RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Kentucky >> Elliott County >> Bell City >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Bell City, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Bell City 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 Bell City:
    • 38.090085, -83.125728
    • 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 Bell City
  • 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 Elliott County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Elliott County
    • Since Bell City is near Rowan County and also Morgan County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Rowan County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Morgan 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 Bell City

Communities Also Named Bell City ...

We found six communities that are also named Bell City.

There is one other community in Kentucky that is also named Bell City.

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

  • Communities Located In Kentucky ...
    • Graves County
      • This Bell City is located in Graves County and lies 313 miles [503.7 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Bell City that is located in Elliott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Graves County community of Bell City.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arkansas
      • Clay County
      • This Bell City is located in Clay County and lies 404 miles [650.2 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Bell City that is located in Elliott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Clay County community of Bell City.
    • Kansas
      • Lane 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 Kansas community of Bell City [Lane County].
    • Louisiana
      • Calcasieu Parish
      • This Bell City is located in Calcasieu Parish and lies 786 miles [1,264.9 km]<1> to the southwest of the Bell City that is located in Elliott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Calcasieu Parish community of Bell City.
    • Missouri
      • Stoddard County
      • This Bell City is located in Stoddard County and lies 373 miles [600.3 km]<1> to the west of the Bell City that is located in Elliott County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Stoddard County community of Bell City.
    • Ontario
      • 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 Ontario community of Bell City.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Bell City ...

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.

  • Beartown
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Beartown is located in Elliott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beartown
  • Bigstone
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Bigstone is located in Elliott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bigstone
  • Crockett
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Crockett is located in Morgan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crockett
  • Dewdrop
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Dewdrop is located in Elliott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dewdrop
  • Green
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Green is located in Elliott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green
  • Ibex
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Ibex is located in Elliott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ibex
  • Little Sandy
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Little Sandy is located in Elliott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Sandy
  • Ordinary
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Ordinary is located in Elliott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ordinary
  • Redwine
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Redwine is located in Morgan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redwine
  • Sandy Hook
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Stark
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Stark is located in Elliott County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stark

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

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

  • Sandy Hook, which is the Seat of Elliott County, lies just to the North.
  • Frankfort, which is the State Capital of Kentucky, lies 95 miles [152.9 km]<1> to the west (W). If you could drive a straight line from Bell City to Frankfort, with an average speed<4>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 three full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 333 miles [535.9 km] to the east (E). Driving would take five to six hours, a buggy would take 13 days and walking would take 19 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,186 miles [9,955.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,903 miles [11,109.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,778 miles [7,689.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 from Point A (ie- Bell City) 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 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 Bell City 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 Bell City 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 Bell City. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.0901, Longitude: -83.1257       In this case, the coordinates for Bell City have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.576 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 307.52 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.591 degrees.