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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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The Commemorative
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The Commemorative Quarter for West Virginia







Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Mentor, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Mentor 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 Mentor:
    • 38.862861, -81.692629
    • 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.
    • The Heavens-Above Website, centered on Mentor
  • 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:
    • Waymark.com

Communities Also Named Mentor ...

We found ten communities that share the name Mentor.

Within West Virginia, the name Mentor is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Indiana
      • Dubois County
      • This Mentor is located in Dubois County and lies 273 miles [439.4 km]<1> to the west of the Mentor that is located in Jackson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Dubois County community of Mentor.
    • Iowa
      • Bremer 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 Iowa community of Mentor [Bremer County].
    • Kansas
      • Saline County
      • This Mentor is located in Saline County and lies 855 miles [1,376 km]<1> to the west of the Mentor that is located in Jackson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Saline County community of Mentor.
    • Kentucky
      • Campbell County
      • This Mentor is located in Campbell County and lies 137 miles [220.5 km]<1> to the west of the Mentor that is located in Jackson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Campbell County community of Mentor.
    • Minnesota
      • Polk County
      • This Mentor is located in Polk County and lies 945 miles [1,520.8 km]<1> to the northwest of the Mentor that is located in Jackson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Polk County community of Mentor.
    • Missouri
      • Greene County
      • This Mentor is located in Greene County and lies 637 miles [1,025.2 km]<1> to the west of the Mentor that is located in Jackson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Greene County community of Mentor.
      • Saint Louis 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 Missouri community of Mentor [Saint Louis County].
    • Ohio
      • Lake County
      • This Mentor is located in Lake County and lies 196 miles [315.4 km]<1> to the north of the Mentor that is located in Jackson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lake County community of Mentor.
    • Tennessee
      • Blount County
      • This Mentor is located in Blount County and lies 245 miles [394.3 km]<1> to the south southwest of the Mentor that is located in Jackson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Blount County community of Mentor.
    • Washington
      • Garfield County
      • This Mentor is located in Garfield County and lies 1,873 miles [3,014.3 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Mentor that is located in Jackson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Garfield County community of Mentor.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Mentor ...

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.

  • Evans
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Evans have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evans
    • Evans is located in Jackson County
  • Flatwoods
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flatwoods
    • Flatwoods is located in Jackson County
  • Hemlock
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hemlock have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hemlock
    • Hemlock is located in Jackson County
  • Independence
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Independence have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Independence
    • Independence is located in Jackson County
  • Jones Crossing
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Jones Crossing have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jones Crossing
    • Jones Crossing is located in Jackson County
  • Meadowdale
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Meadowdale have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadowdale
    • Meadowdale is located in Jackson County
  • Murray
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Murray have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Murray
    • Murray is located in Jackson County
  • New Era
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for New Era have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Era
    • New Era is located in Jackson County
  • Pleasant Hill
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pleasant Hill have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Hill
    • Pleasant Hill is located in Jackson County
  • Salt Hill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Salt Hill have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Salt Hill
    • Salt Hill is located in Jackson County
  • Sandyville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)

How Far From Mentor 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 Mentor 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<5> community of Mentor once stood, the straight-line distance beginning in Mentor and extending to:

  • Ripley, which is the Seat of Jackson County, lies just to the South Southwest.
  • Charleston, which is the State Capital of West Virginia, lies 35 miles [56.3 km]<1> to the south (S). If you could walk a straight line from Mentor to Charleston, with an average speed<6> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of two days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just about two full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 250 miles [402.3 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 15 days.
  • The shortest distance<7> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,093 miles [9,805.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,809 miles [10,958 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,684 miles [7,538.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<10>

The official website for State of West Virginia: https://www.wv.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Mentor) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Mentor. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.8629, Longitude: -81.6926       In this case, the coordinates for Mentor have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 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 Mentor 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>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>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 Mentor, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>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.
<7>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 Mentor to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.687 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.618 degrees.
<10>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.723 degrees.









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024