RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Shepard, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Shepard 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 Shepard:
    • 39.983414, -82.949595
    • 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 Shepard
  • 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 Franklin County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Franklin County
    • Since Shepard is near Licking County and also Fairfield County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Licking County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Fairfield 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 Shepard

Communities Also Named Shepard ...

We found eight communities that are also named Shepard.

Within Ohio, the name Shepard is unique.

Beyond Ohio, we know of eight communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these eight communities, seven are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alberta
      • This Shepard lies 1,662 miles [2,674.7 km]<1> to the northwest of the Shepard that is located in Franklin County.
    • Iowa
      • Union County
      • This community is historic<2> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Iowa community of Shepard [Union County].
    • Missouri
      • Iron County
      • This community is historic<2> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Missouri community of Shepard [Iron County].
    • North Carolina
      • Durham County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the North Carolina community of Shepard [Durham County].
    • North Dakota
      • Griggs County
      • This Shepard is located in Griggs County and lies 911 miles [1,466.1 km]<1> to the northwest of the Shepard that is located in Franklin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Griggs County community of Shepard.
      • Pembina County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the North Dakota community of Shepard [Pembina County].
    • South Carolina
      • Kershaw County
      • This Shepard is located in Kershaw County and lies 412 miles [663 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Shepard that is located in Franklin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Kershaw County community of Shepard.
    • Tennessee
      • Haywood County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Tennessee community of Shepard [Haywood County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Shepard ...

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.

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

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

  • Columbus, which is the Seat of Franklin County, lies just to the West Southwest.
  • Columbus, which is the State Capital of Ohio, lies just to the west southwest (WSW).
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 324 miles [521.4 km]<1> to the east southeast (ESE). If you could drive a straight line from Shepard to White House, with an average speed<5>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 19 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 13 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,092 miles [9,804.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,815 miles [10,967.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,691 miles [7,549.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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- Shepard) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Shepard, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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 Shepard 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.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>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.
<6>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 Shepard 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 Shepard. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.9834, Longitude: -82.9496       In this case, the coordinates for Shepard have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.44 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 307.642 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.921 degrees.