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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in East Salem, we use the following websites to find information relevant to East Salem 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 East Salem:
    • 39.288977, -80.536207
    • 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 East Salem
  • 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 Harrison County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Harrison County
    • Since East Salem is near Doddridge County and also Wetzel County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Doddridge County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wetzel 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 East Salem

Communities Also Named East Salem ...

We found two communities that are also named East Salem.

Within West Virginia, the name East Salem is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • New York
      • Washington 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 New York community of East Salem [Washington County].
    • Pennsylvania
      • Juniata County
      • This East Salem is located in Juniata County and lies 196 miles [315.4 km]<2> to the east northeast of the East Salem that is located in Harrison County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Juniata County community of East Salem.

Curious and Interesting Names Near East Salem ...

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.

  • Big Battle ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Big Battle is located in Doddridge County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Battle
  • Brown
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Brown is located in Harrison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brown
  • Flint
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Flint is located in Doddridge County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flint
  • Industrial
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Industrial is located in Doddridge County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Industrial
  • Katy Lick
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Katy Lick is located in Harrison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Katy Lick
  • Lake Floyd
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Lake Floyd is located in Harrison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Floyd
  • Long Run
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Long Run is located in Doddridge County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Run
  • Marshville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Marshville is located in Harrison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marshville
  • Olive
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Olive is located in Harrison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olive
  • Sun Valley
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Sun Valley is located in Harrison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sun Valley
  • Wolf Summit
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Wolf Summit is located in Harrison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wolf Summit

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

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

  • Clarksburg, which is the Seat of Harrison County, lies 10 miles [16.1 km]<2> to the east. If you could walk a straight line from East Salem to Clarksburg, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
  • Charleston, which is the State Capital of West Virginia, lies 87 miles [140 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take most of three days and walking would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 189 miles [304.2 km] to the east (E). Driving would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 8 days and walking would take 11 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,026 miles [9,697.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,741 miles [10,848.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,617 miles [7,430.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 East Salem 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 from Point A (ie- East Salem) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 East Salem 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 East Salem. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.2890, Longitude: -80.5362       In this case, the coordinates for East Salem have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 309.968 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.863 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.074 degrees.