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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in McKnight, we use the following websites to find information relevant to McKnight 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 McKnight:
    • 35.792012, -87.138618
    • 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 McKnight
  • 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 Maury County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Maury County
    • Since McKnight is near Williamson County and also Hickman County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Williamson County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Hickman 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 McKnight

Communities Also Named McKnight ...

We found five communities that are also named McKnight.

Within Tennessee, the name McKnight is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arkansas
      • Columbia 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 Arkansas community of McKnight [Columbia County].
    • Oklahoma
      • Harmon County
      • This McKnight is located in Harmon County and lies 722 miles [1,161.9 km]<2> to the west of the McKnight that is located in Maury County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Harmon County community of McKnight.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Allegheny County
      • This McKnight is located in Allegheny County and lies 506 miles [814.3 km]<2> to the northeast of the McKnight that is located in Maury County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Allegheny County community of McKnight.
    • Texas
      • Donley County
      • This McKnight is located in Donley County and lies 757 miles [1,218.3 km]<2> to the west of the McKnight that is located in Maury County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Donley County community of McKnight.
      • Rusk County
      • This McKnight is located in Rusk County and lies 516 miles [830.4 km] to the west southwest of the McKnight that is located in Maury County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Rusk County community of McKnight.

Curious and Interesting Names Near McKnight ...

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.

  • Fly
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Fly is located in Maury County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fly
  • Hill Town
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Hill Town is located in Maury County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hill Town
  • Kinderhook
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Kinderhook is located in Maury County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kinderhook
  • Mayberry ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Mayberry is located in Maury County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mayberry
  • Mill Seat
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Mill Seat is located in Maury County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mill Seat
  • New Flys Village
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • New Flys Village is located in Maury County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Flys Village
  • Sulphur Springs ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Sulphur Springs is located in Maury County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sulphur Springs
  • Water Valley
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Water Valley is located in Maury County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Water Valley

How Far From McKnight to ...

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

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

  • Columbia, which is the Seat of Maury County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<2> to the south southeast. If you could walk a straight line from McKnight to Columbia, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Nashville, which is the State Capital of Tennessee, lies 32 miles [51.5 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take just over a day and walking would take most of two days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 594 miles [956 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 24 days and walking would take 34 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,456 miles [10,389.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,175 miles [11,547 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,050 miles [8,127.2 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 McKnight 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- McKnight) 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 McKnight 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 McKnight. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.7920, Longitude: -87.1386       In this case, the coordinates for McKnight have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.002 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 309.978 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.93 degrees.