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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Meeksville, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Meeksville 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 Meeksville:
    • 31.918420, -86.005200
    • 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 Meeksville
  • 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 Pike County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Pike County
    • Since Meeksville is near Montgomery County and also Bullock County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Montgomery County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Bullock 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 Meeksville

Communities Also Named Meeksville ...

We found one communities that are also named Meeksville.

Within Alabama, the name Meeksville is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • North Carolina
      • Wilson 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 North Carolina community of Meeksville [Wilson County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Meeksville ...

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.

  • Center Point
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • College Park
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • College Park is located in Pike County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for College Park
  • Curry
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Curry is located in Pike County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Curry
  • Forest Circle
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Forest Circle is located in Pike County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest Circle
  • Friendship
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Friendship is located in Pike County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Friendship
  • Good Hope
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Good Hope is located in Pike County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Good Hope
  • Green Oaks
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Green Oaks is located in Pike County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Oaks
  • Heritage Ridge
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Heritage Ridge is located in Pike County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heritage Ridge
  • Jonesville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Jonesville is located in Pike County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jonesville
  • Lees Park
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Lees Park is located in Pike County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lees Park
  • Lewis
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Lewis is located in Pike County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lewis
  • Mountainbrook
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Mountainbrook is located in Pike County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountainbrook
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...

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

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

  • Troy, which is the Seat of Pike County, lies just to the South Southeast.
  • Montgomery, which is the State Capital of Alabama, lies 36 miles [57.9 km]<2> to the north northwest (NNW). If you could walk a straight line from Meeksville to Montgomery, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take over two days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just about two full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 697 miles [1,121.7 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 28 days and walking would take 40 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,594 miles [10,612 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,293 miles [11,736.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,173 miles [8,325.1 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 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 Meeksville 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- Meeksville) 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 Meeksville 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 Meeksville. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.9184, Longitude: -86.0052    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 313.098 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.398 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.32 degrees.