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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Welcome to Surprise ...

Surprise is located in Culpeper County<1>.

While we don't have a date for the founding of Surprise, you might consider that their post office opened in 1895.

Surprise is 450 feet [137 m] above sea level.<2>.

Time Zone: Surprise lies in the Eastern Time Zone (EST/EDT) and observes daylight saving time

Area Codes for Surprise: 540 & 826<3>

Communities Also Named Surprise ...

Using our Gazetteer, we found that there are 10 communities that are also named Surprise - they are located in Arizona, British Columbia, California, Indiana, Kansas (2), Nebraska, New York, Ohio and Tennessee.

For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Surprise.

Websites for Surprise ...

Chamber of Commerce:   www.culpepervachamber.com/

Although we don't have any websites that are specific to Surprise, the following might be of interest:

Communities near Surprise ...

We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Surprise.

  • Culpeper
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Orange
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Gordonsville
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Remington
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Madison
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Tryme
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Tryme is located in Madison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tryme
  • Norman
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Norman is located in Culpeper County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norman
  • Griffinsburg
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Griffinsburg is located in Culpeper County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Griffinsburg
  • Salem
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Salem is located in Culpeper County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Salem
  • True Blue
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • True Blue is located in Orange County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for True Blue

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Surprise. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Surprise.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Surprise. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Surprise.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Surprise. See our Newspapers Page for Surprise.

TripAdvisor Tourism Pages for Surprise ...

Looking for more information about Surprise? A wonderful source is the TripAdvisor website. We always start with the TripAdvisor Tourism page, where you can read an overview with links that will help you find lodging, restaurants and attractions.

While we are unaware of a Tourism page that is specific to Surprise, there are neighboring communities that do have Tourism pages. A map of those communities can be found with our TripAdvisor Page for Surprise.

Adding Surprise to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Surprise in the GNIS. For more information, see the Referenced GNIS Codes section on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found (so far) for Surprise was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<5>

From that list, the Surprise post office opened in 1895. The Surprise post office closed in 1905.

For more details, see References and Mentions for Surprise.

Footnotes ...

<1>If you're interested in how the shape of Virginia's counties, including Culpeper, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<2>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Surprise - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<3>When there's a risk of an area code running out of phone numbers, an 'Overlay Area Code' is created that has the same geographic boundaries as the existing area code. In this case, the 540 code has been Overlayed with the 826 area code. New phone numbers in the Surprise area will be assigned with one of these codes: 540 or 826. As a result, placing a call in the Surprise area will require 10-digit dialing (where you enter both the area code and then the phone number).
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>A copy of the Blevins & Helbock Post Office list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/