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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Coalridge, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Coalridge 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 Coalridge:
    • 38.372600, -81.393173
    • 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 Coalridge
  • 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 Kanawha County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Kanawha County
    • Since Coalridge is near Clay County and also Nicholas County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Clay County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Nicholas 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 Coalridge

Communities Also Named Coalridge ...

We found two communities that are also named Coalridge.

Within West Virginia, the name Coalridge is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Montana
      • Sheridan County
      • This Coalridge is located in Sheridan County and lies 1,337 miles [2,151.7 km]<1> to the northwest of the Coalridge that is located in Kanawha County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sheridan County community of Coalridge.
    • Ohio
      • Noble 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 Ohio community of Coalridge [Noble County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Coalridge ...

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.

  • Acup
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Acup is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Acup
  • Coal Fork
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Coal Fork is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coal Fork
  • Elkview
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Falling Rock
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Falling Rock is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Falling Rock
  • Fivemile
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Fivemile is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fivemile
  • Kelly Hill
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Kelly Hill is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kelly Hill
  • Mammoth
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Mammoth is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mammoth
  • Pinch
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Pinch is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinch
  • Pond Fork
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Pond Fork is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pond Fork
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Quick
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Quick is located in Kanawha County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quick
    • Reamer
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Reamer is located in Kanawha County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reamer
    • Sandy
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Sandy is located in Kanawha County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandy
    • Spangler
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Spangler is located in Kanawha County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spangler
    • Three Mile
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Three Mile is located in Kanawha County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Three Mile
    • Youngs Bottom
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Youngs Bottom is located in Kanawha County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Youngs Bottom

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

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

  • Charleston, which is the Seat of Kanawha County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<1> to the west. If you could walk a straight line from Coalridge to Charleston, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
  • Charleston, which is the State Capital of West Virginia, lies 12 miles [19.3 km] to the west (W). The buggy would take nearly four hours and walking would take five to six hours.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 237 miles [381.4 km] to the east (E). 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 6,102 miles [9,820.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,816 miles [10,969.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,691 miles [7,549.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Coalridge) 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 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 Coalridge 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'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 Coalridge 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 Coalridge. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.3726, Longitude: -81.3932       In this case, the coordinates for Coalridge have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.516 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.35 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.753 degrees.