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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Coates, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Coates 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 Coates:
    • 31.726554, -85.149931
    • 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 Coates
  • 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 Henry County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Henry County
    • Since Coates is near Clay County and also Barbour 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 Barbour 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 Coates

Communities Also Named Coates ...

We found two communities that are also named Coates.

Within Alabama, the name Coates is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Minnesota
      • Dakota County
      • This Coates is located in Dakota County and lies 992 miles [1,596.5 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Coates that is located in Henry County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Dakota County community of Coates.
    • Virginia
      • Louisa 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 Virginia community of Coates [Louisa County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Coates ...

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 Hill
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Cotton Hill is located in Barbour County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cotton Hill
  • Crossroads
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Crossroads is located in Quitman County (GA)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crossroads
  • Days Crossroads
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Days Crossroads is located in Clay County (GA)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Days Crossroads
  • Georgetown
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Georgetown is located in Quitman County (GA)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Georgetown
  • Graball
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Graball is located in Henry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Graball
    • Former names for Graball:
    • Hart's Crossroads
    • Hudspeth's Crossroads
  • Hatcher
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Hatcher is located in Quitman County (GA)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hatcher
  • Jones Crossing
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Jones Crossing is located in Clay County (GA)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jones Crossing
  • Pecan
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Pecan is located in Clay County (GA)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pecan
  • Pleasant Hill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Pleasant Hill is located in Barbour County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Hill
  • Richards Crossroads
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Richards Crossroads is located in Barbour County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richards Crossroads
  • Sandy Point
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Sandy Point is located in Barbour County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandy Point
  • Screamer
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Screamer is located in Henry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Screamer
  • Shorterville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Shorterville is located in Henry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shorterville

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

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

  • Abbeville, which is the Seat of Henry County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<1> to the south southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Coates to Abbeville, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
  • Montgomery, which is the State Capital of Alabama, lies 80 miles [128.7 km] to the northwest (NW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take most of three days and walking would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 673 miles [1,083.1 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 27 days and walking would take 39 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,566 miles [10,567 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,262 miles [11,687.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,143 miles [8,276.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Coates) 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 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 Coates 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 Coates 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 Coates. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.7266, Longitude: -85.1499       In this case, the coordinates for Coates have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.588 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 307.782 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.037 degrees.