RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Kentucky >> Nelson County >> Balltown >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Balltown, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Balltown 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 Balltown:
    • 37.738673, -85.506349
    • 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 Balltown
  • 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 Nelson County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Nelson County
    • Since Balltown is near Marion County and also Washington County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Marion County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Washington 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 Balltown

Communities Also Named Balltown ...

We found eight communities that are also named Balltown.

There is one other community in Kentucky that is also named Balltown.

Beyond Kentucky, we know of seven communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Located In Kentucky ...
    • Whitley County
      • This Balltown is located in Whitley County and lies 101 miles [162.5 km]<1> to the southeast of the Balltown that is located in Nelson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Whitley County community of Balltown.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Colorado
      • Lake County
      • This Balltown is located in Lake County and lies 1,125 miles [1,810.5 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Balltown that is located in Nelson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lake County community of Balltown.
    • Iowa
      • Dubuque County
      • This Balltown is located in Dubuque County and lies 440 miles [708.1 km]<1> to the northwest of the Balltown that is located in Nelson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Dubuque County community of Balltown.
    • Louisiana
      • Washington Parish
      • 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 Louisiana community of Balltown [Washington Parish].
    • New York
      • Chautauqua County
      • This Balltown is located in Chautauqua County and lies 471 miles [758 km]<1> to the northeast of the Balltown that is located in Nelson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Chautauqua County community of Balltown.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Forest County
      • This Balltown is located in Forest County and lies 429 miles [690.4 km]<1> to the northeast of the Balltown that is located in Nelson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Forest County community of Balltown.
    • South Carolina
      • Aiken County
      • This Balltown is located in Aiken County and lies 356 miles [572.9 km]<1> to the southeast of the Balltown that is located in Nelson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Aiken County community of Balltown.
    • Tennessee
      • McMinn County
      • This Balltown is located in McMinn County and lies 176 miles [283.2 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Balltown that is located in Nelson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the McMinn County community of Balltown.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Balltown ...

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.

  • Bearwallow
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Bearwallow is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bearwallow
  • Boston
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Bourbon Springs
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Bourbon Springs is located in Nelson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bourbon Springs
  • Croakes
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Croakes is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Croakes
  • Gandertown
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Gandertown is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gandertown
  • Gethsemane
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Gethsemane is located in Nelson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gethsemane
  • Holy Cross
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Holy Cross is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holy Cross
  • Hunters
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Hunters is located in Nelson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hunters
  • Lyons
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Lyons is located in Larue County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyons
  • Woodlawn
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Woodlawn is located in Nelson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodlawn

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

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

  • Bardstown, which is the Seat of Nelson County, lies just to the North Northeast.
  • Frankfort, which is the State Capital of Kentucky, lies 46 miles [74 km]<1> to the northeast (NE). If you could walk a straight line from Balltown to Frankfort, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take about three full days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of two days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 465 miles [748.3 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of a day, a buggy would take 19 days and walking would take 27 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,298 miles [10,135.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,019 miles [11,296 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,895 miles [7,877.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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- Balltown) 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 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 Balltown 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're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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.
<5>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 Balltown 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 Balltown. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.7387, Longitude: -85.5063       In this case, the coordinates for Balltown have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 313.046 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 309.153 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.733 degrees.