Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Oral, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Oral and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Oral
- 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 Oral:
- 35.833410, -84.356314
- 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.
- The Heavens-Above Website, centered on Oral
- 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 Roane County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Roane County
- Since Oral is near Loudon County and also Knox County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for Loudon County
- eBird sighting report for Knox 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:
- Waymark.com
Communities Also Named Oral ...
We found three communities that share the name Oral.
Within Tennessee, the name Oral is unique.
Beyond Tennessee, we know of another three communities that are located throughout in the United States.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Michigan
- South Dakota
- West Virginia
Curious and Interesting Names Near Oral ...
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.
- Bucktown
(5 miles [8 km] to the southeast) - Buttermilk Shores
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Buttermilk Shores have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buttermilk Shores
- Buttermilk Shores is located in Roane County
- Cave Creek
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)- Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Cave Creek. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cave Creek
- Cave Creek is located in Roane County
- Chestnut Hills
(5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Chestnut Hills have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chestnut Hills
- Chestnut Hills is located in Roane County
- Chestnut Ridge
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Chestnut Ridge have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chestnut Ridge
- Chestnut Ridge is located in Loudon County
- Huntsville
(5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Huntsville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huntsville
- Huntsville is located in Loudon County
- Lake-A-Wana
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lake-A-Wana have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake-A-Wana
- Lake-A-Wana is located in Roane County
- Oak Grove
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast) - Pawpaw Plains
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pawpaw Plains have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pawpaw Plains
- Pawpaw Plains is located in Roane County
- Pleasant View
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pleasant View have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant View
- Pleasant View is located in Loudon County
- Poplar Springs
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Poplar Springs have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poplar Springs
- Poplar Springs is located in Roane County
- Silver Ridge
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Silver Ridge have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Ridge
- Silver Ridge is located in Loudon County
- Williams Ferry
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Williams Ferry have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Williams Ferry
- Williams Ferry is located in Loudon County
- Woodlawn
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
How Far From Oral 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 Oral to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Oral and extending to:
- Kingston, which is the Seat of Roane County, lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<2> to the west northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Oral to Kingston, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
- Nashville, which is the State Capital of Tennessee, lies 137 miles [220.5 km] to the west (W). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 6 days and walking would take 8 days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 453 miles [729 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 18 days and walking would take 26 days.
- The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,341 miles [10,204.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,052 miles [11,349.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,928 miles [7,930.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
Off-the-Road Links ...
Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Oral. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.
The official website for Roane County: www.roanealliance.org/
The official website for State of Tennessee: https://www.tn.gov/
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 Oral 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Oral) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Oral. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.8334, Longitude: -84.3563 In this case, the coordinates for Oral have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <3> | The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required. |
| <4> | An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace. |
| <5> | 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. |
| <6> | 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 Oral to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East. |
| <7> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.303 degrees. |
| <8> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.029 degrees. |
| <9> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.749 degrees. |