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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Century, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Century 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 Century:
    • 39.099818, -80.188695
    • 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 Century
  • 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 Barbour County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Barbour County
    • Since Century is near Upshur County and also Harrison County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Upshur County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Harrison 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 Century

Communities Also Named Century ...

We found five communities that are also named Century.

Within West Virginia, the name Century is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Florida
      • Escambia County
      • This Century is located in Escambia County and lies 688 miles [1,107.2 km]<1> to the southwest of the Century that is located in Barbour County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Escambia County community of Century.
    • Georgia
      • Lee County
      • This Century is located in Lee County and lies 559 miles [899.6 km]<1> to the south southwest of the Century that is located in Barbour County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lee County community of Century.
    • North Carolina
      • Wake 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 Century [Wake County].
    • Oklahoma
      • Ottawa 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 Oklahoma community of Century [Ottawa County].
    • Pennsylvania
      • Fayette County
      • This Century is located in Fayette County and lies 64 miles [103 km]<1> to the north northeast of the Century that is located in Barbour County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Fayette County community of Century.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Century ...

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.

  • Boulder
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Boulder is located in Barbour County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boulder
  • Century Junction
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Century Junction is located in Barbour County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Century Junction
  • Elk City
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Elk City is located in Barbour County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elk City
  • Johnstown
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Johnstown is located in Harrison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johnstown
  • Longview
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Longview is located in Barbour County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Longview
  • Murphy
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Murphy is located in Barbour County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Murphy
  • Pecks Run
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Pecks Run is located in Upshur County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pecks Run
  • Peeltree
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Peeltree is located in Barbour County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peeltree
  • Pepper
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Pepper is located in Barbour County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pepper
  • Romines Mills
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Romines Mills is located in Harrison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Romines Mills
  • Ruraldale
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Ruraldale is located in Upshur County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ruraldale

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

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

  • Philippi, which is the Seat of Barbour County, lies just to the East Northeast.
  • Charleston, which is the State Capital of West Virginia, lies 93 miles [149.7 km]<1> to the west southwest (WSW). If you could drive a straight line from Century to Charleston, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 6 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 169 miles [272 km] to the east (E). Driving would take about three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 10 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,020 miles [9,688.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,734 miles [10,837.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,609 miles [7,417.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Century) 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 Century 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 Century 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 Century. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.0998, Longitude: -80.1887       In this case, the coordinates for Century have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 309.764 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.602 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.987 degrees.