RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Vermont >> Franklin County >> Samsonville >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Samsonville, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Samsonville 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 Samsonville:
    • 44.923658, -72.732634
    • 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 Samsonville
  • 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 Franklin County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Franklin County
    • Since Samsonville is near Orleans County and also Lamoille County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Orleans County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lamoille 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 Samsonville

Communities Also Named Samsonville ...

We found two communities that are also named Samsonville.

Within Vermont, the name Samsonville is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • New York
      • Ulster County
      • This Samsonville is located in Ulster County and lies 223 miles [358.9 km]<1> to the south southwest of the Samsonville that is located in Franklin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Ulster County community of Samsonville.
    • Ohio
      • Jackson 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 Ohio community of Samsonville [Jackson County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Samsonville ...

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.

  • Camp Grounds
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Camp Grounds is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Camp Grounds
  • Egypt ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Egypt is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Egypt
  • Franklin
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Franklin is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Franklin
  • Gilberts Tannery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Gilberts Tannery is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gilberts Tannery
  • Hectorville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Hectorville is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hectorville
  • Hillside
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillside
  • Hunter Mills
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Joy Hill
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Joy Hill
  • Stevens Mills
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Stevens Mills is located in Orleans County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stevens Mills

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

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

  • Saint Albans, which is the Seat of Franklin County, lies 18 miles [29 km]<1> to the west southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Samsonville to Saint Albans, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just over a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take five to six hours.
  • Montpelier, which is the State Capital of Vermont, lies 46 miles [74 km] to the south (S). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take most of two days and walking would take about three full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 471 miles [758 km] to the south southwest (SSW). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 19 days and walking would take 27 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,473 miles [8,807.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,194 miles [9,968.3 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,070 miles [6,550 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Samsonville) 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 Samsonville 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 Samsonville 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 Samsonville. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.9237, Longitude: -72.7326       In this case, the coordinates for Samsonville have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 304.611 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 300.718 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 300.033 degrees.