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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Dykes, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Dykes 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 Dykes:
    • 36.365358, -83.832692
    • 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 Dykes
  • 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 Union County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Union County
    • Since Dykes is near Claiborne County and also Campbell County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Claiborne County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Campbell 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 Dykes

Communities Also Named Dykes ...

We found four communities that are also named Dykes.

There is one other community in Tennessee that is also named Dykes.

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

  • Communities Located In Tennessee ...
    • Roane 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 Tennessee community of Dykes [Roane County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Georgia
      • Floyd 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 Georgia community of Dykes [Floyd County].
    • Kentucky
      • Pulaski County
      • This Dykes is located in Pulaski County and lies 58 miles [93.3 km]<3> to the northwest of the Dykes that is located in Union County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Pulaski County community of Dykes.
    • Missouri
      • Texas County
      • This Dykes is located in Texas County and lies 462 miles [743.5 km]<3> to the west of the Dykes that is located in Union County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Texas County community of Dykes.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Dykes ...

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.

  • Irwin
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Irwin is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Irwin
  • Lickskillet
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Lickskillet is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lickskillet
  • Little Barren
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Little Barren is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Barren
  • Long Hollow ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Long Hollow is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Hollow
  • Loo ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Loo is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Loo
  • Lost Creek ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Lost Creek is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lost Creek
  • Mossy Spring
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Mossy Spring is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mossy Spring
  • Oak Grove
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Oak Grove is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
  • Pinhook
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Pinhook is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinhook
  • Rose Hill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Rose Hill is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rose Hill
  • Union
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Union is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Union

How Far From Dykes to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers & Almanacs that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Dykes to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Maynardville, which is the Seat of Union County, lies just to the South.
  • Nashville, which is the State Capital of Tennessee, lies 164 miles [263.9 km]<3> to the west (W). If you could drive a straight line from Dykes to Nashville, 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 410 miles [659.8 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 16 days and walking would take 24 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,294 miles [10,129.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,006 miles [11,275.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,882 miles [7,856.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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 Dykes 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>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 Dykes, 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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Dykes) 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 Dykes 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 Dykes. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.3654, Longitude: -83.8327       In this case, the coordinates for Dykes have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.998 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 307.754 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.388 degrees.