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

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.

  • 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.
    • Open 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:
    • Open the 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:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Loudon County
    • Open the 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:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Oral

Communities Also Named Oral ...

We found three communities that are also named Oral.

Within Tennessee, the name Oral is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Michigan
      • Clinton 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 Michigan community of Oral [Clinton County].
    • South Dakota
      • Fall River County
      • This Oral is located in Fall River County and lies 1,130 miles [1,818.6 km]<2> to the northwest of the Oral that is located in Roane County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Fall River County community of Oral.
    • West Virginia
      • Harrison 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 West Virginia community of Oral [Harrison County].

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)
    • Bucktown is located in Loudon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bucktown
  • Buttermilk Shores
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Buttermilk Shores is located in Roane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buttermilk Shores
  • Cave Creek
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Cave Creek is located in Roane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cave Creek
  • Chestnut Hills
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Chestnut Hills is located in Roane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chestnut Hills
  • Chestnut Ridge
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Chestnut Ridge is located in Loudon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chestnut Ridge
  • Huntsville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Huntsville is located in Loudon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huntsville
  • Lake-A-Wana
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Lake-A-Wana is located in Roane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake-A-Wana
  • Oak Grove
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Oak Grove is located in Loudon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
  • Pawpaw Plains
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Pawpaw Plains is located in Roane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pawpaw Plains
  • Pleasant View
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Pleasant View is located in Loudon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant View
  • Poplar Springs
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Poplar Springs is located in Roane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poplar Springs
  • Silver Ridge
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Silver Ridge is located in Loudon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Ridge
  • Williams Ferry
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Williams Ferry is located in Loudon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Williams Ferry
  • Woodlawn
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Woodlawn is located in Loudon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodlawn

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<3> 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<4> 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).<5>
  • 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).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,928 miles [7,930.8 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 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 '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. 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 Oral 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 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).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.303 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.029 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.749 degrees.