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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Heflin, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Heflin 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 Heflin:
    • 35.710157, -78.207496
    • 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 Heflin
  • 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 Johnston County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Johnston County
    • Since Heflin is near Wilson County and also Nash County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wilson County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Nash 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 Heflin

Communities Also Named Heflin ...

We found five communities that are also named Heflin.

There is one other community in North Carolina that is also named Heflin.

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

  • Communities Located In North Carolina ...
    • Nash 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 North Carolina community of Heflin [Nash County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alabama
      • Cleburne County
      • This Heflin is located in Cleburne County and lies 441 miles [709.7 km]<2> to the west southwest of the Heflin that is located in Johnston County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cleburne County community of Heflin.
    • Kentucky
      • Ohio County
      • This Heflin is located in Ohio County and lies 503 miles [809.5 km]<2> to the west northwest of the Heflin that is located in Johnston County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Ohio County community of Heflin.
    • Louisiana
      • Webster Parish
      • This Heflin is located in Webster Parish and lies 889 miles [1,430.7 km]<2> to the west of the Heflin that is located in Johnston County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Webster Parish community of Heflin.
    • Virginia
      • Stafford County
      • This Heflin is located in Stafford County and lies 194 miles [312.2 km]<2> to the north of the Heflin that is located in Johnston County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Stafford County community of Heflin.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Heflin ...

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.

  • Dixie Crossroads
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Dixie Crossroads is located in Johnston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dixie Crossroads
  • Emit
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Emit is located in Johnston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Emit
  • Flowers
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Flowers is located in Johnston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flowers
  • Hares Crossroads
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Hares Crossroads is located in Johnston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hares Crossroads
  • Jordan
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Jordan is located in Johnston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jordan
  • Middlesex
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Middlesex is located in Nash County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Middlesex
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 834 people
  • Rock Ridge
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Rock Ridge is located in Wilson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Ridge
  • Rogers Crossroads
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Rogers Crossroads is located in Nash County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rogers Crossroads
  • Shoeheel
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Shoeheel is located in Johnston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shoeheel

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

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

  • Smithfield, which is the Seat of Johnston County, lies 15 miles [24.1 km]<2> to the south southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Heflin to Smithfield, 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 four to five hours.
  • Raleigh, which is the State Capital of North Carolina, lies 24 miles [38.6 km] to the west northwest (WNW). The buggy would take most of a day and walking would take just about two full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 229 miles [368.5 km] to the north northeast (NNE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take nearly four hours, a buggy would take 9 days and walking would take 13 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,084 miles [9,791.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,778 miles [10,908.1 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,660 miles [7,499.5 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 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 Heflin 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 from Point A (ie- Heflin) 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 Heflin 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 Heflin. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.7102, Longitude: -78.2075       In this case, the coordinates for Heflin have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.708 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.89 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.33 degrees.