RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Louisiana >> Concordia Parish >> Minorca >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Minorca, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Minorca and the surrounding area.

  • 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 Minorca:
    • 31.579333, -91.481785
    • 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 Minorca
  • 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 Concordia Parish as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Concordia Parish
    • Since Minorca is near Adams County and also Tensas Parish, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Adams County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Tensas 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 Minorca

Communities Also Named Minorca ...

We found two communities that are also named Minorca.

Within Louisiana, the name Minorca is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arkansas
      • Randolph County
      • This Minorca is located in Randolph County and lies 341 miles [548.8 km]<1> to the north of the Minorca that is located in Concordia Parish.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Randolph County community of Minorca.
    • Minnesota
      • Saint Louis 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 Minnesota community of Minorca [Saint Louis County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Minorca ...

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.

  • Bullitt Bayou
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Bullitt Bayou is located in Concordia Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bullitt Bayou
  • Carthage
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Carthage is located in Adams County (MS)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carthage
  • Cloverdale
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Cloverdale is located in Adams County (MS)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cloverdale
  • Johnsville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Johnsville is located in Adams County (MS)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johnsville
  • Pine Ridge
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Pine Ridge is located in Adams County (MS)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Ridge
  • Red Gum
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Red Gum is located in Concordia Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Gum
  • Scotland ‑ Historic
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Scotland is located in Concordia Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scotland
  • Turtle Lake ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Turtle Lake is located in Concordia Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Turtle Lake

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

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

  • Vidalia, which is the Seat of Concordia Parish, lies just to the East Southeast.
  • Baton Rouge, which is the State Capital of Louisiana, lies 80 miles [128.7 km]<1> to the south southeast (SSE). If you could drive a straight line from Minorca to Baton Rouge, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 956 miles [1,538.5 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take most of two days, a buggy would take 38 days and walking would take 55 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,838 miles [11,004.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,554 miles [12,157 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,429 miles [8,737.1 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Minorca) 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 Minorca 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 Minorca 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 Minorca. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.5793, Longitude: -91.4818       In this case, the coordinates for Minorca have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 316.369 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 312.15 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.538 degrees.