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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in McKibben, we use the following websites to find information relevant to McKibben 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 McKibben:
    • 33.599549, -85.868299
    • 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 McKibben
  • 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 Calhoun County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Calhoun County
    • Since McKibben is near Talladega County and also Tallapoosa County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Talladega County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Tallapoosa 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 McKibben

Communities Also Named McKibben ...

We found two communities that are also named McKibben.

Within Alabama, the name McKibben is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Georgia
      • Butts 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 Georgia community of McKibben [Butts County].
    • Texas
      • Hansford County
      • This McKibben is located in Hansford County and lies 892 miles [1,435.5 km]<2> to the west northwest of the McKibben that is located in Calhoun County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hansford County community of McKibben.

Curious and Interesting Names Near McKibben ...

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.

  • Blue Pond
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Blue Pond is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blue Pond
  • Boiling Spring
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Boiling Spring is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boiling Spring
  • Coldwater
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Coldwater is located in Talladega County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coldwater
  • Friendship
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Friendship is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Friendship
  • House ‑ Historic
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • House is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for House
  • Jo Dell
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Jo Dell is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jo Dell
  • Lakeview
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Lakeview is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview
  • Meadowbrook
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Meadowbrook is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadowbrook
  • Mechanicsville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Mechanicsville is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mechanicsville
  • Silver Run
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Silver Run is located in Talladega County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Run
  • Sweet Home
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Sweet Home is located in Talladega County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sweet Home
  • Trinity
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Trinity is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trinity
  • Wayside
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Wayside is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wayside
  • Woodland Park
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Woodland Park is located in Calhoun County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodland Park

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

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

  • Anniston, which is the Seat of Calhoun County, lies just to the North Northeast.
  • Montgomery, which is the State Capital of Alabama, lies 88 miles [141.6 km]<2> to the south southwest (SSW). If you could drive a straight line from McKibben 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 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 612 miles [984.9 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 24 days and walking would take 35 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,508 miles [10,473.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,215 miles [11,611.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,092 miles [8,194.8 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 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 McKibben 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 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- McKibben) 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 McKibben 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 McKibben. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 33.5995, Longitude: -85.8683       In this case, the coordinates for McKibben have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 313.122 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.658 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.906 degrees.