RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Kansas >> Butler County >> Bois d'Arc >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Bois d'Arc, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Bois d'Arc 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 Bois d'Arc:
    • 37.596283, -96.924821
    • 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 Bois d'Arc
  • 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 Butler County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Butler County
    • Since Bois d'Arc is near Cowley County and also Sedgwick County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cowley County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Sedgwick 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 Bois d'Arc

Communities Also Named Bois d'Arc ...

We found four communities that are also named Bois d'Arc.

Within Kansas, the name Bois d'Arc is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Missouri
      • Greene County
      • This Bois d'Arc is located in Greene County and lies 188 miles [302.6 km]<1> to the east of the Bois d'Arc that is located in Butler County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Greene County community of Bois d'Arc.
    • Oklahoma
      • Kay 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 Oklahoma community of Bois d'Arc [Kay County].
    • Texas
      • Anderson County
      • This Bois d'Arc is located in Anderson County and lies 394 miles [634.1 km]<1> to the south of the Bois d'Arc that is located in Butler County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Anderson County community of Bois d'Arc.
      • Rains County
      • This Bois d'Arc is located in Rains County and lies 328 miles [527.9 km] to the south of the Bois d'Arc that is located in Butler County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Rains County community of Bois d'Arc.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Bois d'Arc ...

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.

How Far From Bois d'Arc 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 Bois d'Arc to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Bois d'Arc and extending to:

  • El Dorado, which is the Seat of Butler County, lies 15 miles [24.1 km]<1> to the north northeast. If you could walk a straight line from Bois d'Arc to El Dorado, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Topeka, which is the State Capital of Kansas, lies 120 miles [193.1 km] to the north northeast (NNE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,080 miles [1,738.1 km] to the east (E). Driving would take over two days, a buggy would take 43 days and walking would take 62 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,733 miles [10,835.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,479 miles [12,036.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,370 miles [8,642.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Bois d'Arc) 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 Bois d'Arc 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're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 Bois d'Arc 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 Bois d'Arc. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.5963, Longitude: -96.9248       In this case, the coordinates for Bois d'Arc have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 320.535 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 317.785 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 314.076 degrees.