RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Colorado >> Gilpin County >> Black Hawk >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Black Hawk, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Black Hawk 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 Black Hawk:
    • 39.800080, -105.491640
    • 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 Black Hawk
  • 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 Gilpin County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Gilpin County
    • Since Black Hawk is near Clear Creek County and also Jefferson County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Clear Creek County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Jefferson 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 Black Hawk

Communities Also Named Black Hawk ...

We found twelve communities that are also named Black Hawk.

Within Colorado, the name Black Hawk is unique.

Beyond Colorado, we know of twelve communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these twelve communities, eleven are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • Sierra County
      • This community is historic<1> and although located in Sierra County, we don't know where within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sierra County community of Black Hawk.
    • Iowa
      • Scott County
      • This Black Hawk is located in Scott County and lies 786 miles [1,264.9 km]<2> to the east northeast of the Black Hawk that is located in Gilpin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Scott County community of Black Hawk.
    • Kansas
      • Osborne County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Kansas community of Black Hawk [Osborne County].
    • Kentucky
      • Caldwell County
      • This Black Hawk is located in Caldwell County and lies 971 miles [1,562.7 km]<2> to the east of the Black Hawk that is located in Gilpin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Caldwell County community of Black Hawk.
    • Louisiana
      • Concordia Parish
      • This Black Hawk is located in Concordia Parish and lies 979 miles [1,575.5 km]<2> to the southeast of the Black Hawk that is located in Gilpin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Concordia Parish community of Black Hawk.
    • Mississippi
      • Carroll County
      • This Black Hawk is located in Carroll County and lies 966 miles [1,554.6 km]<2> to the east southeast of the Black Hawk that is located in Gilpin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Carroll County community of Black Hawk.
    • Missouri
      • Clark County
      • Although located in Clark County, we don't know the location within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Clark County community of Black Hawk.
    • Montana
      • Meagher County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Montana community of Black Hawk [Meagher County].
    • New Mexico
      • Grant County
      • This community is historic<1> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the New Mexico community of Black Hawk [Grant County].
    • Ontario
      • This Black Hawk lies 840 miles [1,351.8 km]<2> to the northeast of the Black Hawk that is located in Gilpin County.
    • South Dakota
      • Meade County
      • This Black Hawk is located in Meade County and lies 320 miles [515 km]<2> to the north northeast of the Black Hawk that is located in Gilpin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Meade County community of Black Hawk.
    • Wisconsin
      • Sauk County
      • This Black Hawk is located in Sauk County and lies 837 miles [1,347 km]<2> to the east northeast of the Black Hawk that is located in Gilpin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sauk County community of Black Hawk.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Black Hawk ...

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.

  • American City ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • American City is located in Gilpin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for American City
  • Apex ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Apex is located in Gilpin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Apex
  • Black Eagle Mill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Black Eagle Mill is located in Clear Creek County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Black Eagle Mill
  • Blue Valley
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Blue Valley is located in Clear Creek County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blue Valley
  • Cottonwood
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Cottonwood is located in Gilpin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cottonwood
  • Downieville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Freeland ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Freeland is located in Clear Creek County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freeland
  • Idaho Springs
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Nevadaville ‑ Historic
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Nevadaville is located in Gilpin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nevadaville
    • Nevadaville has also been known as:
    • Bald Mountain
    • Nevada City
  • Nugget
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Nugget is located in Gilpin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nugget
  • Wideawake ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Wideawake is located in Gilpin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wideawake
  • Yankee
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Yankee is located in Clear Creek County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yankee

How Far From Black Hawk to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a city such as Black Hawk to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Central City, which is the Seat of Gilpin County, lies just to the West Southwest.
  • Denver, which is the State Capital of Colorado, lies 26 miles [41.8 km]<2> to the east (E). If you could walk a straight line from Black Hawk to Denver, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just about two full days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,514 miles [2,436.5 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of three days, a buggy would take 60 days and walking would take 86 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,884 miles [11,078.7 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,647 miles [12,306.7 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,580 miles [8,980.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Black Hawk, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Black Hawk) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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 Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's 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 Black Hawk 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.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>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.
<6>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 Black Hawk 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 Black Hawk. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.8001, Longitude: -105.4916       In this case, the coordinates for Black Hawk have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 326.912 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 325.496 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 318.239 degrees.