RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Maine >> Kennebec County >> Granite Hill >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Granite Hill, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Granite Hill 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 Granite Hill:
    • 44.311180, -69.831436
    • 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 Granite Hill
  • 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 Kennebec County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Kennebec County
    • Since Granite Hill is near Lincoln County and also Androscoggin County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lincoln County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Androscoggin 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 Granite Hill

Communities Also Named Granite Hill ...

We found five communities that are also named Granite Hill.

Within Maine, the name Granite Hill is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • El Dorado 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 California community of Granite Hill [El Dorado County].
    • Georgia
      • Hancock 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 Georgia community of Granite Hill [Hancock County].
    • New Brunswick
      • This Granite Hill lies 174 miles [280 km]<2> to the northeast of the Granite Hill that is located in Kennebec County.
    • North Carolina
      • Iredell 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 Granite Hill [Iredell County].
    • Pennsylvania
      • Adams 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 Pennsylvania community of Granite Hill [Adams County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Granite Hill ...

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.

  • Frenchs Corner
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Frenchs Corner is located in Kennebec County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frenchs Corner
  • Island Park
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Island Park is located in Kennebec County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Island Park
  • Libby Hill
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Libby Hill is located in Kennebec County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Libby Hill
  • Purgatory
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Purgatory is located in Kennebec County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Purgatory
  • Randolph
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Spears Corner
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Spears Corner is located in Kennebec County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spears Corner
  • Summerhaven
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Summerhaven is located in Kennebec County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summerhaven
  • Tallwood
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Tallwood is located in Kennebec County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tallwood
  • Wings Mills
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Wings Mills is located in Kennebec County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wings Mills

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

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

  • Augusta, which is the Seat of Kennebec County, lies just to the East.
  • Augusta, which is the State Capital of Maine, lies just to the east (E).
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 526 miles [846.5 km]<2> to the southwest (SW). If you could drive a straight line from Granite Hill to White House, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take just over a day to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 30 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 21 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,378 miles [8,655.1 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,091 miles [9,802.5 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 3,966 miles [6,382.7 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<8>'

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 Granite Hill 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Granite Hill) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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.
<5>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 Granite Hill 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 Granite Hill. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.3112, Longitude: -69.8314       In this case, the coordinates for Granite Hill have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 302.908 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 298.708 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 298.956 degrees.