RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Maryland >> Harford County >> Bright Oaks >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Bright Oaks, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Bright Oaks 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 Bright Oaks:
    • 39.502886, -76.318848
    • 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 Bright Oaks
  • 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 Harford County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Harford County
    • Since Bright Oaks is near Baltimore County and also Montgomery County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Baltimore County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Montgomery 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 Bright Oaks

Communities Also Named Bright Oaks ...

We found one communities that are also named Bright Oaks.

Within Maryland, the name Bright Oaks is unique.

Beyond Maryland, there is another community also named Bright Oaks in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Illinois
      • McHenry 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 Illinois community of Bright Oaks [McHenry County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Bright Oaks ...

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.

  • Camelot
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Camelot is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Camelot
  • Cedar Spring
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Cedar Spring is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Spring
  • Constant Friendship
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Constant Friendship is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Constant Friendship
  • Evergreen Heights
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Evergreen Heights is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evergreen Heights
  • Fairway
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Fairway is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairway
  • Forest Lawn
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Forest Lawn is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest Lawn
  • Fountain Glen
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Fountain Glen is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fountain Glen
  • Fox Bow
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Fox Bow is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fox Bow
  • Harold Heights
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Harold Heights is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harold Heights
  • Homestead Village
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Homestead Village is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Homestead Village
  • Howard Park
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Howard Park is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Howard Park
  • Hunters Run
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Hunters Run is located in Harford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hunters Run
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Ivy Hill
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • Ivy Hill is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ivy Hill
    • Joppa Hills
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Joppa Hills is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Joppa Hills
    • Kings Charter
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
      • Kings Charter is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kings Charter
    • Locust Knoll
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Locust Knoll is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Locust Knoll
    • Michaels Corner
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Michaels Corner is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Michaels Corner
    • Parsons Ridge
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • Parsons Ridge is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parsons Ridge
    • Sable Woods
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Sable Woods is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sable Woods
    • Scots Fancy
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • Scots Fancy is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scots Fancy
    • Shamrock
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Shamrock is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shamrock
    • Shucks Corners
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Shucks Corners is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shucks Corners
    • Silver Spring Heights
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Singer
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Singer is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Singer
    • Singer Woods
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • Singer Woods is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Singer Woods
    • Temple Hills
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • Temple Hills is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Temple Hills
    • Todd Lakes
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
      • Todd Lakes is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Todd Lakes
    • Woodland Run
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Woodland Run is located in Harford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodland Run

How Far From Bright Oaks to ...

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

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

  • Bel Air, which is the Seat of Harford County, lies just to the Northwest.
  • Annapolis, which is the State Capital of Maryland, lies 37 miles [59.5 km]<2> to the south southwest (SSW). If you could walk a straight line from Bright Oaks to Annapolis, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take over two days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just about two full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 56 miles [90.1 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take over two days and walking would take most of three days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,841 miles [9,400.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,547 miles [10,536.4 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,424 miles [7,119.7 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 Bright Oaks 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 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Bright Oaks) 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 Bright Oaks 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 Bright Oaks. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.5029, Longitude: -76.3188       In this case, the coordinates for Bright Oaks have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.423 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.003 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.172 degrees.