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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Yancy, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Yancy 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 Yancy:
    • 34.170583, -85.979672
    • 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 Yancy
  • 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 Etowah County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Etowah County
    • Since Yancy is near DeKalb County and also Cherokee County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for DeKalb County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cherokee 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 Yancy

Communities Also Named Yancy ...

We found two communities that are also named Yancy.

Within Alabama, the name Yancy is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arkansas
      • Hempstead County
      • This Yancy is located in Hempstead County and lies 448 miles [721 km]<1> to the west of the Yancy that is located in Etowah County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hempstead County community of Yancy.
    • Kentucky
      • Washington 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 Kentucky community of Yancy [Washington County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Yancy ...

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.

  • Bath Springs
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Bath Springs is located in Etowah County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bath Springs
  • Crudup
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Duck Springs
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Flanders
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Flanders is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flanders
  • Greenwood
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Greenwood is located in Etowah County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenwood
  • Happy Hill
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Happy Hill is located in Etowah County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Happy Hill
  • Liberty
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Liberty is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Liberty
  • Liberty Hill
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Liberty Hill is located in Etowah County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Liberty Hill
  • Marcus ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Marcus is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marcus
  • Pleasant Hill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Pleasant Hill is located in Etowah County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Hill
  • Pulltight
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Pulltight is located in Etowah County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pulltight
  • Scrougeout ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Scrougeout is located in Etowah County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scrougeout

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

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

  • Gadsden, which is the Seat of Etowah County, lies 10 miles [16.1 km]<1> to the south. If you could walk a straight line from Yancy to Gadsden, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
  • Montgomery, which is the State Capital of Alabama, lies 125 miles [201.2 km] to the south (S). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 8 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 593 miles [954.3 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 24 days and walking would take 34 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,486 miles [10,438.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,195 miles [11,579.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,071 miles [8,161 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 from Point A (ie- Yancy) 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 Yancy 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 Yancy 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 Yancy. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.1706, Longitude: -85.9797       In this case, the coordinates for Yancy have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 313.218 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.849 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.821 degrees.