RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Tennessee >> Coffee County >> Calls >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Calls, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Calls 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 Calls:
    • 35.346191, -86.005261
    • 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 Calls
  • 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 Coffee County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Coffee County
    • Since Calls is near Franklin County and also Grundy County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Franklin County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Grundy 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 Calls

Communities Also Named Calls ...

We found one communities that are also named Calls.

Within Tennessee, the name Calls is unique.

Beyond Tennessee, there is another community also named Calls in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Pennsylvania
      • Greene County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Pennsylvania community of Calls [Greene County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Calls ...

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.

  • Bobs Cross Roads ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Bobs Cross Roads is located in Coffee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bobs Cross Roads
  • Dixie ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Dixie is located in Coffee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dixie
  • Glen
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Glen is located in Coffee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glen
  • Gum Creek
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Gum Creek is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gum Creek
  • Oak Grove
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Oak Grove is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
  • Prairie Plains
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Prairie Plains is located in Coffee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prairie Plains
  • Providence
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Providence is located in Grundy County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Providence
  • Ruthledge Ford
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Ruthledge Ford is located in Coffee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ruthledge Ford
    • Estimated population in 2014: 1,116 people
  • Ruthledge Hill
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Ruthledge Hill is located in Coffee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ruthledge Hill
  • Shady Grove
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Shady Grove is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shady Grove

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Calls and extending to:

  • Manchester, which is the Seat of Coffee County, lies 10 miles [16.1 km]<2> to the north northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Calls to Manchester, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
  • Nashville, which is the State Capital of Tennessee, lies 70 miles [112.7 km] to the northwest (NW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take about three full days and walking would take three full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 550 miles [885.1 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 22 days and walking would take 32 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,432 miles [10,351.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,145 miles [11,498.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,021 miles [8,080.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Calls 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.
<2>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- Calls) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Calls 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 Calls. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.3462, Longitude: -86.0053       In this case, the coordinates for Calls have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 313.287 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 309.092 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.557 degrees.