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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Wheel, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Wheel 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 Wheel:
    • 35.488683, -86.629719
    • 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 Wheel
  • 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 Bedford County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Bedford County
    • Since Wheel is near Marshall County and also Lincoln County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Marshall 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 Wheel

Communities Also Named Wheel ...

We found two communities that are also named Wheel.

Within Tennessee, the name Wheel is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Kentucky
      • Graves County
      • This Wheel is located in Graves County and lies 153 miles [246.2 km]<1> to the northwest of the Wheel that is located in Bedford County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Graves County community of Wheel.
    • Maryland
      • Harford County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Maryland community of Wheel [Harford County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Wheel ...

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.

  • Branchville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Branchville is located in Bedford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Branchville
  • Clay Hill
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Clay Hill is located in Marshall County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clay Hill
  • Halls Mill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Halls Mill is located in Bedford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Halls Mill
  • Hickory Heights
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Hickory Heights is located in Marshall County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Heights
  • Holly Grove
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Holly Grove is located in Marshall County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holly Grove
  • Laws Hill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Laws Hill is located in Marshall County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laws Hill
  • Needmore
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Needmore is located in Marshall County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Needmore
  • Pleasant Grove
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Pleasant Grove is located in Bedford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Grove
  • Rich Creek
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Rich Creek is located in Marshall County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rich Creek
  • Temple Ford
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Temple Ford is located in Bedford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Temple Ford
  • Tucker Ford
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Tucker Ford is located in Bedford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tucker Ford

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

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

  • Shelbyville, which is the Seat of Bedford County, lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<1> to the east. If you could walk a straight line from Wheel to Shelbyville, 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 47 miles [75.6 km] to the north (N). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take most of two days and walking would take about three full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 577 miles [928.6 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 23 days and walking would take 33 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,450 miles [10,380.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,166 miles [11,532.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,041 miles [8,112.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 from Point A (ie- Wheel) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>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 Wheel 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.
<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 Wheel 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 Wheel. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.4887, Longitude: -86.6297       In this case, the coordinates for Wheel have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 313.675 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 309.559 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.785 degrees.