RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of North Carolina >> Lenoir County >> Falling Creek >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Falling Creek, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Falling Creek 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 Falling Creek:
    • 35.262107, -77.690529
    • 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 Falling Creek
  • 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 Lenoir County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lenoir County
    • Since Falling Creek is near Greene County and also Wayne County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Greene County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wayne 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 Falling Creek

Communities Also Named Falling Creek ...

We found two communities that are also named Falling Creek.

Within North Carolina, the name Falling Creek is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Virginia
      • Chesterfield 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 Virginia community of Falling Creek [Chesterfield County].
      • Roanoke County
      • This Falling Creek is located in Roanoke County and lies 185 miles [297.7 km]<2> to the northwest of the Falling Creek that is located in Lenoir County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Roanoke County community of Falling Creek.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Falling Creek ...

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.

  • Branchwood
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Branchwood is located in Lenoir County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Branchwood
  • Fields
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Fields is located in Lenoir County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fields
  • Hickory Hills
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Hickory Hills is located in Lenoir County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Hills
  • Hullwood
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Hullwood is located in Lenoir County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hullwood
  • Jenny Lind
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Jenny Lind is located in Lenoir County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jenny Lind
  • Little Baltimore
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Little Baltimore is located in Lenoir County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Baltimore
  • Mary Beth Park
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Mary Beth Park is located in Lenoir County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mary Beth Park
  • Parrots
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Parrots is located in Lenoir County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parrots
  • Pot Neck
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Pot Neck is located in Lenoir County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pot Neck
  • Random Woods
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Random Woods is located in Lenoir County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Random Woods
  • Sandy Bottom
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Sandy Bottom is located in Lenoir County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandy Bottom
  • Tanglewood
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Tanglewood is located in Lenoir County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tanglewood
  • Trinity Woods
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Trinity Woods is located in Lenoir County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trinity Woods

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

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

  • Kinston, which is the Seat of Lenoir County, lies just to the East.
  • Raleigh, which is the State Capital of North Carolina, lies 64 miles [103 km]<2> to the northwest (NW). If you could walk a straight line from Falling Creek to Raleigh, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of three days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take about three full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 253 miles [407.2 km] to the north (N). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take four to five hours, a buggy would take 10 days and walking would take 15 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,081 miles [9,786.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,771 miles [10,896.9 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,655 miles [7,491.5 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 Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's 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 Falling Creek 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 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Falling Creek) 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 Falling Creek 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 Falling Creek. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.2621, Longitude: -77.6905       In this case, the coordinates for Falling Creek have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.428 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.503 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.284 degrees.