RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of North Carolina >> Transylvania County >> Benton Hills >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Benton Hills, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Benton Hills 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 Benton Hills:
    • 35.271781, -82.687902
    • 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 Benton Hills
  • 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 Transylvania County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Transylvania County
    • Since Benton Hills is near Henderson County and also Haywood County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Henderson County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Haywood 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 Benton Hills

Communities Also Named Benton Hills ...

We found one communities that are also named Benton Hills.

Within North Carolina, the name Benton Hills is unique.

Beyond North Carolina, there is another community also named Benton Hills in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Florida
      • Leon County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Florida community of Benton Hills [Leon County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Benton Hills ...

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.

  • Bass Lake
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Bass Lake is located in Transylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bass Lake
  • Ducktown
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Ducktown is located in Transylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ducktown
  • Falls Creek
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Falls Creek is located in Transylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Falls Creek
  • Glen Cannon
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Glen Cannon is located in Transylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glen Cannon
  • Knob Creek
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Knob Creek is located in Transylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knob Creek
  • Knob Hill
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Knob Hill is located in Transylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knob Hill
  • Knob Ridge
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Knob Ridge is located in Transylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knob Ridge
  • Little River
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Little River is located in Transylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little River
  • Mountain View
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Mountain View is located in Transylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain View
  • Seven Springs
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Seven Springs is located in Transylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seven Springs
  • Still Meadows
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Still Meadows is located in Transylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Still Meadows
  • Stoney Brook
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Stoney Brook is located in Transylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stoney Brook
  • Sweetwater Farms
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Sweetwater Farms is located in Transylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sweetwater Farms
  • Turkey Pen Gap
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Turkey Pen Gap is located in Transylvania County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Turkey Pen Gap

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Benton Hills and extending to:

  • Brevard, which is the Seat of Transylvania County, lies just to the Southwest.
  • Raleigh, which is the State Capital of North Carolina, lies 230 miles [370.1 km]<2> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Benton Hills to Raleigh, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take nearly four hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 13 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 9 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 399 miles [642.1 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 16 days and walking would take 23 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,297 miles [10,134 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,001 miles [11,267 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,878 miles [7,850.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Benton Hills 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.
<2>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- Benton Hills) 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 Benton Hills 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 Benton Hills. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.2718, Longitude: -82.6879       In this case, the coordinates for Benton Hills have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.298 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.794 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.221 degrees.