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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Oak Villa, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Oak Villa 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 Oak Villa:
    • 36.373488, -76.946904
    • 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 Oak Villa
  • 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 Hertford County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Hertford County
    • Since Oak Villa is near Gates County and also Bertie County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Gates County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Bertie 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 Oak Villa

Communities Also Named Oak Villa ...

We found two communities that are also named Oak Villa.

Within North Carolina, the name Oak Villa is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Florida
      • Hillsborough County
      • This Oak Villa is located in Hillsborough County and lies 663 miles [1,067 km]<1> to the south southwest of the Oak Villa that is located in Hertford County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hillsborough County community of Oak Villa.
      • Putnam 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 Florida community of Oak Villa [Putnam County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Oak Villa ...

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.

  • California
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • California is located in Hertford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for California
  • High Hill
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • High Hill is located in Hertford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for High Hill
  • Mount Gallows
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Mount Gallows is located in Hertford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Gallows
  • Pettys Shore
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Pettys Shore is located in Hertford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pettys Shore
  • Pleasant Plains
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Pleasant Plains is located in Hertford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Plains
  • Poor Town
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Poor Town is located in Hertford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poor Town
  • Rays Beach
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Rays Beach is located in Gates County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rays Beach
  • Storys
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Storys is located in Gates County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Storys
  • Tarheel
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Tarheel is located in Gates County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tarheel
  • Union
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Union is located in Hertford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Union

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

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

  • Winton, which is the Seat of Hertford County, lies just to the North Northeast.
  • Raleigh, which is the State Capital of North Carolina, lies 103 miles [165.8 km]<1> to the west southwest (WSW). If you could drive a straight line from Oak Villa to Raleigh, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 6 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 4 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 174 miles [280 km] to the north (N). Driving would take about three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 10 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,001 miles [9,657.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,694 miles [10,772.9 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,576 miles [7,364.4 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- Oak Villa) 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 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 Oak Villa 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 Oak Villa 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 Oak Villa. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.3735, Longitude: -76.9469       In this case, the coordinates for Oak Villa have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.971 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.147 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.615 degrees.