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 Smith Creek:
34.262947, -77.863596
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.
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 New Hanover County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
We found three communities that share the name Smith Creek.
Within North Carolina, the name Smith Creek is unique.
Beyond North Carolina, we know of another three communities that are located throughout in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Florida
Wakulla County
This Smith Creek is located in Wakulla County and lies 486 miles [782.1 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Smith Creek that is located in New Hanover County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Wakulla County community of Smith Creek.
Kentucky
Morgan County
Although located in Morgan County, we don't know the location within the county.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Morgan County community of Smith Creek.
Tennessee
Polk 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 Tennessee community of Smith Creek [Polk County].
Curious and Interesting Names Near Smith 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.
Council Heights (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Council Heights have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
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 Smith Creek to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Smith Creek and extending to:
Raleigh, which is the State Capital of North Carolina, lies 113 miles [181.9 km]<1> to the north northwest (NNW). If you could drive a straight line from Smith Creek to Raleigh, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take about two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 7 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 5 days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 323 miles [519.8 km] to the north (N). Driving would take five to six hours, a buggy would take 13 days and walking would take 19 days.
The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,131 miles [9,866.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,817 miles [10,970.9 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,703 miles [7,568.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
Footnotes ...
<1>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Smith Creek) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Smith Creek. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.2629, Longitude: -77.8636 In this case, the coordinates for Smith Creek have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 Smith 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.
<3>
The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<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 Smith Creek to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.546 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.491 degrees.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.676 degrees.