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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Tarpley, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Tarpley 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 Tarpley:
    • 35.142303, -86.993340
    • 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 Tarpley
  • 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 Giles County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Giles County
    • Since Tarpley is near Limestone County and also Lincoln County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Limestone County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lincoln 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 Tarpley

Communities Also Named Tarpley ...

We found three communities that are also named Tarpley.

There is one other community in Tennessee that is also named Tarpley.

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

  • Communities Located In Tennessee ...
    • Grundy 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 Tennessee community of Tarpley [Grundy County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alabama
      • Jefferson County
      • This Tarpley is located in Jefferson County and lies 117 miles [188.3 km]<2> to the south of the Tarpley that is located in Giles County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jefferson County community of Tarpley.
    • Texas
      • Bandera County
      • This Tarpley is located in Bandera County and lies 809 miles [1,302 km]<2> to the west southwest of the Tarpley that is located in Giles County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Bandera County community of Tarpley.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Tarpley ...

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.

  • Blooming Grove
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Blooming Grove is located in Giles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blooming Grove
  • Crescent View
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Crescent View is located in Giles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crescent View
  • Five Points
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Five Points is located in Giles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Points
  • Goodspring
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Goodspring is located in Giles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goodspring
  • Gordon
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Gordon is located in Giles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gordon
    • Estimated population in 2014: 1,192 people
  • Green Acres
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Green Acres is located in Giles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Acres
  • Green Field
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Green Field is located in Giles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Field
  • Lesters
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Lesters is located in Giles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lesters
  • Liberty
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Liberty is located in Giles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Liberty
  • Sugartree Ford
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Sugartree Ford is located in Giles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sugartree Ford

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

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

  • Pulaski, which is the Seat of Giles County, lies just to the North Northwest.
  • Nashville, which is the State Capital of Tennessee, lies 71 miles [114.3 km]<2> to the north (N). If you could drive a straight line from Tarpley to Nashville, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 4 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take about three full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 606 miles [975.3 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 24 days and walking would take 35 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,482 miles [10,431.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,197 miles [11,582.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,073 miles [8,164.2 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 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 Tarpley 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- Tarpley) 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 Tarpley 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 Tarpley. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.1423, Longitude: -86.9933       In this case, the coordinates for Tarpley have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 313.882 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 309.75 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.018 degrees.