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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Grasselli, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Grasselli 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 Grasselli:
    • 33.448719, -86.909436
    • 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 Grasselli
  • 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 Jefferson County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Jefferson County
    • Since Grasselli is near Shelby County and also Tuscaloosa County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Shelby County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Tuscaloosa 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 Grasselli

Communities Also Named Grasselli ...

We found two communities that are also named Grasselli.

Within Alabama, the name Grasselli is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Indiana
      • Lake 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 Indiana community of Grasselli [Lake County].
    • New Jersey
      • Union County
      • This Grasselli is located in Union County and lies 855 miles [1,376 km]<2> to the northeast of the Grasselli that is located in Jefferson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Union County community of Grasselli.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Grasselli ...

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.

  • Crescent Heights
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Crescent Heights is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crescent Heights
  • Dolomite
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Falls Junction
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Falls Junction is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Falls Junction
  • Garywood
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Garywood is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garywood
  • Glenview
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Glenview is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glenview
  • Gordon Heights
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Gordon Heights is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gordon Heights
  • Green Acres
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Green Acres is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Acres
  • Hillman
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Hillman is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillman
  • Hillman Gardens
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Hillman Gardens is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillman Gardens
  • Hillman Park
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Hillman Park is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillman Park
  • Ivanhoe
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Ivanhoe is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ivanhoe
  • Jones Valley
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jones Valley is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jones Valley
  • Continue List   (5 more) ...
    • Martins
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Martins is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Martins
    • Mason City
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • Mason City is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mason City
    • Park Courts
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Park Courts is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Park Courts
    • Pauls Hill
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Pauls Hill is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pauls Hill
    • Walnut Grove
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Walnut Grove is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walnut Grove

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

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

  • Birmingham, which is the Seat of Jefferson County, lies just to the Northeast.
  • Montgomery, which is the State Capital of Alabama, lies 81 miles [130.4 km]<2> to the south southeast (SSE). If you could drive a straight line from Grasselli to Montgomery, with an average speed<4>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 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 665 miles [1,070.2 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 26 days and walking would take 38 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,559 miles [10,555.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,268 miles [11,696.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,144 miles [8,278.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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 Grasselli 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' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Grasselli) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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.
<5>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 Grasselli 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 Grasselli. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 33.4487, Longitude: -86.9094       In this case, the coordinates for Grasselli have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 313.736 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 309.347 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.354 degrees.