RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Kentucky >> Jackson County >> Dry Fork >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Dry Fork, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Dry Fork 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 Dry Fork:
    • 37.388024, -84.137862
    • 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 Dry Fork
  • 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 Jackson County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Jackson County
    • Since Dry Fork is near Rockcastle County and also Laurel County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Rockcastle County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Laurel 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 Dry Fork

Communities Also Named Dry Fork ...

We found nine communities that are also named Dry Fork.

There are three communities within Kentucky that are also named Dry Fork.

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

  • Communities Located In Kentucky ...
    • Barren County
      • This Dry Fork is located in Barren County and lies 106 miles [170.6 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Dry Fork that is located in Jackson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Barren County community of Dry Fork.
    • Lawrence County
      • Although located in Lawrence County, we don't know the location within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lawrence County community of Dry Fork.
    • Pike County
      • This Dry Fork is located in Pike County and lies 93 miles [149.7 km]<1> to the east of the Dry Fork that is located in Jackson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Pike County community of Dry Fork.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Montana
      • Chouteau 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 Montana community of Dry Fork [Chouteau County].
    • Tennessee
      • Davidson 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 Tennessee community of Dry Fork [Davidson County].
    • Utah
      • Uintah County
      • This Dry Fork is located in Uintah County and lies 1,382 miles [2,224.1 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Dry Fork that is located in Jackson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Uintah County community of Dry Fork.
    • Virginia
      • Pittsylvania County
      • This Dry Fork is located in Pittsylvania County and lies 264 miles [424.9 km]<1> to the east of the Dry Fork that is located in Jackson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Pittsylvania County community of Dry Fork.
      • Smyth County
      • This Dry Fork is located in Smyth County and lies 145 miles [233.4 km] to the east southeast of the Dry Fork that is located in Jackson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Smyth County community of Dry Fork.
      • Wise County
      • This Dry Fork is located in Wise County and lies 101 miles [162.5 km] to the east southeast of the Dry Fork that is located in Jackson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Wise County community of Dry Fork.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Dry Fork ...

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.

  • Climax
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Climax is located in Rockcastle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Climax
  • Clover Bottom
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Clover Bottom is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clover Bottom
  • Cooksburg
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Cooksburg is located in Rockcastle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cooksburg
  • Cornelius
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Cornelius is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cornelius
  • Cruise
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Cruise is located in Laurel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cruise
  • Cruise Ferry
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Cruise Ferry is located in Rockcastle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cruise Ferry
  • Flat Rock
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Flat Rock is located in Rockcastle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flat Rock
  • Hummel
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Hummel is located in Rockcastle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hummel
  • Loam
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Loam is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Loam
  • Orlando
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Orlando is located in Rockcastle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orlando
  • Peoples
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Peoples is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peoples
  • Rice Hill
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Rice Hill is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rice Hill
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Sandgap
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Sandgap is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandgap
    • Seven Pines
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Seven Pines is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seven Pines
    • Sinks
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Sinks is located in Rockcastle County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sinks
    • Symbol
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Symbol is located in Laurel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Symbol
    • Threelinks
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Threelinks is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Threelinks
    • Upper Indian Creek
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Upper Indian Creek is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Upper Indian Creek

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

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

  • McKee, which is the Seat of Jackson County, lies just to the East Northeast.
  • Frankfort, which is the State Capital of Kentucky, lies 68 miles [109.4 km]<1> to the northwest (NW). If you could walk a straight line from Dry Fork to Frankfort, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take three full days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take about three full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 399 miles [642.1 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 16 days and walking would take 23 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,260 miles [10,074.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,976 miles [11,226.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,851 miles [7,806.9 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Dry Fork) 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 Dry Fork 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 Dry Fork, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 Dry Fork 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 Dry Fork. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.3880, Longitude: -84.1379       In this case, the coordinates for Dry Fork have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.195 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.128 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.233 degrees.