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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Verne, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Verne 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 Verne:
    • 36.718649, -84.069567
    • 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 Verne
  • 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 Whitley County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Whitley County
    • Since Verne is near Knox County and also Bell County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Knox County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Bell 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 Verne

Communities Also Named Verne ...

We found three communities that are also named Verne.

Within Kentucky, the name Verne is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Indiana
      • Knox County
      • This Verne is located in Knox County and lies 226 miles [363.7 km]<1> to the northwest of the Verne that is located in Whitley County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Knox County community of Verne.
    • Michigan
      • Saginaw 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 Verne [Saginaw County].
    • Wyoming
      • Uinta County
      • This Verne is located in Uinta County and lies 1,427 miles [2,296.5 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Verne that is located in Whitley County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Uinta County community of Verne.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Verne ...

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.

  • Balltown
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Balltown is located in Whitley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Balltown
  • Carpenter
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Carpenter is located in Whitley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carpenter
  • Dixie
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Dixie is located in Whitley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dixie
  • Goldbug
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Goldbug is located in Whitley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goldbug
  • Lucky
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Lucky is located in Whitley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lucky
  • Mountain Ash
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Mountain Ash is located in Whitley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain Ash
  • Packard
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Pleasant View
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Rain
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Rain is located in Whitley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rain
  • Red Ash
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)

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

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

  • Williamsburg, which is the Seat of Whitley County, lies just to the West Northwest.
  • Frankfort, which is the State Capital of Kentucky, lies 111 miles [178.6 km]<1> to the north northwest (NNW). If you could drive a straight line from Verne to Frankfort, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take about two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 7 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 411 miles [661.4 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 16 days and walking would take 24 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,288 miles [10,119.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,002 miles [11,268.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,877 miles [7,848.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 drawn from Point A (ie- Verne) 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 Verne 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 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 Verne 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 Verne. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.7186, Longitude: -84.0696    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.146 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 307.975 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.391 degrees.