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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Gibbs, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Gibbs and the surrounding area.

  • 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 Gibbs:
    • 37.020923, -83.902426
    • 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 Gibbs
  • 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 Knox County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Knox County
    • Since Gibbs is near Laurel County and also Letcher County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Laurel County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Letcher 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 Gibbs

Communities Also Named Gibbs ...

We found sixteen communities that are also named Gibbs.

Within Kentucky, the name Gibbs is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arkansas
      • Montgomery County
      • This Gibbs is located in Montgomery County and lies 567 miles [912.5 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Gibbs that is located in Knox County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Montgomery County community of Gibbs.
    • British Columbia
      • This Gibbs lies 2,083 miles [3,352.3 km]<1> to the northwest of the Gibbs that is located in Knox County.
    • Connecticut
      • New London 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 Connecticut community of Gibbs [New London County].
    • Idaho
      • Kootenai County
      • This Gibbs is located in Kootenai County and lies 1,815 miles [2,921 km]<1> to the northwest of the Gibbs that is located in Knox County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Kootenai County community of Gibbs.
    • Kansas
      • Chautauqua County
      • This Gibbs is located in Chautauqua County and lies 684 miles [1,100.8 km]<1> to the west of the Gibbs that is located in Knox County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Chautauqua County community of Gibbs.
    • Louisiana
      • Saint Landry Parish
      • This Gibbs is located in Saint Landry Parish and lies 644 miles [1,036.4 km]<1> to the southwest of the Gibbs that is located in Knox County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Saint Landry Parish community of Gibbs.
    • Massachusetts
      • Hampshire 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 Massachusetts community of Gibbs [Hampshire County].
    • Michigan
      • Alger 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 Michigan community of Gibbs [Alger County].
      • Montmorency County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Michigan community of Gibbs [Montmorency County].
    • Missouri
      • Adair County
      • This Gibbs is located in Adair County and lies 506 miles [814.3 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Gibbs that is located in Knox County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Adair County community of Gibbs.
      • Saint Charles 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 Missouri community of Gibbs [Saint Charles County].
    • North Carolina
      • Burke 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 Gibbs [Burke County].
    • South Carolina
      • Union 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 South Carolina community of Gibbs [Union County].
    • Tennessee
      • Hardin 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 Gibbs [Hardin County].
      • Obion County
      • This Gibbs is located in Obion County and lies 285 miles [458.7 km]<1> to the west of the Gibbs that is located in Knox County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Obion County community of Gibbs.
    • Texas
      • Dallas 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 Texas community of Gibbs [Dallas County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Gibbs ...

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.

  • Boreing
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Boreing is located in Laurel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boreing
  • Bush
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Bush is located in Laurel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bush
  • Cannon
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Cannon is located in Knox County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cannon
  • Crane Nest
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Crane Nest is located in Knox County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crane Nest
  • Deer Lick
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Deer Lick is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deer Lick
  • Girdler
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Girdler is located in Knox County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Girdler
  • Gray
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Hooker
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Hooker is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hooker
  • Lake
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Lake is located in Laurel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake
  • Pigeonroost
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Pigeonroost is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pigeonroost
  • Upper Horse Creek
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Upper Horse Creek is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Upper Horse Creek

How Far From Gibbs to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers & Almanacs that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Gibbs to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Barbourville, which is the Seat of Knox County, lies 10 miles [16.1 km]<1> to the south. If you could walk a straight line from Gibbs to Barbourville, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
  • Frankfort, which is the State Capital of Kentucky, lies 97 miles [156.1 km] to the north northwest (NNW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take three full days and walking would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 395 miles [635.7 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 16 days and walking would take 23 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,267 miles [10,085.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,982 miles [11,236.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,857 miles [7,816.6 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- Gibbs) 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 Gibbs 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 Gibbs, 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 Gibbs 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 Gibbs. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.0209, Longitude: -83.9024       In this case, the coordinates for Gibbs have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.048 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 307.906 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.236 degrees.