RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Mississippi >> Rankin County >> Burnham >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Burnham, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Burnham 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 Burnham:
    • 32.137096, -89.863411
    • 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 Burnham
  • 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 Rankin County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Rankin County
    • Since Burnham is near Simpson County and also Smith County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Simpson County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Smith 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 Burnham

Communities Also Named Burnham ...

We found twelve communities that are also named Burnham.

Within Mississippi, the name Burnham is unique.

Beyond Mississippi, we know of twelve communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • San Joaquin County
      • This Burnham is located in San Joaquin County and lies 1,804 miles [2,903.3 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Burnham that is located in Rankin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the San Joaquin County community of Burnham.
    • Colorado
      • Arapahoe 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 Colorado community of Burnham [Arapahoe County].
      • Denver County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Colorado community of Burnham [Denver County].
    • Connecticut
      • Hartford County
      • This Burnham is located in Hartford County and lies 1,158 miles [1,863.6 km]<1> to the northeast of the Burnham that is located in Rankin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hartford County community of Burnham.
    • Illinois
      • Cook County
      • This Burnham is located in Cook County and lies 668 miles [1,075 km]<1> to the north of the Burnham that is located in Rankin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cook County community of Burnham.
    • Maine
      • Waldo County
      • This Burnham is located in Waldo County and lies 1,398 miles [2,249.9 km]<1> to the northeast of the Burnham that is located in Rankin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Waldo County community of Burnham.
    • Michigan
      • Isabella 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 Burnham [Isabella County].
      • Manistee County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Michigan community of Burnham [Manistee County].
    • Missouri
      • Howell County
      • This Burnham is located in Howell County and lies 351 miles [564.9 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Burnham that is located in Rankin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Howell County community of Burnham.
    • Montana
      • Hill County
      • This Burnham is located in Hill County and lies 1,538 miles [2,475.2 km]<1> to the northwest of the Burnham that is located in Rankin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hill County community of Burnham.
    • New Mexico
      • San Juan 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 New Mexico community of Burnham [San Juan County].
    • Pennsylvania
      • Mifflin County
      • This Burnham is located in Mifflin County and lies 899 miles [1,446.8 km]<1> to the northeast of the Burnham that is located in Rankin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Mifflin County community of Burnham.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Burnham ...

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.

  • Comeby ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Comeby is located in Rankin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Comeby
  • Cross Roads
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Cross Roads is located in Rankin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cross Roads
  • Daniel
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Daniel is located in Smith County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Daniel
  • Everett
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Everett is located in Simpson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Everett
  • Fink Bine ‑ Historic
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Fink Bine is located in Rankin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fink Bine
  • George ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • George is located in Rankin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for George
  • Joe ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Joe is located in Rankin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Joe
  • Johns
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Johns is located in Rankin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johns
  • Piney Woods
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Piney Woods is located in Rankin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Piney Woods
  • Rock Hill
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Rock Hill is located in Rankin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Hill
  • Rufus
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Rufus is located in Rankin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rufus
  • Shady Dell ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Shady Dell is located in Rankin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shady Dell

How Far From Burnham 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 Burnham 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<3> community of Burnham once stood, the straight-line distance beginning in Burnham and extending to:

  • Brandon, which is the Seat of Rankin County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<1> to the northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Burnham to Brandon, with an average speed<4> 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.
  • Jackson, which is the State Capital of Mississippi, lies 21 miles [33.8 km] to the west northwest (WNW). The buggy would take most of a day and walking would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 857 miles [1,379.2 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of two days, a buggy would take 34 days and walking would take 49 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,745 miles [10,855 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,457 miles [12,000.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,333 miles [8,582.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 from Point A (ie- Burnham) 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 Burnham 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>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 Burnham, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 Burnham 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 Burnham. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.1371, Longitude: -89.8634       In this case, the coordinates for Burnham have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.427 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.128 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 311.793 degrees.