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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Grays' Mills, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Grays' Mills 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 Grays' Mills:
    • 42.785269, -83.088375
    • 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.
    • The Heavens-Above Website, centered on Grays' Mills
  • 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:
    • Waymark.com

Communities Also Named Grays' Mills ...

We found two communities that share the name Grays' Mills.

Within Michigan, the name Grays' Mills is unique.

Beyond Michigan, we know of another two communities that are located throughout in the United States and Canada. Of these two communities, one is located in the United States and the other in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • New Brunswick
      • This Grays' Mills lies 862 miles [1,387.3 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Grays' Mills that is located in Macomb County.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Crawford 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 Pennsylvania community of Grays' Mills [Crawford County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Grays' Mills ...

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.

  • Decker ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Decker. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Decker
    • Decker is located in Oakland County
    • Decker has also been known as:
    • Decker Settlement
  • Disco ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Disco
    • Disco is located in Macomb County
    • Former name for Disco:
    • Whiskey Center
  • Gas Settlement ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Gas Settlement. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gas Settlement
    • Gas Settlement is located in Macomb County
  • Lake Orion
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Orion
    • Lake Orion is located in Oakland County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,191 people
    • Former names for Lake Orion:
    • Canandaigua City
    • New Canandaigua
    • Oakland
    • Orion
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lake Orion <4>
  • Lakeville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeville
    • Lakeville is located in Oakland County
  • Leonard
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Romeo
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Stony Creek
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stony Creek
    • Stony Creek is located in Oakland County
    • Stony Creek has also been known as:
    • Stoney Creek Village
    • Stoney Creek
    • Stony Creek Village

How Far From Grays' Mills 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 Grays' Mills to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers and using the location of where the historic<5> community of Grays' Mills once stood, the straight-line distance beginning in Grays' Mills and extending to:

  • Mount Clemens, which is the Seat of Macomb County, lies 16 miles [25.7 km]<1> to the southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Grays' Mills to Mount Clemens, with an average speed<6> 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.
  • Lansing, which is the State Capital of Michigan, lies 74 miles [119.1 km] to the west (W). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take most of three days and walking would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 414 miles [666.3 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 17 days and walking would take 24 days.
  • The shortest distance<7> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,970 miles [9,607.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,702 miles [10,785.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,582 miles [7,374 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<10>

The official website for Macomb County: www.macombcountymi.gov/

The official website for State of Michigan: https://www.michigan.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Grays' Mills) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Grays' Mills. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.7853, Longitude: -83.0884       In this case, the coordinates for Grays' Mills have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 Grays' Mills 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>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Grays' Mills, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>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.
<7>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 Grays' Mills to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.431 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.05 degrees.
<10>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.038 degrees.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024