RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Virginia >> Gloucester County >> Point Lookout >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Point Lookout, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Point Lookout 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 Point Lookout:
    • 37.354585, -76.435781
    • 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 Point Lookout
  • 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 Gloucester County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Gloucester County
    • Since Point Lookout is near Mathews County and also York County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Mathews County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for York 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 Point Lookout

Communities Also Named Point Lookout ...

We found eight communities that are also named Point Lookout.

Within Virginia, the name Point Lookout is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Maryland
      • Saint Mary's County
      • This community is historic<1> and although located in Saint Mary's County, we don't know where within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Saint Mary's County community of Point Lookout.
    • Missouri
      • Taney 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 Missouri community of Point Lookout [Taney County].
    • New York
      • Nassau County
      • This Point Lookout is located in Nassau County and lies 271 miles [436.1 km]<3> to the north northeast of the Point Lookout that is located in Gloucester County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Nassau County community of Point Lookout.
      • Queens 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 New York community of Point Lookout [Queens County].
    • Pennsylvania
      • Chester 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 Pennsylvania community of Point Lookout [Chester County].
      • Washington County
      • This Point Lookout is located in Washington County and lies 280 miles [450.6 km]<3> to the northwest of the Point Lookout that is located in Gloucester County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Washington County community of Point Lookout.
    • Tennessee
      • Hamilton 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 Point Lookout [Hamilton County].
    • West Virginia
      • Pleasants County
      • This Point Lookout is located in Pleasants County and lies 289 miles [465.1 km]<3> to the west northwest of the Point Lookout that is located in Gloucester County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Pleasants County community of Point Lookout.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Point Lookout ...

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.

  • Crab
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Crab is located in Gloucester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crab
  • Gum Fork
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Gum Fork is located in Gloucester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gum Fork
  • Harbor Hills
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Harbor Hills is located in Gloucester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harbor Hills
  • Lands End
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Lands End is located in Gloucester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lands End
  • Marshall Heights
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Marshall Heights is located in Gloucester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marshall Heights
  • Money
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Money is located in Gloucester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Money
  • Ordinary
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Oyster Cove
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Oyster Cove is located in Gloucester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oyster Cove
  • Quiet Cove
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Quiet Cove is located in Gloucester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quiet Cove
  • Shadow
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Shadow is located in Mathews County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shadow
  • Susan
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Susan is located in Mathews County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Susan
  • Victory Hill
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Victory Hill is located in Gloucester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Victory Hill

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

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

  • Gloucester, which is the Seat of Gloucester County, lies just to the Northwest.
  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 56 miles [90.1 km]<3> to the west northwest (WNW). If you could walk a straight line from Point Lookout to Richmond, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of three days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take over two days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 111 miles [178.6 km] to the north northwest (NNW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 7 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,937 miles [9,554.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,633 miles [10,674.8 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,514 miles [7,264.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Point Lookout, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 Point Lookout 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>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- Point Lookout) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>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.
<6>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 Point Lookout 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 Point Lookout. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.3546, Longitude: -76.4358       In this case, the coordinates for Point Lookout have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.632 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 302.909 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.055 degrees.