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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Lackawanna, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Lackawanna 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 Lackawanna:
    • 30.294961, -81.761211
    • 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 Lackawanna
  • 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 Duval County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Duval County
    • Since Lackawanna is near Clay County and also Nassau County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Clay County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Nassau 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 Lackawanna

Communities Also Named Lackawanna ...

We found two communities that are also named Lackawanna.

Within Florida, the name Lackawanna is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • New York
      • Erie County
      • This Lackawanna is located in Erie County and lies 879 miles [1,414.6 km]<1> to the north of the Lackawanna that is located in Duval County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Erie County community of Lackawanna.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Lackawanna 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 Pennsylvania community of Lackawanna [Lackawanna County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Lackawanna ...

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.

  • Brightsville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Brightsville is located in Duval County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brightsville
  • College Park
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • College Park is located in Duval County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for College Park
  • Enchanted Park
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Enchanted Park is located in Duval County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Enchanted Park
  • Grand Crossing
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Grand Crossing is located in Duval County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Crossing
  • Grand Park
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Grand Park is located in Duval County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Park
  • Harbor View
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Harbor View is located in Duval County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harbor View
  • Hart Haven
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Hart Haven is located in Duval County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hart Haven
  • John H McIntosh Grant
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Lake Shore
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Lake Shore is located in Duval County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Shore
  • Magnolia Gardens
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Magnolia Gardens is located in Duval County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Magnolia Gardens
  • Sweetwater
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Sweetwater is located in Duval County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sweetwater

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

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

  • Jacksonville, which is the Seat of Duval County, lies just to the East Northeast.
  • Tallahassee, which is the State Capital of Florida, lies 150 miles [241.4 km]<1> to the west (W). If you could drive a straight line from Lackawanna to Tallahassee, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 9 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 651 miles [1,047.7 km] to the north northeast (NNE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 26 days and walking would take 37 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,481 miles [10,430.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,160 miles [11,522.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,051 miles [8,128.8 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- Lackawanna) 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 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 Lackawanna 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 Lackawanna 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 Lackawanna. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 30.2950, Longitude: -81.7612       In this case, the coordinates for Lackawanna have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.607 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.294 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.148 degrees.