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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Wainwright, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Wainwright 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 Wainwright:
    • 31.649046, -87.486936
    • 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 Wainwright
  • 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 Monroe County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Monroe County
    • Since Wainwright is near Clarke County and also Wilcox County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Clarke County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wilcox 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 Wainwright

Communities Also Named Wainwright ...

We found seven communities that are also named Wainwright.

Within Alabama, the name Wainwright is unique.

Beyond Alabama, we know of seven communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these seven communities, six are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alaska
      • This Wainwright lies 3,768 miles [6,064 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Wainwright that is located in Monroe County.
    • Alberta
      • This Wainwright lies 1,871 miles [3,011.1 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Wainwright that is located in Monroe County.
    • Missouri
      • Callaway County
      • This Wainwright is located in Callaway County and lies 544 miles [875.5 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Wainwright that is located in Monroe County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Callaway County community of Wainwright.
    • Ohio
      • Jackson County
      • This Wainwright is located in Jackson County and lies 587 miles [944.7 km]<1> to the north northeast of the Wainwright that is located in Monroe County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jackson County community of Wainwright.
      • Tuscarawas County
      • This Wainwright is located in Tuscarawas County and lies 693 miles [1,115.3 km] to the north northeast of the Wainwright that is located in Monroe County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Tuscarawas County community of Wainwright.
    • Oklahoma
      • Muskogee County
      • This Wainwright is located in Muskogee County and lies 538 miles [865.8 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Wainwright that is located in Monroe County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Muskogee County community of Wainwright.
    • Texas
      • Bexar County
      • 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 Texas community of Wainwright [Bexar County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Wainwright ...

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.

  • Axle
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Axle is located in Monroe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Axle
  • Chance
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Chance is located in Clarke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chance
  • Finchburg ‑ Historic
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Finchburg is located in Monroe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Finchburg
  • Fountain
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Fountain is located in Monroe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fountain
  • Franklin
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Franklin is located in Monroe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Franklin
  • Keith
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Keith is located in Monroe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keith
  • Marshall Upper Landing
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Packards Bend
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Packards Bend is located in Monroe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Packards Bend
  • Scratch Ankle
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Scratch Ankle is located in Monroe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scratch Ankle

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

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

  • Monroeville, which is the Seat of Monroe County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<1> to the southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Wainwright to Monroeville, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
  • Montgomery, which is the State Capital of Alabama, lies 85 miles [136.8 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take most of three days and walking would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 772 miles [1,242.4 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 31 days and walking would take 44 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,669 miles [10,732.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,373 miles [11,865.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,251 miles [8,450.7 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Wainwright) 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 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 Wainwright 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 Wainwright 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 Wainwright. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.6490, Longitude: -87.4869       In this case, the coordinates for Wainwright have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 313.95 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 309.347 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.941 degrees.