RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Mississippi >> Kemper County >> Old Wahalak >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Old Wahalak, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Old Wahalak 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 Old Wahalak:
    • 32.919574, -88.437260
    • 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 Old Wahalak
  • 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 Kemper County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Kemper County
    • Since Old Wahalak is near Noxubee County and also Sumter County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Noxubee County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Sumter 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 Old Wahalak

Curious and Interesting Names Near Old Wahalak ...

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.

  • Big Lake ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Big Lake is located in Noxubee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Lake
  • Center Point ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Center Point is located in Noxubee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Center Point
  • Clark
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Clark is located in Pickens County (AL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clark
  • Cooksville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Cooksville is located in Noxubee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cooksville
  • Cross Roads ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Cross Roads is located in Noxubee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cross Roads
  • Dancy
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Dancy is located in Pickens County (AL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dancy
  • Electric Mills
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Electric Mills is located in Kemper County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Electric Mills
  • Fair Oaks
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Fair Oaks is located in Sumter County (AL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fair Oaks
  • Geiger
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Geiger is located in Sumter County (AL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Geiger
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 142 people
  • Old Scooba ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Old Scooba is located in Kemper County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Scooba
  • Paulette
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Paulette is located in Noxubee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paulette

How Far From Old Wahalak 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 Old Wahalak 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<1> community of Old Wahalak once stood, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Old Wahalak and extending to:

  • De Kalb, which is the Seat of Kemper County, lies 16 miles [25.7 km]<2> to the southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Old Wahalak to De Kalb, with an average speed<3> 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.
  • Jackson, which is the State Capital of Mississippi, lies 109 miles [175.4 km] to the west southwest (WSW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 758 miles [1,219.9 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 30 days and walking would take 43 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,648 miles [10,698.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,359 miles [11,843.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,235 miles [8,424.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Old Wahalak, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 drawn from Point A (ie- Old Wahalak) 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 Old Wahalak 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 Old Wahalak. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.9196, Longitude: -88.4373       In this case, the coordinates for Old Wahalak have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.623 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 310.301 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 311.076 degrees.