RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Tennessee >> Bradley County >> Laurel Ridge >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Laurel Ridge, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Laurel Ridge 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 Laurel Ridge:
    • 35.181185, -84.891612
    • 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 Laurel Ridge
  • 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 Bradley County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Bradley County
    • Since Laurel Ridge is near Hamilton County and also Polk County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Hamilton County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Polk 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 Laurel Ridge

Communities Also Named Laurel Ridge ...

We found five communities that are also named Laurel Ridge.

Within Tennessee, the name Laurel Ridge is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Louisiana
      • Iberville Parish
      • This Laurel Ridge is located in Iberville Parish and lies 500 miles [804.7 km]<1> to the southwest of the Laurel Ridge that is located in Bradley County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Iberville Parish community of Laurel Ridge.
    • New York
      • Orange County
      • This Laurel Ridge is located in Orange County and lies 713 miles [1,147.5 km]<1> to the northeast of the Laurel Ridge that is located in Bradley County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Orange County community of Laurel Ridge.
    • Ohio
      • Stark 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 Ohio community of Laurel Ridge [Stark County].
    • Utah
      • Salt Lake County
      • This Laurel Ridge is located in Salt Lake County and lies 1,516 miles [2,439.8 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Laurel Ridge that is located in Bradley County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Salt Lake County community of Laurel Ridge.
    • Virginia
      • Montgomery County
      • This Laurel Ridge is located in Montgomery County and lies 286 miles [460.3 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Laurel Ridge that is located in Bradley County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Montgomery County community of Laurel Ridge.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Laurel Ridge ...

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.

  • Arrowhead Point
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Arrowhead Point is located in Bradley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arrowhead Point
  • Black Fox
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Black Fox is located in Bradley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Black Fox
  • Camelot
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Camelot is located in Bradley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Camelot
  • Dockery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Dockery is located in Bradley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dockery
  • Eureka Hills
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Eureka Hills is located in Bradley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eureka Hills
  • Foxfire
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Foxfire is located in Bradley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Foxfire
  • Freewill
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Freewill is located in Bradley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freewill
  • Green Meadow
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Green Meadow is located in Bradley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Meadow
  • Hills and Dales
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Hills and Dales is located in Bradley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hills and Dales
  • Hopewell
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Hopewell is located in Bradley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hopewell
  • Mountainbrook
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Mountainbrook is located in Bradley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountainbrook
  • Peach Orchard
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Peach Orchard is located in Bradley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peach Orchard
  • Continue List   (9 more) ...
    • Prospect
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Prospect is located in Bradley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prospect
    • Rolling Brook
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
      • Rolling Brook is located in Bradley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rolling Brook
    • Rolling Hills
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Rolling Hills is located in Bradley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rolling Hills
    • Royal Oak
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Royal Oak is located in Bradley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Royal Oak
    • Tasso
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • Tasso is located in Bradley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tasso
    • Tasso Heights
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Tasso Heights is located in Bradley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tasso Heights
    • Timber Hills
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
      • Timber Hills is located in Bradley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Timber Hills
    • Twin Oaks
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Twin Oaks is located in Bradley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twin Oaks
    • Whisperwood
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
      • Whisperwood is located in Bradley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whisperwood

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

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

  • Cleveland, which is the Seat of Bradley County, lies just to the South Southeast.
  • Nashville, which is the State Capital of Tennessee, lies 125 miles [201.2 km]<1> to the northwest (NW). If you could drive a straight line from Laurel Ridge to Nashville, with an average speed<3>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 8 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 503 miles [809.5 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 20 days and walking would take 29 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,393 miles [10,288.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,103 miles [11,431.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,979 miles [8,012.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 drawn from Point A (ie- Laurel Ridge) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 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 Laurel Ridge 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>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 Laurel Ridge 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 Laurel Ridge. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.1812, Longitude: -84.8916       In this case, the coordinates for Laurel Ridge have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.607 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.286 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.137 degrees.