RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Arkansas >> Pulaski County >> Gravel Ridge >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Gravel Ridge, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Gravel Ridge 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 Gravel Ridge:
    • 34.868423, -92.190704
    • 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 Gravel Ridge
  • 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 Pulaski County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Pulaski County
    • Since Gravel Ridge is near Faulkner County and also Lonoke County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Faulkner County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lonoke 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 Gravel Ridge

Communities Also Named Gravel Ridge ...

We found one communities that are also named Gravel Ridge.

Within Arkansas, the name Gravel Ridge is unique.

Beyond Arkansas, there is another community also named Gravel Ridge in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Virginia
      • Campbell 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 Virginia community of Gravel Ridge [Campbell County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Gravel Ridge ...

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.

  • Booker
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Booker is located in Pulaski County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Booker
  • Eureka Garden
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Eureka Garden is located in Pulaski County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eureka Garden
  • Fairman
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Fairman is located in Pulaski County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairman
  • Head ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Head is located in Pulaski County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Head
  • Melanie Park
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Melanie Park is located in Pulaski County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Melanie Park
  • Mineral ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Mineral is located in Pulaski County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mineral
  • Park Hill
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Park Hill is located in Pulaski County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Park Hill
  • Pecan Grove
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Pecan Grove is located in Pulaski County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pecan Grove
  • Silver Creek
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Silver Creek is located in Pulaski County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Creek
  • Tanglewood
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Tanglewood is located in Pulaski County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tanglewood
  • Timber Creek
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Timber Creek is located in Pulaski County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Timber Creek
  • Valentine
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Valentine is located in Pulaski County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valentine

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

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

  • Little Rock, which is the Seat of Pulaski County, lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<2> to the south southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Gravel Ridge to Little Rock, 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.
  • Little Rock, which is the State Capital of Arkansas, lies 9 miles [14.5 km] to the south southwest (SSW). The buggy would take a little over three hours and walking would take four to five hours.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 880 miles [1,416.2 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of two days, a buggy would take 35 days and walking would take 50 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,701 miles [10,784.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,430 miles [11,957.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,306 miles [8,539.2 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 Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's 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 Gravel Ridge 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 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Gravel Ridge) 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 Gravel Ridge 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 Gravel Ridge. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.8684, Longitude: -92.1907       In this case, the coordinates for Gravel Ridge have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 317.137 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 313.481 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.312 degrees.