RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Louisiana >> West Feliciana Parish >> Spillman >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Spillman, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Spillman 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 Spillman:
    • 30.929901, -91.283721
    • 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 Spillman
  • 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 parish-by-parish basis. We have selected West Feliciana Parish as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for West Feliciana Parish
    • Since Spillman is near Wilkinson County and also East Feliciana Parish, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wilkinson County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for East Feliciana Parish
  • 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 Spillman

Communities Also Named Spillman ...

We found one communities that are also named Spillman.

Within Louisiana, the name Spillman is unique.

Beyond Louisiana, there is another community also named Spillman in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • North Carolina
      • Yadkin 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 North Carolina community of Spillman [Yadkin County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Spillman ...

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.

  • Alice
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Alice is located in West Feliciana Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alice
  • Converse ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Converse is located in West Feliciana Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Converse
  • Donegal
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Donegal is located in Wilkinson County (MS)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Donegal
  • Elm Park
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Elm Park is located in West Feliciana Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elm Park
  • Flower Hill
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Flower Hill is located in West Feliciana Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flower Hill
  • Freeland
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Freeland is located in West Feliciana Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freeland
  • Hardwood
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Hardwood is located in West Feliciana Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hardwood
  • Rosebank
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Rosebank is located in West Feliciana Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosebank
  • Solitude
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Solitude is located in West Feliciana Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Solitude
  • Starhill
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Starhill is located in West Feliciana Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Starhill
  • Wayside ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Wayside is located in West Feliciana Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wayside

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Spillman and extending to:

  • Saint Francisville, which is the Seat of West Feliciana Parish, lies 11 miles [17.7 km]<2> to the south southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Spillman to Saint Francisville, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
  • Baton Rouge, which is the State Capital of Louisiana, lies 33 miles [53.1 km] to the south southeast (SSE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take just over a day and walking would take most of two days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 974 miles [1,567.5 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take most of two days, a buggy would take 38 days and walking would take 56 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,863 miles [11,044.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,575 miles [12,190.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,451 miles [8,772.5 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 Spillman 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 parish. 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Spillman) 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 Spillman 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 Spillman. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 30.9299, Longitude: -91.2837       In this case, the coordinates for Spillman have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 316.173 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.836 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.553 degrees.