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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Staffordsville, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Staffordsville 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 Staffordsville:
    • 37.241512, -80.716735
    • 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 Staffordsville
  • 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 Giles County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Giles County
    • Since Staffordsville is near Pulaski County and also Montgomery County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Pulaski County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Montgomery 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 Staffordsville

Communities Also Named Staffordsville ...

We found two communities that are also named Staffordsville.

Within Virginia, the name Staffordsville is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Kentucky
      • Johnson County
      • This Staffordsville is located in Johnson County and lies 123 miles [197.9 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Staffordsville that is located in Giles County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Johnson County community of Staffordsville.
    • Minnesota
      • Hennepin 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 Minnesota community of Staffordsville [Hennepin County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Staffordsville ...

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.

  • Bear Spring
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Bear Spring is located in Giles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bear Spring
  • Bluff City
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Bluff City is located in Giles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bluff City
  • Dry Branch
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Dry Branch is located in Pulaski County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dry Branch
  • Highland
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Highland is located in Pulaski County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highland
  • Mountain View
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Mountain View is located in Giles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain View
  • Parrott
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Parrott is located in Pulaski County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parrott
  • Poplar Hill
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Poplar Hill is located in Giles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poplar Hill
  • Ripplemead
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Ripplemead is located in Giles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ripplemead
  • Staytide ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Staytide is located in Giles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Staytide

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

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

  • Pearisburg, which is the Seat of Giles County, lies just to the North.
  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 181 miles [291.3 km]<1> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Staffordsville to Richmond, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take a little over three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 11 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 230 miles [370.1 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 6,125 miles [9,857.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,832 miles [10,995 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,709 miles [7,578.4 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- Staffordsville) 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 Staffordsville 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 Staffordsville 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 Staffordsville. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.2415, Longitude: -80.7167       In this case, the coordinates for Staffordsville have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.132 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.745 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.832 degrees.