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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Lightfoot, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Lightfoot 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 Lightfoot:
    • 35.747855, -89.642578
    • 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 Lightfoot
  • 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 Lauderdale County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lauderdale County
    • Since Lightfoot is near Mississippi County and also Tipton County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Mississippi County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Tipton 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 Lightfoot

Communities Also Named Lightfoot ...

We found three communities that are also named Lightfoot.

Within Tennessee, the name Lightfoot is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Georgia
      • Wilkinson 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 Georgia community of Lightfoot [Wilkinson County].
    • Idaho
      • Idaho County
      • This Lightfoot is located in Idaho County and lies 1,502 miles [2,417.2 km]<2> to the northwest of the Lightfoot that is located in Lauderdale County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Idaho County community of Lightfoot.
    • Virginia
      • James City County
      • This Lightfoot is located in James City County and lies 722 miles [1,161.9 km]<2> to the east northeast of the Lightfoot that is located in Lauderdale County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the James City County community of Lightfoot.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Lightfoot ...

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.

  • Central
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Central is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central
  • Cherry
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Cherry is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cherry
  • Daniels Point Landing
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Daniels Point Landing is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Daniels Point Landing
    • Estimated population in 2014: 2,874 people
  • Edith
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Edith is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edith
  • Hurricane Hill
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Hurricane Hill is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hurricane Hill
  • Lower Forked Deer Landing
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Olive Branch
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Olive Branch is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olive Branch
  • Pleasant Hill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Pleasant Hill is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Hill
  • Three Point
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Three Point is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Three Point
  • Tomato
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Tomato is located in Mississippi County (AR)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tomato

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

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

  • Ripley, which is the Seat of Lauderdale County, lies just to the East.
  • Nashville, which is the State Capital of Tennessee, lies 162 miles [260.7 km]<2> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Lightfoot to Nashville, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than 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 724 miles [1,165.2 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 29 days and walking would take 42 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,558 miles [10,554.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,283 miles [11,720.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,159 miles [8,302.6 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 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 Lightfoot 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 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Lightfoot) 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 Lightfoot 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 Lightfoot. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.7479, Longitude: -89.6426       In this case, the coordinates for Lightfoot have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.57 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.782 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 311.023 degrees.