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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Rollins, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Rollins 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 Rollins:
    • 32.657075, -86.454976
    • 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 Rollins
  • 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 Autauga County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Autauga County
    • Since Rollins is near Chilton County and also Elmore County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Chilton County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Elmore 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 Rollins

Communities Also Named Rollins ...

We found fourteen communities that are also named Rollins.

There are two communities within Alabama that are also named Rollins.

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

  • Communities Located In Alabama ...
    • Chambers County
      • This Rollins is located in Chambers County and lies 63 miles [101.4 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Rollins that is located in Autauga County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Chambers County community of Rollins.
    • Etowah County
      • This community is historic<2> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Alabama community of Rollins [Etowah County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Colorado
      • Gilpin County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Colorado community of Rollins [Gilpin County].
    • Georgia
      • Paulding County
      • This Rollins is located in Paulding County and lies 122 miles [196.3 km]<1> to the northeast of the Rollins that is located in Autauga County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Paulding County community of Rollins.
    • Illinois
      • Lake County
      • This Rollins is located in Lake County and lies 677 miles [1,089.5 km]<1> to the north of the Rollins that is located in Autauga County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lake County community of Rollins.
    • Indiana
      • Martin County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Indiana community of Rollins [Martin County].
    • Minnesota
      • Saint Louis County
      • This Rollins is located in Saint Louis County and lies 1,047 miles [1,685 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Rollins that is located in Autauga County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Saint Louis County community of Rollins.
    • Montana
      • Lake County
      • This Rollins is located in Lake County and lies 1,785 miles [2,872.7 km]<1> to the northwest of the Rollins that is located in Autauga County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lake County community of Rollins.
    • North Carolina
      • Burke County
      • This community is historic<2> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the North Carolina community of Rollins [Burke County].
      • Madison County
      • This Rollins is located in Madison County and lies 305 miles [490.8 km]<1> to the northeast of the Rollins that is located in Autauga County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Madison County community of Rollins.
    • South Carolina
      • Williamsburg County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the South Carolina community of Rollins [Williamsburg County].
    • Tennessee
      • Madison County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Tennessee community of Rollins [Madison County].
    • Washington
      • Spokane County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Washington community of Rollins [Spokane County].
    • West Virginia
      • Mason County
      • This Rollins is located in Mason County and lies 493 miles [793.4 km]<1> to the north northeast of the Rollins that is located in Autauga County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Mason County community of Rollins.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Rollins ...

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.

  • Cold Springs
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Cold Springs is located in Elmore County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cold Springs
  • Cooper
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Cooper is located in Chilton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cooper
  • Knights Ferry
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Knights Ferry is located in Chilton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knights Ferry
  • Lightwood
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Lightwood is located in Elmore County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lightwood
  • Mountain Creek
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Mountain Creek is located in Chilton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain Creek
  • Nobles Ferry
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Nobles Ferry is located in Elmore County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nobles Ferry
  • Oak Grove
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Oak Grove is located in Autauga County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
  • Pine Level
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Pine Level is located in Autauga County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Level
  • Poseys Crossroads
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Poseys Crossroads is located in Autauga County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poseys Crossroads
  • Stoney Point
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Stoney Point is located in Autauga County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stoney Point

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

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

  • Prattville, which is the Seat of Autauga County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<1> to the south. If you could walk a straight line from Rollins to Prattville, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Montgomery, which is the State Capital of Alabama, lies 21 miles [33.8 km] to the south southeast (SSE). The buggy would take most of a day and walking would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 680 miles [1,094.4 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 27 days and walking would take 39 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,578 miles [10,586.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,282 miles [11,719.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,160 miles [8,304.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Rollins) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Rollins, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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 Rollins 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.
<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 Rollins 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 Rollins. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.6571, Longitude: -86.4550       In this case, the coordinates for Rollins have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 313.413 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.865 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.34 degrees.