RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of North Carolina >> Yancey County >> Bald Mountain >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Bald Mountain, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Bald Mountain 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 Bald Mountain:
    • 35.964554, -82.471802
    • 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 Bald Mountain
  • 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 Yancey County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Yancey County
    • Since Bald Mountain is near Madison County and also Unicoi County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Madison County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Unicoi 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 Bald Mountain

Communities Also Named Bald Mountain ...

We found three communities that are also named Bald Mountain.

Within North Carolina, the name Bald Mountain is unique.

Beyond North Carolina, we know of three communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Maine
      • Oxford County
      • This Bald Mountain is located in Oxford County and lies 871 miles [1,401.7 km]<1> to the northeast of the Bald Mountain that is located in Yancey County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Oxford County community of Bald Mountain.
    • Michigan
      • Oakland 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 Bald Mountain [Oakland County].
    • New York
      • Washington County
      • This Bald Mountain is located in Washington County and lies 685 miles [1,102.4 km]<1> to the northeast of the Bald Mountain that is located in Yancey County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Washington County community of Bald Mountain.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Bald Mountain ...

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.

  • Bee Log
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Bee Log is located in Yancey County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bee Log
  • Coffee Ridge
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Coffee Ridge is located in Unicoi County (TN)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coffee Ridge
  • Elk Shoal
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Elk Shoal is located in Yancey County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elk Shoal
  • English
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • English is located in Madison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for English
  • Flag Pond
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Flag Pond is located in Unicoi County (TN)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flag Pond
  • Harris Mill
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Harris Mill is located in Unicoi County (TN)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harris Mill
  • Hawk Branch
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Hawk Branch is located in Yancey County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hawk Branch
  • Lewisburg
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Lewisburg is located in Yancey County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lewisburg
  • Little Creek
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Little Creek is located in Madison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Creek
  • Possumtrot
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Possumtrot is located in Yancey County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Possumtrot
  • Swiss
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Swiss is located in Yancey County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swiss

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

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

  • Burnsville, which is the Seat of Yancey County, lies 10 miles [16.1 km]<1> to the east southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Bald Mountain to Burnsville, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
  • Raleigh, which is the State Capital of North Carolina, lies 214 miles [344.4 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 9 days and walking would take 13 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 360 miles [579.4 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take 6 hours, a buggy would take 14 days and walking would take 21 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,256 miles [10,068.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,963 miles [11,205.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,839 miles [7,787.6 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Bald Mountain) 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 Bald Mountain 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 Bald Mountain 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 Bald Mountain. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.9646, Longitude: -82.4718       In this case, the coordinates for Bald Mountain have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.179 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.757 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.939 degrees.