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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Mary, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Mary 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 Mary:
    • 32.755685, -85.688567
    • 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 Mary
  • 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 Tallapoosa County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Tallapoosa County
    • Since Mary is near Lee County and also Chambers County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lee County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Chambers 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 Mary

Communities Also Named Mary ...

We found three communities that are also named Mary.

Within Alabama, the name Mary is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Kentucky
      • Wolfe County
      • This Mary is located in Wolfe County and lies 360 miles [579.4 km]<1> to the north northeast of the Mary that is located in Tallapoosa County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Wolfe County community of Mary.
    • Louisiana
      • Plaquemines Parish
      • 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 Louisiana community of Mary [Plaquemines Parish].
    • South Carolina
      • Horry County
      • This Mary is located in Horry County and lies 387 miles [622.8 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Mary that is located in Tallapoosa County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Horry County community of Mary.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Mary ...

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.

  • Erie ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Erie is located in Hale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Erie
  • Gold Hill
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Gold Hill is located in Lee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gold Hill
  • James
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • James is located in Lee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for James
  • Jamesville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jamesville is located in Lee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jamesville
  • Jones Mill
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Jones Mill is located in Chambers County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jones Mill
  • New Harmony
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • New Harmony is located in Chambers County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Harmony
  • Ponders
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Ponders is located in Tallapoosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ponders
  • Slaughters ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Slaughters is located in Tallapoosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Slaughters
  • Still Waters
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Still Waters is located in Tallapoosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Still Waters
  • Union
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Union is located in Tallapoosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Union
  • Walnut Hill
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Walnut Hill is located in Tallapoosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walnut Hill

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

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

  • Dadeville, which is the Seat of Tallapoosa County, lies just to the Northwest.
  • Montgomery, which is the State Capital of Alabama, lies 44 miles [70.8 km]<1> to the southwest (SW). If you could walk a straight line from Mary to Montgomery, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take about three full days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of two days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 643 miles [1,034.8 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, 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 6,541 miles [10,526.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,243 miles [11,656.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,121 miles [8,241.5 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Mary) 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 Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's 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 Mary 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 Mary 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 Mary. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.7557, Longitude: -85.6886       In this case, the coordinates for Mary have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.967 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.362 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.021 degrees.