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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Pearly, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Pearly 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 Pearly:
    • 37.274277, -82.143469
    • 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 Pearly
  • 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 Pearly is near Pike County and also Dickenson County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Pike County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dickenson 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 Pearly

Communities Also Named Pearly ...

We found one communities that are also named Pearly.

Within Virginia, the name Pearly is unique.

Beyond Virginia, there is another community also named Pearly in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Georgia
      • Laurens 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 Georgia community of Pearly [Laurens County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Pearly ...

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.

  • Big Rock
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Big Rock is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Rock
  • Deel
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Deel is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deel
  • Home Creek
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Home Creek is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Home Creek
  • Janey
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Janey is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Janey
  • Longbottom
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Longbottom is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Longbottom
  • Maxie
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Maxie is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maxie
  • Royal City
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Royal City is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Royal City
  • Tookland
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Tookland is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tookland

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Pearly and extending to:

  • Grundy, which is the Seat of Buchanan County, lies just to the East.
  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 258 miles [415.2 km]<2> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Pearly to Richmond, with an average speed<3>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 15 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 10 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 299 miles [481.2 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take five to six 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 6,183 miles [9,950.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,894 miles [11,094.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,770 miles [7,676.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 Pearly 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>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- Pearly) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Pearly 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 Pearly. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.2743, Longitude: -82.1435       In this case, the coordinates for Pearly have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.984 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.724 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.417 degrees.