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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Carswell, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Carswell 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 Carswell:
    • 37.439558, -81.508716
    • 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 Carswell
  • 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 McDowell County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for McDowell County
    • Since Carswell is near Wyoming County and also Mercer County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wyoming 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 Carswell

Communities Also Named Carswell ...

We found one communities that are also named Carswell.

Within West Virginia, the name Carswell is unique.

Beyond West Virginia, there is another community also named Carswell in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Ontario
      • 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 Ontario community of Carswell.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Carswell ...

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.

  • Antler
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Antler is located in McDowell County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Antler
  • Big Four
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Big Four is located in McDowell County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Four
  • Black Wolf
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Black Wolf is located in McDowell County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Black Wolf
  • Bottom Creek
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Bottom Creek is located in McDowell County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bottom Creek
  • Clark ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Clark is located in McDowell County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clark
  • Elkhorn
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Elkhorn is located in McDowell County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elkhorn
  • Gary
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Gary is located in McDowell County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gary
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 759 people
  • Hemphill
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Hemphill is located in McDowell County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hemphill
  • Keystone
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Marine
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Marine is located in McDowell County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marine
  • Premier
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Premier is located in McDowell County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Premier
  • Superior
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Superior is located in McDowell County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Superior
  • Worth
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Worth is located in McDowell County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Worth

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Carswell and extending to:

  • Welch, which is the Seat of McDowell County, lies just to the West.
  • Charleston, which is the State Capital of West Virginia, lies 63 miles [101.4 km]<3> to the north (N). If you could walk a straight line from Carswell to Charleston, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of three days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take about three full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 262 miles [421.6 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take four to five hours, a buggy would take 11 days and walking would take 15 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,149 miles [9,895.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,859 miles [11,038.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,735 miles [7,620.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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 Carswell 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>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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 from Point A (ie- Carswell) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Carswell 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 Carswell. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.4396, Longitude: -81.5087       In this case, the coordinates for Carswell have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.601 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.31 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.10 degrees.