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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Olive Hill, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Olive Hill 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 Olive Hill:
    • 35.215094, -83.450712
    • 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 Olive Hill
  • 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 Macon County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Macon County
    • Since Olive Hill is near Swain County and also Jackson County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Swain County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Jackson 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 Olive Hill

Communities Also Named Olive Hill ...

We found four communities that are also named Olive Hill.

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

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

  • Communities Located In North Carolina ...
    • Person County
      • This Olive Hill is located in Person County and lies 260 miles [418.4 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Olive Hill that is located in Macon County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Person County community of Olive Hill.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • Yuba County
      • This Olive Hill is located in Yuba County and lies 2,093 miles [3,368.4 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Olive Hill that is located in Macon County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Yuba County community of Olive Hill.
    • Indiana
      • Wayne 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 Indiana community of Olive Hill [Wayne County].
    • Kentucky
      • Carter County
      • This Olive Hill is located in Carter County and lies 213 miles [342.8 km]<1> to the north of the Olive Hill that is located in Macon County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Carter County community of Olive Hill.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Olive Hill ...

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.

  • Blossomtown
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Blossomtown is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blossomtown
  • Burningtown
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Burningtown is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burningtown
  • Dean
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Dean is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dean
  • Deans Mill
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Deans Mill is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deans Mill
  • Franklin
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Leatherman
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Leatherman is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leatherman
  • Oak Grove
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Oak Grove is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
  • Shallow Ford
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Shallow Ford is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shallow Ford
  • Slickrock Ford
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Slickrock Ford is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Slickrock Ford
  • Union
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Union is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Union

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

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

  • Franklin, which is the Seat of Macon County, lies just to the East Southeast.
  • Raleigh, which is the State Capital of North Carolina, lies 273 miles [439.4 km]<1> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Olive Hill to Raleigh, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 16 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 11 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 435 miles [700.1 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 17 days and walking would take 25 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,332 miles [10,190.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,038 miles [11,326.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,915 miles [7,909.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Olive Hill) 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 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 Olive Hill 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're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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.
<5>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 Olive Hill 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 Olive Hill. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.2151, Longitude: -83.4507       In this case, the coordinates for Olive Hill have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.748 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 307.303 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.542 degrees.