RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Arkansas >> Independence County >> Blowing Cave >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Blowing Cave, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Blowing Cave and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • 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 Blowing Cave:
    • 35.822298, -91.658473
    • 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 Blowing Cave
  • 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 Independence County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Independence County
    • Since Blowing Cave is near Cleburne County and also Izard County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cleburne County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Izard 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 Blowing Cave

Communities Also Named Blowing Cave ...

We found one communities that are also named Blowing Cave.

Within Arkansas, the name Blowing Cave is unique.

Beyond Arkansas, there is another community also named Blowing Cave in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Georgia
      • Decatur 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 Georgia community of Blowing Cave [Decatur County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Blowing Cave ...

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.

  • Hickory Valley
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Hickory Valley is located in Independence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Valley
  • Limedale
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Limedale is located in Independence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Limedale
  • Limedale Junction
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Limedale Junction is located in Independence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Limedale Junction
  • Limeville ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Limeville is located in Independence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Limeville
  • Locust Grove
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Locust Grove is located in Independence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Locust Grove
  • Meadow Heights
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Meadow Heights is located in Independence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadow Heights
  • Quail Valley
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Quail Valley is located in Independence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quail Valley
  • Riverview
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Riverview is located in Independence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverview
  • Sandtown
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Sandtown is located in Independence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandtown
  • Sharp
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Sharp is located in Independence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sharp

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers and using the location of where the historic<2> community of Blowing Cave once stood, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Blowing Cave and extending to:

  • Batesville, which is the Seat of Independence County, lies just to the South Southeast.
  • Little Rock, which is the State Capital of Arkansas, lies 82 miles [132 km]<3> to the south southwest (SSW). If you could drive a straight line from Blowing Cave to Little Rock, with an average speed<4>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 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 829 miles [1,334.1 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 33 days and walking would take 48 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,632 miles [10,673.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,362 miles [11,848 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,240 miles [8,433 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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 Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird 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 Blowing Cave 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>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Blowing Cave, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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- Blowing Cave) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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.
<5>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 Blowing Cave 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 Blowing Cave. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.8223, Longitude: -91.6585       In this case, the coordinates for Blowing Cave have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 316.868 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 313.295 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 311.904 degrees.