RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Tennessee >> Claiborne County >> Mason Springs >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Mason Springs, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Mason Springs 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 Mason Springs:
    • 36.489250, -83.539074
    • 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 Mason Springs
  • 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 Claiborne County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Claiborne County
    • Since Mason Springs is near Grainger County and also Hancock County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Grainger County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Hancock 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 Mason Springs

Communities Also Named Mason Springs ...

We found one communities that are also named Mason Springs.

Within Tennessee, the name Mason Springs is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Maryland
      • Charles 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 Maryland community of Mason Springs [Charles County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Mason Springs ...

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.

  • Cave Spring
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Cave Spring is located in Claiborne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cave Spring
  • Chestnut Ridge
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Chestnut Ridge is located in Claiborne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chestnut Ridge
  • Chittum
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Chittum is located in Claiborne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chittum
  • Clouds
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Clouds is located in Claiborne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clouds
  • Duo
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Duo is located in Claiborne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Duo
  • Forge Ridge
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Forge Ridge is located in Claiborne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forge Ridge
  • Little Creek
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Little Creek is located in Claiborne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Creek
  • Murphy Mill
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Murphy Mill is located in Claiborne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Murphy Mill
  • Oak Grove
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Oak Grove is located in Claiborne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
  • Poplar Grove
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Poplar Grove is located in Claiborne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poplar Grove
  • River View
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • River View is located in Claiborne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for River View
  • Williams Mill
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Williams Mill is located in Claiborne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Williams Mill

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

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

  • Tazewell, which is the Seat of Claiborne County, lies just to the Southwest.
  • Nashville, which is the State Capital of Tennessee, lies 181 miles [291.3 km]<2> to the west (W). If you could drive a straight line from Mason Springs to Nashville, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take a little over three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 11 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 392 miles [630.9 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 16 days and walking would take 23 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,277 miles [10,101.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,988 miles [11,246.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,864 miles [7,827.8 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 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 Mason Springs 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' (or 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- Mason Springs) 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 Mason Springs 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 Mason Springs. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.4892, Longitude: -83.5391       In this case, the coordinates for Mason Springs have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.822 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 307.57 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.231 degrees.