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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Heatherman, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Heatherman 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 Heatherman:
    • 38.476765, -81.311507
    • 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 Heatherman
  • 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 Heatherman is near Clay County and also Roane 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 Roane 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 Heatherman

Curious and Interesting Names Near Heatherman ...

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.

  • Cotton
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Cotton is located in Roane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cotton
  • Falling Rock
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Falling Rock is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Falling Rock
  • Glen
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Glen is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glen
  • Kelly Hill
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Kelly Hill is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kelly Hill
  • King
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • King is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for King
  • Pigeon
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Pigeon is located in Roane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pigeon
  • Queen Shoals
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Queen Shoals is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Queen Shoals
  • Reamer
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Reamer is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reamer
  • Three Mile
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Three Mile is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Three Mile
  • Youngs Bottom
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Youngs Bottom is located in Kanawha County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Youngs Bottom

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers and using the location of where the historic<1> community of Heatherman once stood, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Heatherman and extending to:

  • Charleston, which is the Seat of Kanawha County, lies 19 miles [30.6 km]<2> to the west southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Heatherman to Charleston, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just over a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 hours.
  • Charleston, which is the State Capital of West Virginia, lies 19 miles [30.6 km] to the west southwest (WSW). The buggy would take 6 hours and walking would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 232 miles [373.4 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 9 days and walking would take 14 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,094 miles [9,807.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,808 miles [10,956.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,683 miles [7,536.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Heatherman, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Heatherman) 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 Heatherman 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 Heatherman. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.4768, Longitude: -81.3115       In this case, the coordinates for Heatherman have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.464 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.307 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.684 degrees.