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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Roanoac, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Roanoac 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 Roanoac:
    • 35.943779, -75.708788
    • 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 Roanoac
  • 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 Dare County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dare County
    • Since Roanoac is near Currituck County and also Tyrrell County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Currituck County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Tyrrell 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 Roanoac

Curious and Interesting Names Near Roanoac ...

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
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • California is located in Dare County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for California
  • Kill Devil Hills
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Kitty Hawk
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Manns Harbor
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Nags Head
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Sound Side
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Sound Side is located in Dare County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sound Side
  • Sunny Side
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Sunny Side is located in Dare County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunny Side
  • Whalebone
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Whalebone is located in Dare County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whalebone

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers and using the location of where the historic<2> community of Roanoac once stood, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Roanoac and extending to:

  • Manteo, which is the Seat of Dare County, lies just to the Southeast.
  • Raleigh, which is the State Capital of North Carolina, lies 164 miles [263.9 km]<3> to the west (W). If you could drive a straight line from Roanoac to Raleigh, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take about three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 10 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 216 miles [347.6 km] to the north northwest (NNW). Driving would take nearly four hours, a buggy would take 9 days and walking would take 13 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,964 miles [9,598.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,652 miles [10,705.4 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,537 miles [7,301.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Roanoac, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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- Roanoac) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Roanoac 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 Roanoac. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.9438, Longitude: -75.7088       In this case, the coordinates for Roanoac have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.296 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 302.311 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.299 degrees.