RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of West Virginia >> Wyoming County >> Basin >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Basin, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Basin and the surrounding area.

  • 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 Basin:
    • 37.536782, -81.289545
    • 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 Basin
  • 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 Wyoming County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wyoming County
    • Since Basin is near Raleigh County and also Mercer County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Raleigh County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Mercer 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 Basin

Communities Also Named Basin ...

We found twelve communities that are also named Basin.

Within West Virginia, the name Basin is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alabama
      • Coffee County
      • This Basin is located in Coffee County and lies 508 miles [817.5 km]<1> to the southwest of the Basin that is located in Wyoming County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Coffee County community of Basin.
    • Arkansas
      • Newton County
      • This Basin is located in Newton County and lies 663 miles [1,067 km]<1> to the west of the Basin that is located in Wyoming County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Newton County community of Basin.
    • California
      • San Bernardino County
      • This Basin is located in San Bernardino County and lies 1,944 miles [3,128.6 km]<1> to the west of the Basin that is located in Wyoming County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the San Bernardino County community of Basin.
    • Colorado
      • San Miguel County
      • This Basin is located in San Miguel County and lies 1,481 miles [2,383.4 km]<1> to the west of the Basin that is located in Wyoming County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the San Miguel County community of Basin.
    • Idaho
      • Cassia County
      • This Basin is located in Cassia County and lies 1,741 miles [2,801.9 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Basin that is located in Wyoming County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cassia County community of Basin.
    • Maine
      • 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 Maine community of Basin [Washington County].
    • Mississippi
      • George 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 Mississippi community of Basin [George County].
      • Jackson County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Mississippi community of Basin [Jackson County].
    • Montana
      • Jefferson County
      • This Basin is located in Jefferson County and lies 1,689 miles [2,718.2 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Basin that is located in Wyoming County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jefferson County community of Basin.
    • Texas
      • Brewster 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 Texas community of Basin [Brewster County].
    • Utah
      • Grand County
      • This community is historic<3> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Utah community of Basin [Grand County].
    • Wyoming
      • Big Horn County
      • This Basin is located in Big Horn County and lies 1,465 miles [2,357.7 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Basin that is located in Wyoming County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Big Horn County community of Basin.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Basin ...

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.

  • Amigo
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Amigo is located in Raleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amigo
  • Blackeagle
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Blackeagle is located in Wyoming County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blackeagle
  • Bud
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Bud is located in Wyoming County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bud
  • Helen
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Helen is located in Raleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Helen
  • Hiawatha
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Hiawatha is located in Mercer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hiawatha
  • Itmann
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Itmann is located in Wyoming County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Itmann
  • Josephine
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Josephine is located in Raleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Josephine
  • Lego
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Lego is located in Raleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lego
  • Mead
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Mead is located in Raleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mead
  • Odd
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Odd is located in Raleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Odd
  • Smokeless
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Smokeless is located in Mercer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smokeless
  • Stonecoal Junction
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Stonecoal Junction is located in Raleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stonecoal Junction
  • Widemouth ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Widemouth is located in Mercer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Widemouth

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

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

  • Pineville, which is the Seat of Wyoming County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<1> to the west northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Basin to Pineville, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Charleston, which is the State Capital of West Virginia, lies 58 miles [93.3 km] to the north northwest (NNW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take over two days and walking would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 249 miles [400.7 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take nearly four hours, a buggy would take 10 days and walking would take 15 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,136 miles [9,874.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,845 miles [11,016 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,721 miles [7,597.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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- Basin) 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 Basin 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>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Basin, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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.
<5>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 Basin 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 Basin. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.5368, Longitude: -81.2895       In this case, the coordinates for Basin have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.468 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.173 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.977 degrees.