315, Longitude: -81.8920    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.832 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.559 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.294 degrees.