RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Washington >> Benton County >> Kennewick >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Kennewick, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Kennewick 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 Kennewick:
    • 46.215284, -119.144830
    • 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 Kennewick
  • 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 Benton County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Benton County
    • Since Kennewick is near Franklin County and also Walla Walla County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Franklin County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Walla Walla 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 Kennewick

Communities Also Named Kennewick ...

We found one communities that are also named Kennewick.

There is one other community in Washington that is also named Kennewick.

Beyond Washington.

  • Communities Located In Washington ...
    • Yakima County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Washington community of Kennewick [Yakima County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Kennewick ...

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.

  • Badger
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Badger is located in Benton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Badger
  • Hedges
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Hedges is located in Benton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hedges
  • Highland
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Highland is located in Benton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highland
  • Humorist
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Humorist is located in Walla Walla County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Humorist
  • Island View
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Island View is located in Benton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Island View
  • Riverview
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Riverview is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverview
  • Two Rivers
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Two Rivers is located in Walla Walla County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Two Rivers
  • Vista
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Vista is located in Benton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vista

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Kennewick and extending to:

  • Prosser, which is the Seat of Benton County, lies 29 miles [46.7 km]<2> to the west. If you could walk a straight line from Kennewick to Prosser, 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.
  • Olympia, which is the State Capital of Washington, lies 186 miles [299.3 km] to the west northwest (WNW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 8 days and walking would take 11 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,173 miles [3,497.1 km] to the east (E). Driving would take 5 days, a buggy would take 85 days and walking would take 124 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,810 miles [10,959.6 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,576 miles [12,192.4 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,657 miles [9,104.1 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Kennewick 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.
<2>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Kennewick) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Kennewick 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 Kennewick. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 46.2153, Longitude: -119.1448    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 338.174 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 339.214 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 325.796 degrees.