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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Southville, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Southville 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 Southville:
    • 38.109850, -85.183015
    • 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 Southville
  • 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 Shelby County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Shelby County
    • Since Southville is near Spencer County and also Anderson County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Spencer County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Anderson 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 Southville

Communities Also Named Southville ...

We found four communities that are also named Southville.

Within Kentucky, the name Southville is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Connecticut
      • Litchfield County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Connecticut community of Southville [Litchfield County].
    • Massachusetts
      • Worcester County
      • This Southville is located in Worcester County and lies 773 miles [1,244 km]<2> to the east northeast of the Southville that is located in Shelby County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Worcester County community of Southville.
    • New York
      • Saint Lawrence County
      • This Southville is located in Saint Lawrence County and lies 700 miles [1,126.5 km]<2> to the northeast of the Southville that is located in Shelby County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Saint Lawrence County community of Southville.
    • Nova Scotia
      • This Southville lies 1,086 miles [1,747.7 km]<2> to the east northeast of the Southville that is located in Shelby County.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Southville ...

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.

  • Clay Village
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Clay Village is located in Shelby County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clay Village
  • Figgs
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Finchville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Hemp Ridge
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Hemp Ridge is located in Shelby County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hemp Ridge
  • Little Mount
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Normandy
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Olive Branch
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Olive Branch is located in Shelby County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olive Branch
  • Rivals
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Rivals is located in Spencer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rivals
  • Wayside
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Wayside is located in Anderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wayside

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

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

  • Shelbyville, which is the Seat of Shelby County, lies just to the North Northwest.
  • Frankfort, which is the State Capital of Kentucky, lies 17 miles [27.4 km]<2> to the east northeast (ENE). If you could walk a straight line from Southville to Frankfort, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take five to six hours.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 443 miles [712.9 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of a day, a buggy would take 18 days and walking would take 26 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,268 miles [10,087.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,990 miles [11,249.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,865 miles [7,829.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Southville 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.
<2>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Southville) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<4>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 Southville 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 Southville. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.1099, Longitude: -85.1830       In this case, the coordinates for Southville have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.849 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.98 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.488 degrees.