RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Arkansas >> Mississippi County >> Athelstan >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Athelstan, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Athelstan 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 Athelstan:
    • 35.698725, -90.177656
    • 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 Athelstan
  • 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 Mississippi County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Mississippi County
    • Since Athelstan is near Craighead County and also Poinsett County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Craighead County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Poinsett 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 Athelstan

Communities Also Named Athelstan ...

We found three communities that are also named Athelstan.

Within Arkansas, the name Athelstan is unique.

Beyond Arkansas, we know of three communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these three communities, .

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Iowa
      • Taylor County
      • This Athelstan is located in Taylor County and lies 411 miles [661.4 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Athelstan that is located in Mississippi County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Taylor County community of Athelstan.
    • Missouri
      • Worth 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 Missouri community of Athelstan [Worth County].
    • Quebec
      • This Athelstan lies 1,059 miles [1,704.3 km]<1> to the northeast of the Athelstan that is located in Mississippi County.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Athelstan ...

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.

  • Cottonwood Corner
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Cottonwood Corner is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cottonwood Corner
  • Floodway
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Floodway is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Floodway
  • Little River
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Little River is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little River
  • Lost Cane
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Lost Cane is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lost Cane
  • Marie
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Marie is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marie
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 70 people
  • Red Line
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Red Line is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Line
  • Rivervale
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Rivervale is located in Poinsett County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rivervale
  • Shady Grove
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Shady Grove is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shady Grove
  • Three Way
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Three Way is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Three Way
  • Waco ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Waco is located in Craighead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waco
  • Whistleville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Whistleville is located in Mississippi County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whistleville

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

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

  • Little Rock, which is the State Capital of Arkansas, lies 134 miles [215.7 km]<1> to the west southwest (WSW). If you could drive a straight line from Athelstan to Little Rock, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 8 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 754 miles [1,213.4 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 30 days and walking would take 43 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,581 miles [10,591.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,307 miles [11,759.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,183 miles [8,341.2 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 from Point A (ie- Athelstan) 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 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 Athelstan 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 Athelstan 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 Athelstan. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.6987, Longitude: -90.1777       In this case, the coordinates for Athelstan have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.907 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 312.166 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 311.269 degrees.