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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Coral, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Coral 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 Coral:
    • 31.386283, -89.529791
    • 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 Coral
  • 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 Lamar County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lamar County
    • Since Coral is near Jefferson Davis County and also Forrest County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Jefferson Davis County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Forrest 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 Coral

Communities Also Named Coral ...

We found six communities that are also named Coral.

Within Mississippi, the name Coral is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Illinois
      • McHenry County
      • This Coral is located in McHenry County and lies 749 miles [1,205.4 km]<1> to the north of the Coral that is located in Lamar County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the McHenry County community of Coral.
    • Maine
      • Aroostook 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 Maine community of Coral [Aroostook County].
    • Michigan
      • Montcalm County
      • This Coral is located in Montcalm County and lies 857 miles [1,379.2 km]<1> to the north northeast of the Coral that is located in Lamar County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Montcalm County community of Coral.
    • Ontario
      • This Coral lies 1,361 miles [2,190.3 km]<1> to the north northeast of the Coral that is located in Lamar County.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Indiana County
      • This Coral is located in Indiana County and lies 853 miles [1,372.8 km]<1> to the northeast of the Coral that is located in Lamar County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Indiana County community of Coral.
    • South Dakota
      • Spink 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 South Dakota community of Coral [Spink County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Coral ...

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.

  • Bowie
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Bowie is located in Forrest County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bowie
  • Clyde
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Clyde is located in Lamar County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clyde
  • Hickory Grove
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Hickory Grove is located in Lamar County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Grove
  • Hopewell
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Hopewell is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hopewell
  • Improve
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Improve is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Improve
  • Maybank
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Maybank is located in Forrest County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maybank
  • Melba
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Melba is located in Jefferson Davis County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Melba
  • Oak Grove
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Oak Grove is located in Lamar County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
  • Providence
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Providence is located in Forrest County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Providence
  • Rocky Branch
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Rocky Branch is located in Lamar County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rocky Branch

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

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

  • Purvis, which is the Seat of Lamar County, lies 18 miles [29 km]<1> to the south southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Coral to Purvis, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just over 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.
  • Jackson, which is the State Capital of Mississippi, lies 73 miles [117.5 km] to the north northwest (NNW). 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 874 miles [1,406.6 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take most of two days, a buggy would take 35 days and walking would take 50 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,768 miles [10,892 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,476 miles [12,031.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,353 miles [8,614.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 from Point A (ie- Coral) 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 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 Coral 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>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 Coral 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 Coral. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.3863, Longitude: -89.5298       In this case, the coordinates for Coral have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.15 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 310.705 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 311.785 degrees.