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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Oakland Hills, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Oakland Hills 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 Oakland Hills:
    • 27.972300, -82.383200
    • 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 Oakland Hills
  • 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 Oakland Hills is near Pinellas County and also Pasco County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Pinellas 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 Oakland Hills

Communities Also Named Oakland Hills ...

We found three communities that are also named Oakland Hills.

There is one other community in Florida that is also named Oakland Hills.

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

  • Communities Located In Florida ...
    • Seminole 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 Florida community of Oakland Hills [Seminole County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Connecticut
      • Hartford County
      • Although located in Hartford County, we don't know the location within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hartford County community of Oakland Hills.
    • Maryland
      • Carroll County
      • This Oakland Hills is located in Carroll County and lies 849 miles [1,366.3 km]<2> to the north northeast of the Oakland Hills that is located in Hillsborough County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Carroll County community of Oakland Hills.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Oakland Hills ...

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.

  • Berryhill
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Berryhill is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berryhill
  • Bunchville
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Bunchville is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bunchville
  • Eastern Heights
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Eastern Heights is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eastern Heights
  • Easy Way
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Easy Way is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Easy Way
  • Enterprise
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Enterprise is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Enterprise
  • Florence Villa
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Florence Villa is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Florence Villa
  • Gold Rush
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Gold Rush is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gold Rush
  • Jessie Heights
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Jessie Heights is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jessie Heights
  • Kings Forest
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Kings Forest is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kings Forest
  • Lukes
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Lukes is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lukes
  • Michigan Broadway
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Michigan Broadway is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Michigan Broadway
  • Missouri Park
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Missouri Park is located in Hillsborough County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Missouri Park
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Orient Park
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
      • Orient Park is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orient Park
    • Sixmile Creek
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
      • Sixmile Creek is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sixmile Creek
    • Spillers
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
      • Spillers is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spillers
    • Sugarcreek
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
      • Sugarcreek is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sugarcreek
    • Tradewinds
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Tradewinds is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tradewinds
    • Triangle
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • Triangle is located in Hillsborough County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Triangle

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

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

  • Tampa, which is the Seat of Hillsborough County, lies just to the West.
  • Tallahassee, which is the State Capital of Florida, lies 205 miles [329.9 km]<2> to the north northwest (NNW). If you could drive a straight line from Oakland Hills to Tallahassee, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take a little over three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 12 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 8 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 814 miles [1,310 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 6,614 miles [10,644.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,283 miles [11,720.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,182 miles [8,339.6 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 Oakland Hills 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 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Oakland Hills) 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 Oakland Hills 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 Oakland Hills. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 27.9723, Longitude: -82.3832       In this case, the coordinates for Oakland Hills have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.79 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.185 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.862 degrees.