RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Georgia >> DeKalb County >> River Hills >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in River Hills, we use the following websites to find information relevant to River 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 River Hills:
    • 33.677052, -84.286312
    • 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 River 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 DeKalb County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for DeKalb County
    • Since River Hills is near Henry County and also Clayton County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Henry County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Clayton 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 River Hills

Communities Also Named River Hills ...

We found seven communities that are also named River Hills.

Within Georgia, the name River Hills is unique.

Beyond Georgia, we know of seven communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these seven communities, six are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Manitoba
      • This River Hills lies 1,279 miles [2,058.4 km]<1> to the north northwest of the River Hills that is located in DeKalb County.
    • North Carolina
      • Iredell 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 North Carolina community of River Hills [Iredell County].
      • Pitt County
      • This River Hills is located in Pitt County and lies 417 miles [671.1 km]<1> to the east northeast of the River Hills that is located in DeKalb County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Pitt County community of River Hills.
      • Rutherford County
      • This River Hills is located in Rutherford County and lies 180 miles [289.7 km] to the northeast of the River Hills that is located in DeKalb County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Rutherford County community of River Hills.
    • Tennessee
      • Hamilton County
      • This River Hills is located in Hamilton County and lies 113 miles [181.9 km]<1> to the north northwest of the River Hills that is located in DeKalb County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hamilton County community of River Hills.
    • Texas
      • Travis County
      • This River Hills is located in Travis County and lies 826 miles [1,329.3 km]<1> to the west southwest of the River Hills that is located in DeKalb County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Travis County community of River Hills.
    • Wisconsin
      • Milwaukee County
      • This River Hills is located in Milwaukee County and lies 684 miles [1,100.8 km]<1> to the north northwest of the River Hills that is located in DeKalb County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Milwaukee County community of River Hills.

Curious and Interesting Names Near River 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.

  • Cedar Grove
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Cedar Grove is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Grove
  • Cedar Valley
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Cedar Valley is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Valley
  • Chapel Mill
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Chapel Mill is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chapel Mill
  • Cherokee Forest
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Cherokee Forest is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cherokee Forest
  • Cherry Ridge
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Cherry Ridge is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cherry Ridge
  • Cherrywood
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Cherrywood is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cherrywood
  • Chimney Ridge
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Chimney Ridge is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chimney Ridge
  • Constitution
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Constitution is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Constitution
  • Creek Cove
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Creek Cove is located in Henry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Creek Cove
  • Forest Ridge
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Forest Ridge is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest Ridge
  • Kings Row
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Kings Row is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kings Row
  • Leisure Woods
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Leisure Woods is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leisure Woods
  • Continue List   (8 more) ...
    • Lincolndale
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Lincolndale is located in DeKalb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lincolndale
    • Moonlight Forest
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
      • Moonlight Forest is located in DeKalb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moonlight Forest
    • Panthersville
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Panthersville is located in DeKalb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Panthersville
    • River Run
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
      • River Run is located in DeKalb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for River Run
    • Riverchase
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
      • Riverchase is located in DeKalb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverchase
    • Royal Oaks
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • Royal Oaks is located in DeKalb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Royal Oaks
    • Skyline Forest
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Skyline Forest is located in DeKalb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Skyline Forest
    • Wishing Well Hills
      (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
      • Wishing Well Hills is located in DeKalb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wishing Well Hills

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

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

  • Decatur, which is the Seat of DeKalb County, lies just to the North.
  • Atlanta, which is the State Capital of Georgia, lies just to the northwest (NW).
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 540 miles [869 km]<1> to the northeast (NE). If you could drive a straight line from River Hills to White House, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take just over a day to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 31 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 21 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,438 miles [10,361 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,140 miles [11,490.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,018 miles [8,075.7 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- River Hills) 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 River 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.
<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 River 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 River Hills. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 33.6771, Longitude: -84.2863       In this case, the coordinates for River Hills have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.191 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 307.595 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.264 degrees.