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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Wyco, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Wyco 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 Wyco:
    • 37.599003, -81.342880
    • 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 Wyco
  • 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 Wyoming County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wyoming County
    • Since Wyco is near Raleigh County and also Mercer County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Raleigh County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Mercer 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 Wyco

Communities Also Named Wyco ...

We found one communities that are also named Wyco.

Within West Virginia, the name Wyco is unique.

Beyond West Virginia, there is another community also named Wyco in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Wyoming
      • Laramie 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 Wyoming community of Wyco [Laramie County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Wyco ...

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.

  • Amigo
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Amigo is located in Raleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amigo
  • Basin
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Basin is located in Wyoming County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Basin
  • Blackeagle
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Blackeagle is located in Wyoming County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blackeagle
  • Bud
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Bud is located in Wyoming County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bud
  • Helen
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Helen is located in Raleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Helen
  • Itmann
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Itmann is located in Wyoming County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Itmann
  • Joe Branch
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Joe Branch is located in Wyoming County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Joe Branch
  • Josephine
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Josephine is located in Raleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Josephine
  • Lego
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Lego is located in Raleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lego
  • Mead
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Mead is located in Raleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mead
  • Polk Gap
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Polk Gap is located in Wyoming County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Polk Gap
  • Slab Fork
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Slab Fork is located in Raleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Slab Fork
  • Stonecoal Junction
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Stonecoal Junction is located in Raleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stonecoal Junction

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Wyco and extending to:

  • Pineville, which is the Seat of Wyoming County, lies 10 miles [16.1 km]<2> to the west. If you could walk a straight line from Wyco to Pineville, 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 53 miles [85.3 km] to the north northwest (NNW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take over two days and walking would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 250 miles [402.3 km] to the east northeast (ENE). 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 6,135 miles [9,873.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,845 miles [11,016 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,721 miles [7,597.7 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 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 Wyco 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Wyco) 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 Wyco 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 Wyco. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.5990, Longitude: -81.3429       In this case, the coordinates for Wyco have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.50 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.218 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.98 degrees.