RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Virginia >> Roanoke County >> Willow Green >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Willow Green, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Willow Green 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 Willow Green:
    • 37.332912, -80.013096
    • 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 Willow Green
  • 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 Roanoke County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Roanoke County
    • Since Willow Green is near Roanoke City and also Salem City, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Roanoke City
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Salem City
  • 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 Willow Green

Communities Also Named Willow Green ...

We found three communities that are also named Willow Green.

There is one other community in Virginia that is also named Willow Green.

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

  • Communities Located In Virginia ...
    • Newport News City
      • This Willow Green is located in Newport News City and lies 195 miles [313.8 km]<1> to the east of the Willow Green that is located in Roanoke County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Newport News City community of Willow Green.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • North Carolina
      • Greene 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 North Carolina community of Willow Green [Greene County].
    • Utah
      • Salt Lake County
      • This Willow Green is located in Salt Lake County and lies 1,720 miles [2,768.1 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Willow Green that is located in Roanoke County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Salt Lake County community of Willow Green.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Willow Green ...

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.

  • Covehaven Court
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Covehaven Court is located in Roanoke City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Covehaven Court
  • Dale Court
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Dale Court is located in Salem City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dale Court
  • Dawnwood Forest
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Dawnwood Forest is located in Roanoke City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dawnwood Forest
  • Edgelawn
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Edgelawn is located in Roanoke City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgelawn
  • Forest Lawn
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Forest Lawn is located in Salem City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest Lawn
  • Glen Cove
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Glen Cove is located in Roanoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glen Cove
  • Hanging Rock
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Hanging Rock is located in Roanoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hanging Rock
  • Hemlock Hills
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Hemlock Hills is located in Roanoke City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hemlock Hills
  • Lone Oak
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Lone Oak is located in Roanoke City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lone Oak
  • Meadowview
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Meadowview is located in Salem City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadowview
  • Medley
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Medley is located in Roanoke City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Medley
  • Plainview
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Plainview is located in Roanoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plainview
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Rolling Woods
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
      • Rolling Woods is located in Roanoke City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rolling Woods
    • Sherry Court
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Sherry Court is located in Roanoke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sherry Court
    • Spring Garden
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • Spring Garden is located in Salem City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Garden
    • Spruce Hill
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Spruce Hill is located in Roanoke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spruce Hill
    • Summit Hills
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
      • Summit Hills is located in Roanoke City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit Hills
    • Woodside Park
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Woodside Park is located in Salem City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodside Park

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

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

  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 142 miles [228.5 km]<1> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Willow Green to Richmond, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 8 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 194 miles [312.2 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 8 days and walking would take 11 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,091 miles [9,802.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,797 miles [10,938.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,674 miles [7,522.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Willow Green) 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 Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock 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 Willow Green 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 Willow Green 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 Willow Green. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.3329, Longitude: -80.0131       In this case, the coordinates for Willow Green have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 309.713 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.28 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.511 degrees.