RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Louisiana >> Webster Parish >> Cotton Valley >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Cotton Valley, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Cotton Valley 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 Cotton Valley:
    • 32.813462, -93.422920
    • 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 Cotton Valley
  • 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 parish-by-parish basis. We have selected Webster Parish as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Webster Parish
    • Since Cotton Valley is near Bossier Parish and also Claiborne Parish, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Bossier Parish
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Claiborne Parish
  • 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 Cotton Valley

Communities Also Named Cotton Valley ...

We found four communities that are also named Cotton Valley.

Within Louisiana, the name Cotton Valley is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alabama
      • Macon County
      • This Cotton Valley is located in Macon County and lies 451 miles [725.8 km]<1> to the east of the Cotton Valley that is located in Webster Parish.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Macon County community of Cotton Valley.
    • New Hampshire
      • Carroll 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 New Hampshire community of Cotton Valley [Carroll County].
    • Oklahoma
      • Washington County
      • This Cotton Valley is located in Washington County and lies 318 miles [511.8 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Cotton Valley that is located in Webster Parish.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Washington County community of Cotton Valley.
    • South Carolina
      • Dillon County
      • This Cotton Valley is located in Dillon County and lies 820 miles [1,319.7 km]<1> to the east of the Cotton Valley that is located in Webster Parish.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Dillon County community of Cotton Valley.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Cotton Valley ...

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.

  • Bunker
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Bunker is located in Webster Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bunker
  • Couchwood
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Couchwood is located in Webster Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Couchwood
  • Grim
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Grim is located in Webster Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grim
  • Grove
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Grove is located in Webster Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grove
  • Invincible
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Invincible is located in Webster Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Invincible
  • Ivan
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Ivan is located in Bossier Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ivan
  • Long Springs
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Long Springs is located in Webster Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Springs
  • Placid ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Placid is located in Webster Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Placid
  • Porterville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Porterville is located in Webster Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Porterville
  • Treat
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Treat is located in Webster Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Treat

How Far From Cotton Valley 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 town such as Cotton Valley to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Minden, which is the Seat of Webster Parish, lies 15 miles [24.1 km]<1> to the south southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Cotton Valley to Minden, with an average speed<3> 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.
  • Baton Rouge, which is the State Capital of Louisiana, lies 210 miles [338 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 9 days and walking would take 12 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,006 miles [1,619 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of two days, a buggy would take 40 days and walking would take 58 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,853 miles [11,028.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,579 miles [12,197.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,455 miles [8,779 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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- Cotton Valley) 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 Cotton Valley 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 parish. 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 Cotton Valley 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 Cotton Valley. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.8135, Longitude: -93.4229       In this case, the coordinates for Cotton Valley have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 317.733 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 313.904 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 313.173 degrees.