RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Georgia >> Macon County >> Spalding >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Spalding, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Spalding 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 Spalding:
    • 32.293214, -83.997684
    • 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 Spalding
  • 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 Macon County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Macon County
    • Since Spalding is near Dooly County and also Sumter County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dooly County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Sumter 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 Spalding

Communities Also Named Spalding ...

We found eight communities that are also named Spalding.

Within Georgia, the name Spalding is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Idaho
      • Nez Perce County
      • This Spalding is located in Nez Perce County and lies 1,985 miles [3,194.5 km]<1> to the northwest of the Spalding that is located in Macon County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Nez Perce County community of Spalding.
    • Maryland
      • Prince George's 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 Maryland community of Spalding [Prince George's County].
    • Michigan
      • Menominee County
      • This Spalding is located in Menominee County and lies 944 miles [1,519.2 km]<1> to the north of the Spalding that is located in Macon County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Menominee County community of Spalding.
    • Missouri
      • Ralls County
      • This Spalding is located in Ralls County and lies 657 miles [1,057.3 km]<1> to the northwest of the Spalding that is located in Macon County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Ralls County community of Spalding.
    • Nebraska
      • Greeley County
      • This Spalding is located in Greeley County and lies 1,021 miles [1,643.1 km]<1> to the northwest of the Spalding that is located in Macon County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Greeley County community of Spalding.
    • New Mexico
      • Luna County
      • This Spalding is located in Luna County and lies 1,394 miles [2,243.4 km]<1> to the west of the Spalding that is located in Macon County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Luna County community of Spalding.
    • Saskatchewan
      • This Spalding lies 1,721 miles [2,769.7 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Spalding that is located in Macon County.
    • South Carolina
      • Kershaw County
      • This community is historic<3> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the South Carolina community of Spalding [Kershaw County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Spalding ...

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.

  • Clearview
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Clearview is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clearview
  • Cutoff
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Cutoff is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cutoff
  • Fields
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Fields is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fields
  • Five Points
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Five Points is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Points
  • Fountainville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Fountainville is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fountainville
  • Four Points
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Four Points is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Four Points
  • Montezuma
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Travelers Rest
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Travelers Rest is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Travelers Rest

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

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

  • Oglethorpe, which is the Seat of Macon County, lies just to the West.
  • Atlanta, which is the State Capital of Georgia, lies 103 miles [165.8 km]<1> to the north northwest (NNW). If you could drive a straight line from Spalding to Atlanta, with an average speed<5>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 6 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 4 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 600 miles [965.6 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 24 days and walking would take 34 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,490 miles [10,444.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,185 miles [11,563.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,066 miles [8,152.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Spalding) 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 Spalding 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>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Spalding, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>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.
<6>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 Spalding 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 Spalding. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.2932, Longitude: -83.9977       In this case, the coordinates for Spalding have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.958 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 307.133 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.481 degrees.