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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Hepsidam, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Hepsidam 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 Hepsidam:
    • 34.361487, -87.333075
    • 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 Hepsidam
  • 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 Lawrence County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lawrence County
    • Since Hepsidam is near Winston County and also Franklin County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Winston County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Franklin 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 Hepsidam

Communities Also Named Hepsidam ...

We found one communities that are also named Hepsidam.

Within Alabama, the name Hepsidam is unique.

Beyond Alabama, there is another community also named Hepsidam in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Kansas
      • Butler 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 Kansas community of Hepsidam [Butler County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Hepsidam ...

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.

  • Five Points
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Five Points is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Points
  • Harmony
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Harmony is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harmony
  • Hickory Grove
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Hickory Grove is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Grove
  • Mount Hope
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Mount Hope is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Hope
  • Muck City
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Muck City is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Muck City
  • Needmore
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Needmore is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Needmore
  • Orange
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Orange is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orange
  • Piney Grove
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Piney Grove is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Piney Grove
  • Pinhook
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Pinhook is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinhook
  • Pleasant Hill
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Pleasant Hill is located in Winston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Hill
  • Rabbittown
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Rabbittown is located in Winston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rabbittown
  • Rock Creek
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Rock Creek is located in Winston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Creek
  • Trace Ford
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Trace Ford is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trace Ford

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

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

  • Moulton, which is the Seat of Lawrence County, lies just to the North Northeast.
  • Montgomery, which is the State Capital of Alabama, lies 149 miles [239.8 km]<2> to the south southeast (SSE). If you could drive a straight line from Hepsidam to Montgomery, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 9 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 650 miles [1,046.1 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 26 days and walking would take 37 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,533 miles [10,513.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,247 miles [11,662.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,122 miles [8,243.1 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 Hepsidam 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Hepsidam) 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 Hepsidam 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 Hepsidam. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.3615, Longitude: -87.3331       In this case, the coordinates for Hepsidam have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.049 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 309.834 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.332 degrees.