RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Florida >> Hillsborough County >> Brandon Park >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Brandon Park, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Brandon Park 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 Brandon Park:
    • 27.958800, -82.284700
    • 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 Brandon Park
  • 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 Hillsborough County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Hillsborough County
    • Since Brandon Park is near Polk County and also Pasco County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Polk County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Pasco 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 Brandon Park

Communities Also Named Brandon Park ...

We found two communities that are also named Brandon Park.

Within Florida, the name Brandon Park is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • South Dakota
      • Minnehaha 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 South Dakota community of Brandon Park [Minnehaha County].
    • Utah
      • Salt Lake County
      • This Brandon Park is located in Salt Lake County and lies 1,884 miles [3,032 km]<2> to the northwest of the Brandon Park that is located in Hillsborough County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Salt Lake County community of Brandon Park.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Brandon Park ...

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.

  • Camelot
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Camelot is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Camelot
  • Carriage Crossing
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Carriage Crossing is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carriage Crossing
  • Eleven Mile Hill
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Eleven Mile Hill is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eleven Mile Hill
  • Greenewood
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Greenewood is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenewood
  • Grove Park
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Grove Park is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grove Park
  • Hillcrest
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Hillcrest is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillcrest
  • Hillside
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Hillside is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillside
  • Hollowtree
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Hollowtree is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hollowtree
  • Hunters Cove
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Hunters Cove is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hunters Cove
  • Jacobs Place
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Jacobs Place is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jacobs Place
  • Kingstowne Place
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Kingstowne Place is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingstowne Place
  • Kingsway Downs
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Kingsway Downs is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingsway Downs
  • Continue List   (17 more) ...
    • Kingsway Gardens
      (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
      • Kingsway Gardens is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingsway Gardens
    • Kingsway Heights
      (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
      • Kingsway Heights is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingsway Heights
    • Kingsway Oaks
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • Kingsway Oaks is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingsway Oaks
    • Lakeview Village
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Lakeview Village is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview Village
    • Lawndale
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • Lawndale is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lawndale
    • Long Pond
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
      • Long Pond is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Pond
    • Mirror Crest
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • Mirror Crest is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mirror Crest
    • Mirror Lake
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Mirror Lake is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mirror Lake
    • Orangewood
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • Orangewood is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orangewood
    • Parsons Reserve
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • Parsons Reserve is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parsons Reserve
    • Ravenwood
      (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
      • Ravenwood is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ravenwood
    • Rolling Oaks
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • Rolling Oaks is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rolling Oaks
    • Shadow Bay
      (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
      • Shadow Bay is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shadow Bay
    • Shady Hollow
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Shady Hollow is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shady Hollow
    • Tangelo
      (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
      • Tangelo is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tangelo
    • Timber Creek
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Timber Creek is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Timber Creek
    • Timber Pond
      (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
      • Timber Pond is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Timber Pond

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

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

  • Tampa, which is the Seat of Hillsborough County, lies 10 miles [16.1 km]<2> to the west. If you could walk a straight line from Brandon Park to Tampa, 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.
  • Tallahassee, which is the State Capital of Florida, lies 209 miles [336.4 km] to the northwest (NW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 9 days and walking would take 12 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 813 miles [1,308.4 km] to the north northeast (NNE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 32 days and walking would take 47 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,610 miles [10,637.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,279 miles [11,714.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,178 miles [8,333.2 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 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 Brandon Park 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- Brandon Park) 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 Brandon Park 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 Brandon Park. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 27.9588, Longitude: -82.2847       In this case, the coordinates for Brandon Park have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.738 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.121 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.834 degrees.