Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Silica, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Silica and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Silica
- 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 Silica:
- 38.351678, -98.462017
- 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.
- The Heavens-Above Website, centered on Silica
- 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 Rice County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Rice County
- Since Silica is near Barton County and also Reno County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for Barton County
- eBird sighting report for Reno 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:
- Waymark.com
Communities Also Named Silica ...
We found eleven communities that share the name Silica.
There is one other community in Kansas which is also named Silica.
Beyond Kansas, we know of another ten communities that are located throughout in the United States and Canada. Of these ten communities, ten are located in the United States and one is in Canada.
- Communities Located In Kansas ...
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- British Columbia
- This Silica lies 1,210 miles [1,947.3 km]<2> to the northwest of the Silica that is located in Rice County.
- Kentucky
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- Ohio
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Virginia
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- British Columbia
Curious and Interesting Names Near Silica ...
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.
- Anchorway
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Anchorway
- Anchorway is located in Barton County
- Chase
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the east) - Frederick
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast) - Great Bend
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Great Bend
- Great Bend is located in Barton County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 14,901 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Great Bend <4>
- Lorraine
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast) - Lyons
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lyons have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyons
- Lyons is located in Rice County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 3,433 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lyons <4>
- Mitchell
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the east) - Raymond
(5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Raymond
- Raymond is located in Rice County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 75 people
- Redwing
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
How Far From Silica to ...
We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Silica to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Silica and extending to:
- Lyons, which is the Seat of Rice County, lies 14 miles [22.5 km]<2> to the east. If you could walk a straight line from Silica to Lyons, with an average speed<5> 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 157 miles [252.7 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 9 days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,153 miles [1,855.6 km] to the east (E). Driving would take over two days, a buggy would take 45 days and walking would take 66 days.
- The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,745 miles [10,855 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,496 miles [12,063.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,393 miles [8,679.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
Off-the-Road Links ...
The official website for Rice County: www.ricecounty.org/
The official website for State of Kansas: https://portal.kansas.gov/
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 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 Silica 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- Silica) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Silica. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.3517, Longitude: -98.4620 In this case, the coordinates for Silica have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <3> | The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required. |
| <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 Silica to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East. |
| <7> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 321.67 degrees. |
| <8> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 319.201 degrees. |
| <9> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 314.726 degrees. |