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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Virginia Hills, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Virginia Hills 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 Virginia Hills:
    • 37.147373, -77.460817
    • 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 Virginia Hills
  • 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 Dinwiddie County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dinwiddie County
    • Since Virginia Hills is near Petersburg City and also Prince George County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Petersburg City
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Prince George 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 Virginia Hills

Communities Also Named Virginia Hills ...

We found four communities that are also named Virginia Hills.

There are four communities within Virginia that are also named Virginia Hills.

Beyond Virginia.

  • Communities Located In Virginia ...
    • Bristol City
      • This Virginia Hills is located in Bristol City and lies 260 miles [418.4 km]<1> to the west of the Virginia Hills that is located in Dinwiddie County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Bristol City community of Virginia Hills.
    • Danville City
      • This Virginia Hills is located in Danville City and lies 112 miles [180.2 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Virginia Hills that is located in Dinwiddie County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Danville City community of Virginia Hills.
    • Fairfax County
      • This Virginia Hills is located in Fairfax County and lies 114 miles [183.5 km]<1> to the north of the Virginia Hills that is located in Dinwiddie County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Fairfax County community of Virginia Hills.
    • Washington 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 Virginia community of Virginia Hills [Washington County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Virginia Hills ...

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.

  • Camelot
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Camelot is located in Petersburg City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Camelot
  • Chestnut Gardens
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Chestnut Gardens is located in Dinwiddie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chestnut Gardens
  • Derby ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Derby is located in Prince George County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Derby
  • Field Crossing
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Field Crossing is located in Petersburg City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Field Crossing
  • Grant Village
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Grant Village is located in Dinwiddie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grant Village
  • Heights
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Heights is located in Petersburg City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heights
  • Jack
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jack is located in Dinwiddie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jack
  • Kingwood
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Kingwood is located in Prince George County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingwood
  • Pine Gardens
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Pine Gardens is located in Petersburg City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Gardens
  • Rabbit Run
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Rabbit Run is located in Chesterfield County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rabbit Run
  • Ramblewood
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Ramblewood is located in Petersburg City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ramblewood
  • Reams
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Reams is located in Dinwiddie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reams
  • Continue List   (5 more) ...
    • River View Park
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
      • River View Park is located in Chesterfield County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for River View Park
    • Robertson Place
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
      • Robertson Place is located in Chesterfield County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Robertson Place
    • Sandy Ridge
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Sandy Ridge is located in Chesterfield County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandy Ridge
    • Trojan Woods
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
      • Trojan Woods is located in Chesterfield County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trojan Woods
    • Walnut Hill
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • Walnut Hill is located in Petersburg City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walnut Hill

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

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

  • Dinwiddie, which is the Seat of Dinwiddie County, lies just to the Southwest.
  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 27 miles [43.5 km]<1> to the north (N). If you could walk a straight line from Virginia Hills to Richmond, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just about two full days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 123 miles [197.9 km] to the north (N). 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<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,990 miles [9,640 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,688 miles [10,763.3 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,568 miles [7,351.5 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- Virginia Hills) 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 Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's 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 Virginia Hills 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 Virginia Hills 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 Virginia Hills. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.1474, Longitude: -77.4608       In this case, the coordinates for Virginia Hills have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.231 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.56 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.54 degrees.