RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Alabama >> Cleburne County >> Cleburne >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Cleburne, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Cleburne 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 Cleburne:
    • 33.648161, -85.629682
    • 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 Cleburne
  • 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 Cleburne County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cleburne County
    • Since Cleburne is near Calhoun County and also Talladega County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Calhoun County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Talladega 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 Cleburne

Communities Also Named Cleburne ...

We found four communities that are also named Cleburne.

Within Alabama, the name Cleburne is unique.

Beyond Alabama, we know of four communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Illinois
      • Franklin County
      • This Cleburne is located in Franklin County and lies 352 miles [566.5 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Cleburne that is located in Cleburne County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Franklin County community of Cleburne.
    • Kansas
      • Riley 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 Kansas community of Cleburne [Riley County].
    • Tennessee
      • Maury 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 Tennessee community of Cleburne [Maury County].
    • Texas
      • Johnson County
      • This Cleburne is located in Johnson County and lies 687 miles [1,105.6 km]<1> to the west of the Cleburne that is located in Cleburne County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Johnson County community of Cleburne.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Cleburne ...

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.

  • Belltown
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Belltown is located in Cleburne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belltown
  • Choccolocco
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Choccolocco is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Choccolocco
  • Edwardsville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Edwardsville is located in Cleburne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edwardsville
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 201 people
  • Five Points
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Five Points is located in Cleburne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Points
  • Gold Hill
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Gold Hill is located in Cleburne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gold Hill
  • Golden Springs
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Golden Springs is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Golden Springs
  • Harmony
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Harmony is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harmony
  • Holly Springs
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Holly Springs is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holly Springs
  • Iron City
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Iron City is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iron City
  • Pleasant Ridge
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Pleasant Ridge is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Ridge
  • Spring Valley
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Spring Valley is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Valley

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

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

  • Heflin, which is the Seat of Cleburne County, lies just to the East.
  • Montgomery, which is the State Capital of Alabama, lies 95 miles [152.9 km]<1> to the south southwest (SSW). If you could drive a straight line from Cleburne to Montgomery, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 6 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take three full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 599 miles [964 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 24 days and walking would take 34 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,496 miles [10,454.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,202 miles [11,590.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,079 miles [8,173.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Cleburne) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Cleburne 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>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 Cleburne 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 Cleburne. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 33.6482, Longitude: -85.6297       In this case, the coordinates for Cleburne have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.983 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.504 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.80 degrees.