RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Virginia >> Montgomery County >> Silver Leaf >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Silver Leaf, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Silver Leaf 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 Silver Leaf:
    • 37.237907, -80.407550
    • 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 Silver Leaf
  • 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 Montgomery County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Montgomery County
    • Since Silver Leaf is near Giles County and also Craig County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Giles County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Craig 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 Silver Leaf

Communities Also Named Silver Leaf ...

We found two communities that are also named Silver Leaf.

There is one other community in Virginia that is also named Silver Leaf.

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

  • Communities Located In Virginia ...
    • Floyd 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 Virginia community of Silver Leaf [Floyd County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • South Carolina
      • Greenville County
      • This Silver Leaf is located in Greenville County and lies 192 miles [309 km]<2> to the southwest of the Silver Leaf that is located in Montgomery County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Greenville County community of Silver Leaf.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Silver Leaf ...

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.

  • Airport Acres
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Airport Acres is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Airport Acres
  • Cedar Orchard
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Cedar Orchard is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Orchard
  • Clover Valley
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Clover Valley is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clover Valley
  • Evergreen
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Evergreen is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evergreen
  • Hunters Ridge
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Hunters Ridge is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hunters Ridge
  • Knob Hill
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Knob Hill is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knob Hill
  • Meadow Brook
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Meadow Brook is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadow Brook
  • Meadow Run
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Meadow Run is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadow Run
  • Murphy
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Murphy is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Murphy
  • Orchard View
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Orchard View is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orchard View
  • Patrick Henry Place
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Patrick Henry Place is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Patrick Henry Place
  • Pheasant Run
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Pheasant Run is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pheasant Run
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Rainbow Ridge
      (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
      • Rainbow Ridge is located in Montgomery County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rainbow Ridge
    • Stonegate
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Stonegate is located in Montgomery County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stonegate
    • Sundance Ridge
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Sundance Ridge is located in Montgomery County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sundance Ridge
    • Sundance Village
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Sundance Village is located in Montgomery County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sundance Village
    • University Place
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • University Place is located in Montgomery County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for University Place
    • University Terrace
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • University Terrace is located in Montgomery County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for University Terrace

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

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

  • Christiansburg, which is the Seat of Montgomery County, lies just to the South.
  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 164 miles [263.9 km]<2> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Silver Leaf to Richmond, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take about three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 10 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 216 miles [347.6 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take nearly four hours, a buggy would take 9 days and walking would take 13 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,112 miles [9,836.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,818 miles [10,972.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,695 miles [7,555.9 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 Silver Leaf 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 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Silver Leaf) 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 Silver Leaf 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 Silver Leaf. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.2379, Longitude: -80.4076       In this case, the coordinates for Silver Leaf have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 309.948 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.535 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.705 degrees.