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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Coalfield, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Coalfield 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 Coalfield:
    • 38.004553, -81.350386
    • 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 Coalfield
  • 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 Fayette County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Fayette County
    • Since Coalfield is near Kanawha County and also Raleigh County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Kanawha County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Raleigh 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 Coalfield

Communities Also Named Coalfield ...

We found three communities that are also named Coalfield.

Within West Virginia, the name Coalfield is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Iowa
      • Monroe 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 Iowa community of Coalfield [Monroe County].
    • Tennessee
      • Morgan County
      • This Coalfield is located in Morgan County and lies 216 miles [347.6 km]<2> to the southwest of the Coalfield that is located in Fayette County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Morgan County community of Coalfield.
    • Washington
      • King County
      • This Coalfield is located in King County and lies 2,140 miles [3,444 km]<2> to the west northwest of the Coalfield that is located in Fayette County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the King County community of Coalfield.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Coalfield ...

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.

  • Acme
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Acme is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Acme
  • Carbon
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Carbon is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carbon
  • Clear Creek
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Clear Creek is located in Raleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clear Creek
  • Dorothy
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Dorothy is located in Raleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dorothy
  • Elkridge
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Elkridge is located in Fayette County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elkridge
  • Greencastle
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Greencastle is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greencastle
  • Holly
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Holly is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holly
  • Lively
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Lively is located in Fayette County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lively
  • Long Branch
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Long Branch is located in Fayette County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Branch
  • Page
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Red Warrior
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Red Warrior is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Warrior
  • Republic
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Republic is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Republic
  • Roseville ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Roseville is located in Fayette County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roseville
  • United
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • United is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for United

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

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

  • Fayetteville, which is the Seat of Fayette County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<2> to the east northeast. If you could walk a straight line from Coalfield to Fayetteville, 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 28 miles [45.1 km] to the north northwest (NNW). The buggy would take just over a day and walking would take just about two full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 241 miles [387.9 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take nearly four hours, a buggy would take 10 days and walking would take 14 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,117 miles [9,844.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,829 miles [10,990.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,705 miles [7,572 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 Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird 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 Coalfield 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Coalfield) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 Coalfield 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 Coalfield. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.0046, Longitude: -81.3504       In this case, the coordinates for Coalfield have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.497 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.275 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.853 degrees.