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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Griffintown, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Griffintown and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • 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 Griffintown:
    • 36.182557, -87.137505
    • 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 Griffintown
  • 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 Cheatham County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cheatham County
    • Since Griffintown is near Dickson County and also Davidson County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dickson County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Davidson 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 Griffintown

Communities Also Named Griffintown ...

We found one communities that are also named Griffintown.

Within Tennessee, the name Griffintown is unique.

Beyond Tennessee, there is another community also named Griffintown in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Ontario
      • 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 Ontario community of Griffintown.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Griffintown ...

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.

  • Bell Town
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Bell Town is located in Cheatham County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bell Town
  • Claylick
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Claylick is located in Dickson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Claylick
  • Craggie Hope
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Craggie Hope is located in Cheatham County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Craggie Hope
  • Dull
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Dull is located in Dickson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dull
  • Frog Pond
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Frog Pond is located in Dickson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frog Pond
  • Greenwood
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Greenwood is located in Dickson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenwood
  • Knights Ferry
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Knights Ferry is located in Cheatham County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knights Ferry
  • Marrowbone
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Marrowbone is located in Cheatham County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marrowbone
  • Mound Bottom ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Mound Bottom is located in Cheatham County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mound Bottom
  • Nosegay ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Nosegay is located in Dickson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nosegay
  • Pond Creek Ferry
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Pond Creek Ferry is located in Cheatham County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pond Creek Ferry
  • Sulphur Springs
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Sulphur Springs is located in Cheatham County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sulphur Springs

How Far From Griffintown to ...

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 Griffintown to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Ashland City, which is the Seat of Cheatham County, lies just to the North Northeast.
  • Nashville, which is the State Capital of Tennessee, lies 20 miles [32.2 km]<2> to the east (E). If you could walk a straight line from Griffintown to Nashville, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just over a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 583 miles [938.2 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take just over a day, a buggy would take 23 days and walking would take 34 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,438 miles [10,361 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,157 miles [11,518.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,033 miles [8,099.8 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 Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock 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 Griffintown 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- Griffintown) 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 Griffintown 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 Griffintown. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.1826, Longitude: -87.1375       In this case, the coordinates for Griffintown have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.018 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 310.051 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.838 degrees.