RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Florida >> Okaloosa County >> Blackman >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Blackman, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Blackman 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 Blackman:
    • 30.924628, -86.636621
    • 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 Blackman
  • 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 Okaloosa County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Okaloosa County
    • Since Blackman is near Covington County and also Escambia County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Covington County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Escambia 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 Blackman

Communities Also Named Blackman ...

We found five communities that are also named Blackman.

There is one other community in Florida that is also named Blackman.

Beyond Florida, we know of four communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Located In Florida ...
    • Santa Rosa 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 Florida community of Blackman [Santa Rosa County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alabama
      • Chambers County
      • This Blackman is located in Chambers County and lies 149 miles [239.8 km]<2> to the north northeast of the Blackman that is located in Okaloosa County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Chambers County community of Blackman.
    • North Carolina
      • Johnston 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 North Carolina community of Blackman [Johnston County].
    • Pennsylvania
      • Luzerne 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 Pennsylvania community of Blackman [Luzerne County].
    • Tennessee
      • Rutherford County
      • This Blackman is located in Rutherford County and lies 341 miles [548.8 km]<2> to the north of the Blackman that is located in Okaloosa County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Rutherford County community of Blackman.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Blackman ...

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.

  • Beaver Creek
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Beaver Creek is located in Okaloosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beaver Creek
  • Deerland
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Deerland is located in Okaloosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deerland
  • Dixie
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Dixie is located in Escambia County (AL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dixie
  • Garden City
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Garden City is located in Okaloosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garden City
  • Good Hope
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Good Hope is located in Okaloosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Good Hope
  • Kellys Mill
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Kellys Mill is located in Okaloosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kellys Mill
  • Oak Grove
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Oak Grove is located in Okaloosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
  • Pleasant Grove
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Pleasant Grove is located in Walton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Grove
  • Rock Creek
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Rock Creek is located in Okaloosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Creek
  • Silver Springs
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Silver Springs is located in Okaloosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Springs
  • Wing
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Wing is located in Covington County (AL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wing

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

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

  • Crestview, which is the Seat of Okaloosa County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<2> to the south southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Blackman to Crestview, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
  • Tallahassee, which is the State Capital of Florida, lies 143 miles [230.1 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 6 days and walking would take 9 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 772 miles [1,242.4 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 31 days and walking would take 44 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,668 miles [10,731.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,365 miles [11,852.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,246 miles [8,442.6 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 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 Blackman 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 'straight-line' (or 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- Blackman) 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 Blackman 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 Blackman. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 30.9246, Longitude: -86.6366       In this case, the coordinates for Blackman have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 313.39 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.599 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.754 degrees.