http://www.blueshoenashville.com/mileage.html
Approximate Distances and Driving Times to Nashville from Cities outside Tennessee
Approximate Distances and Driving Times to Nashville from Cities within Tennessee (information from Google maps)
And if we realize that these degree confluences are roughly 60 miles apart we can look at the ones that are one and two away in each direction from that center to get a good fix on what would amount to about 60 and 120 miles away from “Middle Tennessee” as defined by that confluence. You can use the Tennessee map ( DCP: United States : Tennessee ) or the ones for surrounding states [ DCP: United States ] to locate the NE, SE, SW, and NW points if you wish. I have collected the others here (please note that each page has a Google and MapQuest link to let you see towns nearby):
To kinda-sorta respond to Zeldar’s observations about what area we’re talking about, I would have to say ~3 hours out of Nashville. Of course, if a Doper would like to drive further to attend a Dopefest, we certainly wouldn’t turn them away.
Depending on the roads involved ~3 hours of driving could probably cover as many as 200 miles and as few as 120, or even fewer. I suspect anybody considering a trip to “Middle Tennessee” would get a map and work out the best and/or shortest route(s) to consider.
But just to fill out the details of those “Degree Convergence” points in all eight major compass directions from the “near Murfreesboro” point, here’s the completed list in a clockwise circle from North:
Notice the variation in mileages in these three extremes:
3 NW 39 -89
3 SE 33 -83
532.75 Statute Miles
3 W 36 -89
3 E 36 -83
336.097 Statute Miles
3 N 39 -86
3 S 33 -86
413.68 Statute Miles
It would be simplest, I should think, to locate a good-sized wall map of the Eastern USA and draw a circle around Murfreesboro of radius 180 miles just to see how much territory that covers. A lot!
The next thing is to come up with a name for that territory! As in, what do you think everybody inside that circle would be comfortable calling ourselves? Not just Tennesseeans, not just SEC, not just Southerners, but what?
I’ve been looking for such a thing online where we could draw a circle or post all those stars or dots for the “degree convergence points.” The trouble with most maps like that is that the little towns referred to in my list, just don’t show up. Even official state maps leave some of those little places off. We’d need something like StormTracker to list them all.
There ought to be a name for this collection of territory and the people in it, but folks tend to associate themselves with their state or county or whatever. Hard habit to break.
The weather people talk about Coverage Area. Maybe something as watered-down as that?
About the best I have been able to do online that I can pass along to others, is to play around with these maps by zooming out on the “street map” versions at
That’s common enough terminology, but it usually tends to include all of Tennessee, Memphis in particular.
Note that except for Louisiana, Arkansas, Florida and South Carolina, and allowing that tiny chip out of Northeast Mississippi to be counted, that 150 mile radius from Murfreesboro accounts for a big chuck (most!) of the SEC states. Maybe “Northern SEC”?
What gets weird is that if you extend the radius to 200 miles from the 150 I used, you start getting into Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and I’m pretty sure the Big 10/11/12 would resent being thought of as being in the SEC!
Okay, enough time has elapsed since all the uproar over what to call the area inside a 150-mile-radius-circle-centered-on Middle-Tennessee, that we might get back to the original idea of this thread.
Are you currently a resident of Middle Tennessee who has yet to post in this thread? Would you mind posting here?
