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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Flinn, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Flinn 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 Flinn:
    • 39.075079, -81.690962
    • 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 Flinn
  • 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 Wood County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wood County
    • Since Flinn is near Jackson County and also Meigs County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Jackson County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Meigs 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 Flinn

Communities Also Named Flinn ...

We found three communities that are also named Flinn.

There is one other community in West Virginia that is also named Flinn.

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

  • Communities Located In West Virginia ...
    • Jackson 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 West Virginia community of Flinn [Jackson County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Mississippi
      • Monroe County
      • This Flinn is located in Monroe County and lies 509 miles [819.2 km]<2> to the southwest of the Flinn that is located in Wood County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Monroe County community of Flinn.
    • Missouri
      • Jackson County
      • This Flinn is located in Jackson County and lies 689 miles [1,108.8 km]<2> to the west of the Flinn that is located in Wood County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jackson County community of Flinn.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Flinn ...

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.

  • Cuba
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Cuba is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cuba
  • Jerrys Run
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Jerrys Run is located in Wood County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jerrys Run
  • Lee Creek
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Lee Creek is located in Wood County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lee Creek
  • Lone Cedar
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Lone Cedar is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lone Cedar
  • Manganese ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Manganese is located in Wood County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manganese
  • Neptune
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Neptune is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Neptune
  • Polk
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Polk is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Polk
  • Pond Creek
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Pond Creek is located in Wood County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pond Creek
  • Powers ‑ Historic
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Powers is located in Wood County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Powers
  • Randolph Landing
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Randolph Landing is located in Meigs County (OH)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Randolph Landing
  • Reedsville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Reedsville is located in Meigs County (OH)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reedsville
  • Rushville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Rushville is located in Meigs County (OH)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rushville
  • Skull Run
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Skull Run is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Skull Run

How Far From Flinn to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Flinn to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Parkersburg, which is the Seat of Wood County, lies 14 miles [22.5 km]<2> to the north northeast. If you could walk a straight line from Flinn to Parkersburg, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of a day 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 50 miles [80.5 km] to the south (S). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take most of two days and walking would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 250 miles [402.3 km] to the east (E). Driving would take nearly four hours, a buggy would take 10 days and walking would take 15 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,083 miles [9,789.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,800 miles [10,943.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,675 miles [7,523.7 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 Flinn 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 '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- Flinn) 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 Flinn 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 Flinn. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.0751, Longitude: -81.6910       In this case, the coordinates for Flinn have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.681 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.643 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.653 degrees.